Timing's Just Right

In poker, timing is everything, right? It’s one thing to pick up AA, it’s another thing when you pick up AA vs someone’s KK, and it’s a totally different thing when everyone folds to your AA in the BB. Sometimes, timing can make or break a single tournament or session.

Speaking in bigger terms, timing and poker have a different meaning for me. As of last night, my combined balance between both of my active poker sites is a whopping $.04. I think it probably costs me more than that just to log in to FTP or PS. About a month ago, I was sitting on a very small three-digit bankroll on PS, enough to keep me active. Then three significant things happened:

- I lost a couple buyins at micro-stakes 08 tables, approximately 25% of my roll. That was just dumb on my part.

- I swapped funds with another blogger to play the Mookie a couple weeks back. After finishing in the middle of the pack, I took the rest of my funds swap on FTP to work up a small bankroll for more BBT4 events. FTP rewarded my return from a 6-month hiatus on their site with their standard setups and suckouts.

- The 08 donkeys that I have been preying on kept calling but started hitting. And calling. And hitting. With A59J rainbow. With Q784 rainbow. It was far from the brutality of my venture into cash games last summer, the one that left me psychologically scarred for a couple weeks at least. But when each buying represents 30% of your bankroll, it doesn’t take a very long string of beats to bust me entirely.

But this is about timing. In the same week that I go busto for the umpteenth time (i.e busto for me includes strategic withdrawals of money, not just complete bankroll decimation), I get a paycheck for the first time in 10.5 months. Just when I have next to nothing for a bankroll, I have a chance to start it up again.

And, speaking about timing, if there was a time to start playing again, it’s now, during the BBT4. I’ve missed nearly each incarnation of the BBT series prior to this. I was completely absent during the BBT3 last year, as it coincided with my separation from my previous employer & ended just when I got my fat severance check. I think I played a couple of BBT2 events but I never made a dent in the points race nor did I win a single event. I’ve wanted to play the BBT series, and now, with a steadier financial situation, I can do that.

The Mookie is tomorrow. Payday is Friday, so unless someone wants to front me a Mookie buyin until I redeposit, I’ll be absent from BBT4 events this week. But, as long as my redeposit clears in time, I should be back at the Blogger tournaments, making a concerted effort at a strong showing in April.

See you at the tables soon.