I woke up with what some people refer to as, The Itch. It's a funny thing, The Itch. You can't really put your finger on it, where it comes from or why it manifests itself on a random basis. But, it comes when it wants to and it is unstoppable. Some of you may know that I love playing poker, I've been playing for quite some time and I have this uh-healthy love/hate relationship with the game. The real sick part is that three out of five times I still have fun when I lose. Which lets me know that I really love the game, or I have a problem.
The funny thing is that I haven't had the urge to play poker for quite a while, I kind of put my self on a poker hiatus. I'd been catching to many cold cards and taking too many bad beats and just wasn't enjoying the game. I was also beating myself way too much on my stupid misjudgments. Bluffing way to much and staying in hands I shouldn't have been involved in.
As I was saying, I woke up with The Itch to play poker. I regularly played in a Limit Hold 'em tournament on Saturdays at the local card room, until my little hiatus I was playing every Saturday, but hadn't played for about three weeks. The tournament is good for getting a lot of practice in on the cheap, with its $5 buy-in and unlimited re-buys during the first three rounds it's a very fun, yet very difficult tourney, to actually make it anywhere without re-buying three or nine times takes quite an amount of skill. I've seen guys blow through a hundred dollars in a matter of minutes simply by just re-buying again and again.
The night before, Lila had mention in passing "You going to play poker tomorrow?"
"Probably not." I replied. Little did she or I know that those six little words would slowly set off a chain reaction in the back of my mind. That night as I slumbered, a million images of chips shuffling and cards spinning, visions of Kings dancing with Queens and laughing as a Nine of Diamonds is used as a weapon by Jack as he gets in a drunken bar fight with a seven and a deuce - offsuit.
Needless to say, after I had woken up and had my cup of coffee, I looked around the house, walking like a zombie. Occasionally, I would let out a barely audible 'sigh' as a sign of 'I would really like to play poker today.' The Itch is a hard thing to fight.
It was around noon when I sat down on the couch next to Lila. She was sipping on a cup of tea, the remote control in her other hand. I didn't shower yet, I never shower if I'm going to play in the Saturday tourney. It's not a superstitious thing, it's more of a I'm-going-to-a-place-full-of-smelly-people-and-there's-no-point-in going-clean and coming back dirty-kind of thing. "I guess I'm going to go take a shower," I said.
"Why, aren't you going to play poker today?" She replied
BINGO!
I waited until 1:30P.M. to leave, I like to get there a little early so I know where I'm going to be seated and do my pre-tourney ritual which involves a little meditation to clear my head and chanting my silly little mantra "Play smart, look for a reason to fold." I do that for the twenty minutes before the tournament starts and maybe I'll make small talk with the dealers.
I walked out of the house and noticed that my car was in the back yard 'Oh, shit!' I thought to myself.
How I'm going to make it now?
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