Death by a thousand paper cuts ... and sweet cat revenge

So it's 4-handed, the very last hand of the night and there's a raise, re-raise, and voila, I have JJ in the big blind so I go right ahead and push all in for $30 or so.

It's a $.25/.50 NL game ($20 buy-in) at the home of one of the original Emory Game's fathers. A pretty sweet setup. A nice cover over a broad dining room table, chips similar to the old Emory game and pizza and beer.

Aside from Drew's $5 buy-in game in Tucker, I haven't played at someone else's game since the robbery. Live play is a nice recreational diversion, but is hardly worth it if you're a serious (and winning) online player.

There are serious dangers for playing poker in Atlanta, at least at limits that have worthwhile money. Josh Arieh recounts a story that may be part rumor, part true, of a group that got robbed and arrested the same night. He says the robbers of this game (he wasn't there) came downstairs and told the building concierge that they were robbed. The concierge called police, who arrested the naked and penniless players for gambling.

That's a bad beat.

This game was nice though. It was 6-handed and there was really only one aggressive player. In that last hand, this college guy calls me after thinking about it for a long while. He flips over 55 and of course, catches a set.

Oh, well. It was the right move on my part. The old me might have been content to have a $10 profit. But cat wants all the chips if the edge goes his way.

$20 here. $30 in the blogger tourney. Death by a thousand paper cuts. Where will it all end?

At Poker Stars, apparently. I get home and go on a nice $400 run before I go to bed, in 50 minutes.

That's the thing about skill vs. luck. With luck, a cat never knows where his next meal will be. With enough knowledge of the game and experience, you never have to wonder which direction the chains will move.