The 32-Hour Friday

Yawn! I'm still tired. I got crazy (or crazier than usual) this weekend. I stopped in at the Crazy Moose on Friday after work to play "for a few hours". I planned on getting a good night's sleep in order to be fresh for the 8:00 a.m. Saturday tournament. This plan went awry big time. Before I even realized it, the waitress was yelling "last call" and it was 1:15 in the morning! I still had tons of chips, so I just kept playing. Then it was 5:30 a.m. and the game broke. I had already paid for the Saturday tournament. I could have gotten my money back and gone home to bed, but not me! I went grocery shopping instead. I got back to the Moose at about 6:30 and hung out playing very cheap table games until the tournament started. I must thrive on lack of sleep because we decided to split it when the last three were standing. We were all fairly even in chips and I was REALLY tired, so I figured it was a good idea. My profit ($40 buy-in and $25 dealer tip) was $150. Did I go home and sleep? Hell no! I spent $50 on live play. I finally got home at about 1:30 p.m., made a late lunch and took a 5-hour nap. I woke up and watched TV until about midnight and went back to sleep. This was the longest amount of time I've gone without sleep in at least five years.

On Sunday, I played the $25 tournament at 8:00 and the $60 tournament at 10:00 and did very badly in both. I am convinced that it was because I was too well rested - ha! On Saturday, when I'd had no sleep, I was basically acting on instinct only and not using my brain very well and on Sunday I was over-thinking every play. Good grief. If I could find some nice middle ground, I might be a threat! I am still a little annoyed about how I got knocked out of the last tournament. You can tell I wasn't playing right, though, because I called a raise pre-flop in the small blind with a Q-9 diamonds. I should have just folded. That was my first mistake. Anyway, the flop was Q-8-3 with two spades. The original raiser made a continuation bet and my next mistake was simply calling. I should have (a) raised two or three times his bet; or (b) moved all-in. I think (but I'm not sure) he would have folded. Another spade came on the turn. This card was a little scary because it put a possible flush on the board. My last and fatal mistake was moving all-in when the original raiser checked. I could have simply checked as well. I think he would have checked it down. I don't know. He thought about it for a minute and then called. He had exactly what I thought he had - an A-K with the K of spades. So, he had bascially only flush draw or the possibility of hitting a higher pair, but he had no made hand with only one card to come and I thought he made a terrible call because it was for most of his chips, but naturally he got the 10 of spades on the river and I was dead. Bummer!!

I think I will play with less sleep from now on!