#450 - WSOP Notebook #23 - Nevermind

I busted out of the $1,500 HORSE a little while ago in 82nd place, two off the money.  I had a lot of chips, lost them on some freakish hands where opponents made wrong plays and got lucky, and then went out with a superstrong hand in Stud against an opponent with a pair of deuces who hit a 2-outer.

In the process of figuring out how to tell this, I came to a couple conclusions, in varying degrees obvious or surprising:

1. Nobody gives a shit about how unfair it was that you (or I) busted. I’ve been wallowing over weird, bad outcomes in my last three tournaments and even I’m getting tired of hearing about it. It sucks, but a lot of things about life suck. In fact, most things about life that suck are worse than unfairly busting out of a poker tournament or three.

2. I feel worse when I play well and bust than when I play bad and bust. I know it’s supposed to be the opposite, that you should feel good when you play well and recognize that you can’t control outcomes, only decisions. But I always feel fine after I make a mistake or play bad. In fact, I usually feel good after. I feel I got what I deserved and I learned something. When I play well and bad things happen, that’s when I wonder whether this is a worthwhile thing for me to be doing.

I’m playing the noon Limit Hold ‘Em Shootout, for which I have no expectations. I have no expectations for the Main Event either, which I’m playing on Thursday. After the shootout, I’ll get some more blogs posted, though I’m going to edit out some of my moaning about how the gods have conspired against me. Then I’ll go to some parties and let you know what’s happening in that scene.