Day 2: The single table satellites

I'm feeling pretty demoralized right now, and starting to wonder if I should have come on this trip at all.

Yesterday, we took our time getting to the casino after being there so late the night before. We ate po boys for lunch at Mother's, which is a pretty famous dive restaurant. (There may be those who dispute it's dive-like quality, but I feel confident that if it was in Atlanta it would qualify for my firm's summer "Dive Lunches" and that's all that matters.) I had an excellent shrimp po boy, though finding bits of shell in it did not go over so well on my stomach.

We then headed to the casino to check out the single table sit and go satellites. The casino runs three levels: a $65 buy in that awards $500 to the winner, a $125 satellite that awards $1000 to the winner, and a $240 satellite that awards $1000 to 2 winners. After watching the single tables for a little while, James decided to dive in first at a $125 table satellite. I waited for the next table to start and watched him play, but shortly after I was seated he was knocked out. Iwas amazed by how fast the single tables move, with 15 minute blinds and very aggressive play. I made it to about 5th before my all-in with pocket 3s was called by someone with pocket 4s, which held up. It hurt, but I knew that was largely a result of me figuring out the format.

We took a break, and then decided to play again. James played at another $125 table, and I joined a $65 table soon thereafter. He won his, by splitting the $1000 prize with another player. Meanwhile, my streak of bad luck continued when I ran into a guy who just wanted to get knocked out so that he could go play in the $500 mega satellite that he was already registered for and that had just begun. First, when I got pocket Kings the guy next to me had pocket Aces. Thankfully, I managed to come back from that and double up twice. But when the guy who wanted to leave started pushing every hand, my efforts to be the beneficiary fell flat. I had Q-J suited, and the guy to my left called as well and had Q-10 offsuit. Other guy had 7-2. Of course, he hit the straight. That left me with a pretty small stack. 2 hands later and with the blinds hurting a lot, he pushed all in again and I had K-2 and called. He had Q-3. He hit the Queen, and I left to nurse my wounds. With a lot of alcohol on bourbon street. A LOT.

Just to twist the knife, two of our friends from our usual weekly game showed up and each played a $65 single table, and one of them won his. First time he sat down to play in a casino, and he won $500. I was just insulted by life, frankly, for torturing me with bad beats when it knocked him on the head with a lucky break in his first time out. A part of me says I should take this as a sign that I'm just not meant to do this, and stop playing while I still have a few hundred dollars left in my wallet. Maybe that's just the hangover talking...I don't know.

Meanwhile, if he does well today in his tournanment, Griftdrift said last night he'll ride the mechanical bull we saw at this bar we were in. I promise, if that happens, to have pictures. Hell, maybe even video. Hell, seeing that might make up for all this losing I've been doing.