Arch Madness and Woulda Coulda Shoulda

Woulda Shoulda Coulda....

That sums up my weekend plus Monday...

Let's start on Friday... I took that day off for Arch Madness. For those of you not familiar with this, Arch Madness is the Missouri Valley Conference Basketball Tournament that is held here in St Louis every year with the winner going to the Big Dance. Of course, I had high expectations for my beloved Missouri State Bears (formally Southwest Missouri State). They finished tied for second in the regular season and got a #3 seed in the tourney. The bad news is that they drew the #6 seed which turned out to be previously AP ranked Northern Iowa who finished tied for 5th; but lost the tie breaker so they got the #6 seed. MO State had the lead at halftime; but preceded to only score 2 pts in the first 12 minutes or so of the second half which put them down by only 12; but they could never muster a comeback so now my beloved Bears sit squarely on the NCAA tourney Bubble. There are certainly arguments for both sides as the Bears have a 21 RPI ranking; but really did not play any power teams in non-conference play. They did play Arkansas; but lost to them in Fayatteville. They were 4-8 agains RPI top 50 teams; but that comprised all of their losses. Another words.. no bad losses. My gut tells me we are going to be the odd team out. Hopefully not and the Valley could get anywhere from 3 bids to 6 bids.. with the consensus being around 4... So that was definitely a woulda, coulda, shoulda.

For whatever reason, I woke up Friday with a few minutes to spare and opened up Absolute. I got a wild hair up my butt and decided that in March, I would take a quasi-shot at the higher limits so I opened up a 10/20. Per normal, I immediately found myself down $150 after 15 hands.... but thankfully JJ and AK held up for me later and I had to go with a giant profit of $10 after 52 hands. I had 3 or 4 hands where I flopped a flush or OESD and none of them hit... so again... coulda, woulda, shoulda

So I spent all day Friday in downtown St Louis and watched 4 basketball games at Savvis. 2 of the games I had front row tickets right at mid court.... It is sometimes nice to see how the other half lives.. You get a whole new appreciation of how big and fast and physical these basketball players are.

No poker on Saturday. I played basketball in a church league and the other team had former Kansas and Sacramento Kings standout Ryan Robertson. Unfortunately, due to injuries and other things, he didn't last too long in the Bigs.. but suffice it to say.. the boy can still shoot... pretty cool watching him... The game was close until the end where he hit 3 or 4 3 pointers in a row to seal the deal....

So Sunday night comes and I realize I haven't played poker since Friday morning. I fire up the PSO league tourney and per normal blanked out early in that one... So I did open up some more AP tables. I regained my senses and went back to the 3/6 tables.... I must have been Flush Rivered 5 or 6 times early on so again I found myself stuck $300. This is a real disturbing trend. Perhaps, players are just better at the 8PM Central time slot and as the night progresses, the players get worse. I have a query in Access to find this out, I'll need to run that soon. Anyway, as I am prone to do, I opened up a 10/20 table. I only played 31 hands before I came back to my senses; but did book a $66 profit there... so after 763 hands, I booked a playing loss of $9.98 but did get $50 in bonuses for a net $34.52 for the night.. which fortunately did keep my positive weekly streak alive... so I have that going for me... but wow... it was definitely a coulda, woulda, shoulda night.

So, Monday, I'm ready for redemption... Anyone care to guess what happened? I'll give you 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count.... Yep, I found myself stuck again at the beginning of the session; although this time it wasn't too bad.. probably around $170 or so... For the most part, I hung out around stuck $100... I would get close and lose it again... I resisted the urge to open up a higher limit table. Short story.. After 577 hands, I had a playing loss of $14.95; but again made $50 in bonus money for a net $35.05. The biggest disapointment was when I flopped a straight with KJ from BB... Ace on turn to give me nuts... board paired on river to give the villian a full house... Again, bad luck kept me from a nice night at the tables; but believe me... I understand how it goes and I am able to roll with the punches.. but I will say it one last time..... Woulda Coulda Shoulda!!!!!

Winning $35 is a whole better than losing $500.... Dahh!!!!!

I'm not sure what this week brings as I kind of feel that a small break is in order... Perhaps just a day or two.. we'll see how it goes. I have $30 more dollars to work off on Absolute, then I will probably return to the Prima tables for that nice 40% rakeback. I also perhaps see some Party Step Tournaments in my future as I feel the urge to get back into SNG land.