Female poker geek anonymous

It's been a fairly quiet week on the online poker front for me. I mean, I was amazed to see that FTP has draw games now and I have been wasting some of my time trying to achieve gold star status at the Badugi tables, but not really grinding, since only about 1 or 2 tables at my stakes ever get going. Also, I'm still fairly new at Badugi, so I can't really multitable as I'm still wondering if I can bet my smooth tri 8 on the turn for value or not :P Anyway, lots to think about Badugi, but no extreme insights yet, except that I think I got predraw down ok and can start to put opponents on ranges there, too.

On another note, I've been having my "well" up at 2p2 (link). I'm really glad, I waited over 3 years posting at 2p2 to be thrown into the well, because now I can have some better insights. First of all on my own play (my God, I have played a lot), but also on other people and their play or posting style. A lot of the questions are fairly innocuous or non-poker related, but some have me scratching my head sometimes on how to answer. I think the biggest myth that I tried somehow to dispel is that the higher you go, the more poker knowledge you suddenly uncovered. Which is weird, because you can still play great poker at low stakes. It's not like every move up, you now suddenly uncover a new weapon you can finally use and couldn't use the level before (a la role-playing game). The other are the misconceptions people have of HUHU, like it's this big mystery where people are constantly leveling themselves.

But the "highlight" of the week was some live play on Saturday again. I wish I could say I played good this time, but I didn't. I mean, I didn't make any amazing mistakes, just a valuebet or valueraise missed here or there. Bluffcatching and iso-raising I did ok with. Anyway, part of it probably was the beats that were put on me a few times (72s > KK on a 943r flop), part of it was that I stayed to long, but a huge part of it was the fact that this time the people were absolutely horrible. It made me embarrassed to be a woman playing poker, because there was not a single woman there that didn't spew venom or was a total bitch (then again, I think I was the only white female there, haha). I mean, really, it was disgusting!

It all started with this new rule that Commerce has that if you miss your blinds more than two times, when the button passes you, a time a 5$/round table fee gets added to the pot. It's sort of like rent for them reserving a spot for you and it keeps the games from suddenly breaking when they go 5 or less handed (no jackpot? no play!). It often goes on that people stand there and the floor has to call players back and nobody gets to play poker.

But naturally there is resistance to the new rule. Part of it is that it is still new and understandable everybody is still adjusting to it: the new buttons, the dealers need to take it into account, the explaining to the new players, etc. But then the other part is just to mock the rule out of spite. Now they sit out a round out of protest, people get yelled at when they don't hurry up, because the next had is gonna have 5$ extra in the pot. The fights these people get into to NOT pay those 5$ is ridiculous. For example, you don't have to pay the 5$ if you eat at the table, you get the full 45 minutes to eat, but this woman finished her dinner in 20 minutes, so she just sat there for 25 minutes to mock the system and "save" maybe 10$. I actually left the casino, because this specimen (I can't call her a woman) actually argued with the floor and then the manager for 10 minutes, because they were going to charge her 2nd missed blind when she was moving 3 seats INTO the blinds. 10 minutes!!!! You're changing seats, just pay the effing blind! I was sitting there, hearing the seconds tick away and I just thought to myself what I was doing there at 4 in the morning listening to some woman that is stuck more than a grand hyperventilating about being treated unfairly, so I just stood up and left. And other people did too and then she got yelled at for breaking up the game - that was the last I heard, I had enough cursing for the night.

I still won that night though :P . Strangely enough, my biggest pots I won were against the best players at the table, but then, it makes sense, since they were also trying to maximize the equity in the pot. This one guy kept following me on my breaks and was very nice, complimenting my play and wanting to know more about me. I don't think he was hitting on me, but who knows. He seemed perplexed when I told him that I play live like maybe once every 2 months. His response: I come here about 300 days a year. I was also friendly with this other Armenian dude that had the best time of his life telling me about his 25 year old girlfriend. He totally knew she was a golddigger, but he was having so much fun buying her stuff, feeling wanted. He wanted to be a better man with her and she kept him healthy, unlike when he came to the casino. He then paused pointed around the whole high limit section (especially at a 30/60 Stud table): "You see all these people here? Poker has ruined their life! And if it hasn't, it hasn't made it better, we all lost here". God, it was like the saddest thing, I've heard in my life, but then he left and the table told me that he was just barred at the Bike for being an asshole and starting fights and they dread that he comes here now. lawl.

I thought hard about what he said, though, I was very sad when I left the casino. People were very angry that night, lots of "fuck you"'s being thrown at each other, everybody on edge. And yep, it seemed poker had ruined their life. :/