I can not believe the recent number of bad beats I have taken, the number of hands I have lost on the river when I was clearly ahead, the numbers of suckouts foisted upon me, then ...

After getting the crap knocked out of me the past few days (especially at Full Tilt - which now replaces Titan as the "screw John on the river" poker venue), I began to finally get away from the bad beats and nasty rivers. Not that Poker.com is completely off the hook (set of Aces got beat on the river by someone fishing for a flush), but at least at Poker.com it seems like I don't get screwed on a regular basis when making the correct play.

After losing some of my Poker.com bankroll with some bad luck, I began seeing some cards and actually hitting things on the flop. I have been spending some time at the Poker.com $1/$2 NL tables, particularly trolling for sets. I was dealt pocket 7's and called a raise pre-flop, hoping to hit my set. I did, and had the perfect set up. Take a look at this hand, where my opponent's chase of the flush cost him big time:

Pre-flop, he raised four times the Big Blind with K-10 suited (??), then made a big raise after the flop with flush and straight draws. I reraised, and he put me all in. I called, and hit my boat on the turn. He hit his flush on the river, and was probably expecting the win. There was silence after the hand.

Needless to say, I began feeling like the poker gods had somehow decided that enough was enough. Like most players who fancy themselves at a certain level, I accept my mistakes, but just hate playing a hand correctly and then getting beat on a lower percentage outcome. In this instance, I was 60% to win, so thank goodness the percentages (and my set) held up.

Black Friday

I hope that everyone made it through Black Friday in one piece. Although I live for bargains and deals, I stay home on Black Friday because of all the idiocy and greed on display in malls and stores across America. I am certainly far from being wealthy, but I am certainly beyond the point where I will wait in the cold for hours and deal with unruly crowds to get a few bucks off something. I hate to see some of the good deals that Best Buy and other stores offer, knowing that I would never play the waiting game to get those items.

Hey -- Best Buy -- offer decent deals in the weeks after Black Friday and I will be there. In the meantime, all you people in the holiday scrum -- cheers!