Busto!

I loved it! It was like jumping out of a plane with no parachute while wrestling a crocodile that is on fire with a time bomb on its tail!
-ScottyMc on why he plays Pot Limit Omaha

When I look back at my time playing poker I can see many times when I “got broke”. Most of the time I would just reload and get it going again, rebuild and then play for another year before variance caught up with me. Poker was always easy to sit and do and if I played my game I won and if I got away from my game I would lose.

Back in the Party Poker days I was strictly a limit player. I would 6 table mid-limit holdem $3-$6 to $5-$10 and eek out about 4 BB per hour profit per table. I needed to play by the book at that point because when I first made the switch to online poker I lost about $19K in 8 months trying to play to big and too fast. There I was spending 10-16 hours a day in front of a computer with 6 tables opening clicking a button like a Monkey in hopes of a banana falling out of the sky. God Damn I was bored. Anyone that knows me or has ever read this blog or any of my other blogs knows I got a wee bit of a addictive personality. Like an addict we tend to use whatever drug we are on until we get tired of it or die, always looking for the next high to get us going. For me it was November of 2002

I need a new drug.

I was sick and tired of playing on PP and while I had dug myself out of a $19K hole and was well into the positive in poker bank roll Limit hold’em just wasn’t getting me high anymore. Like any good drug if it doesn’t melt your butter it is time to find a new one. I left Party Poker for Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars and left Limit games for the high of NL- hold’em Poker and repeated history. My first month playing NL poker I got killed, I played way to big and way too long and was on the verge of getting broke. I didn’t care though I was on a rush I felt great; I felt the tingle in my belly. I was on the outside looking in and loved it. To this day I still recall the words of my old poker Guru…

“If it doesn’t hurt it isn’t fun”

I LOVED THE HURT. Oddly enough a few things happened. Full Tilt started to take off and a flood of new players joined the games and poker on TV happened and that gave us the boom to the game. For 5 years I sat in the NL games on FTP and Stars and got my nightly fix. I never lost too much and was always in the game. In 2003 I recorded 3 $10K profit months, coming into 2004 I was high as a kite but maintaining that high was hard.

I tried everything I could to stay up but online poker wasn’t making me tingle like it use to. I started concentrating on live games around Austin, first on the weekends and the finally after about 5 months I was playing 5-6 nights a week. I killed the games. I was so jacked up on my high that nothing else mattered. I would take off work in the middle of the day and go hit the room. I was at the room so regularly that the guy that ran the game bought me a safe so I could keep my money there instead of carrying around large sums of cash.

Coming Down

I got a call one night from my wife telling me she just fell off a chair changing a light bulb and thought she broke her leg. I was sitting in a game and it was FAT. I was up about $2100 that night and there was another $10K on the table calling to me. I was so high on the game I didn’t want to leave. I fought off the urge to lie and left the game making it home right as the fire department was pulling up. The wife’s leg was not broken just bruised real bad; it was me that was really hurt. I realized that night that I was so high on poker I couldn’t operate as a normal human. I cut back on the games greatly and tried to avoid online play all together. I spent more time with my wife and played just a few times a month. Life was good and I was getting high at home cooking for the family and watching TV with my son. Life was good…

The Urge

It was about the time the BBT3 started last year that the urge kicked in. Work sucked on a level I had never seen. Add the stress of 2 new mouths on the way and like any junkie I needed to get high. I had been playing sporadically but when the dragon pokes his head out of the cave there is no middle gear. I hit the poker tables online again. Ah sweet pleasure. I could feel it running warm through my veins, BBT3 events nightly and the Bodonkey going on!!! Ah sweet, sweet nectar. I was killing the tournaments and cash games online at bodog and doing great at the cash games on FTP too. It was during this time that I started playing PLO live and online. I was first turned on to it during a Skillz event and I remember how sweet it was. It was so crisp and clean and NEW, the pain it caused the sweet sweet hurt it brought. Nightly I would flop the best hand and lose to the donkey that called. The soul bruises it caused felt so painful but all I needed to ease the pain was to log in again and load another table.

I was backed for most of the BBT3, not because I needed the money mainly because I didn’t want to take money away from my PLO habit. I was up to 4 tables a day at that point and the cash reserves were dwindling down. Luckily I had a stopping point in mind. I promised my wife that once the BBT was over and the girls were born I was going to quit…I did and it didn’t hurt. There were no shakes the night sweats didn’t get me. I was at home playing with my kids instead of playing with my little computer.

Cold Turkey

I was good for about 6 months. I loved being at home and being the Dad. I had no urges, I was to busy being ankle deep in baby bottles and shitty diapers. Worked sucked more than anything, but it didn’t matter because I was at home with my girls and my son. I had quit cold turkey and had no crippling urges.

The sickness

I am not sure when it happened but one day I woke up and found I was playing PLO. I had jumped back online and moved some money from a few other poker accounts around and was doing good playing NL but I would have 5 tables up and one of them would be PLO. It felt so good clicking the buttons… POT! REPOT!!! 16 outs twice let’s get it in with 2 to come! POT! POT POT! I loved it! It was like jumping out of a plane with no parachute while wrestling a crocodile that is on fire with a time bomb on its tail!

In one session on Bodog I started playing $100 PLO and was up $4k in 6 hours only to lose it all in 25 minutes when I moved up to $1000 PLO. What did I care I had started the session that week with $100 bucks and worked my way up.

Rock Bottom

I have seen my somewhat healthy bankroll get completely depleted and my “just in case” bankroll is wiped out. As it stands today I am … BUSTO… Pot Limit Omaha has been my weakness and my weakness has gotten me broke. Once again I am an addict without a drug.

Maybe Waffles will loan me $11 so I can play the Mookie this week.