Why do we play?

The same thing that makes me want to rip out my heart and give up cards apparently makes me want to write. Bad beats frustrate poker players to no end.
But, "bad beat" is a term overused in card rooms and at dining tables, up there on the poker cliche board with "that's poker."
Tuesday night I truly suffered at the hands of a "bad beat."
Playing in a recreational, super-fun .25-.50 cash game, I raised to $2.50 with Ks-Kh. World Series of Poker main event veteran Tony Marquis (he played once!) made a big deal of my preflop raise! "Whoooaaaa!," he quipped.
The loosest player at the game raised all in. With $15.50 left, it was an instant call. He had 4c-4h. I was a 4-to-1 favorite preflop.
The flop was A-J-2, all spades. I just improved to 95 percent. Then it came ... the 4 of diamonds, the only ... I stress ONLY ... card he could catch to beat me.
With a 1-in-5 chance to hit a spade or king, the river was a blank, I was busted, and with that kind of luck, I passed my chips over and left.
Perhaps I was fortunate I did not have more money on me. Probably not, though.
A guy that plays that fast and loose is begging for someone to take his chips. I didn't quite have the necessary $20 to rebuy, but someone would have given it to me. The emotional side of me said, "Leave, it's going to be that type of night."
The balanced poker player in me said, "Stay, and you'll get your chips back, plus some."
Emotions won out.
I joked with friends this week I would retire after some rough outings (see previous blogs!) and one night of just foolish play. I can tell you I never got lucky with a one outer! Two tournament wins over the weekend, one when I suffered another river suckout to cripple me early -- only to come back with 1/4 a starting stack -- renewed my spirit.
Truth is, I want to play again. Now. With the lucky f-er that risked $18 on 4s. With Doyle Brunson, Joe Sebok, Ben Affleck ... anyone.
My day will come. That much I know.
What I don't know is if I'll ever make a stupid decision, catch a one-outer and bust someone out of a game.
At least I'd apologize.

LA Poker Classic

I assume the next step in my unlimited-step poker addiction program is watching the World Series of Poker main event final table live on pay-per-view. Of course, it would be great to have a seat at the table to watch the action, and make a nice bank, but let's be realistic.
Over the last few years, I have monitored the WSOP through Paul "Pauly" McGuire's Tao of Poker Web site (http://taopoker.blogspot.com/). He does live updates, offers interesting commentary (not always just about poker!) and keeps you well informed about the action.
I'll stick with Pauly again, probably even if I watch the final live.
In the interim, I've been keeping up with some big events through cardplayer.com. For instance, the LA Poker Classic wrapped up Thursday (Pauly covered it, too). I will not need to wait until the World Poker Tour broadcast to catch the winner.
Here's the good news for me and you: Eric Hershler took the $2.4 million top prize, outlasting top pros like J.C. Tran, Chau Giang and Paul Wasicka, the 2006 WSOP runner-up. Why is that good for guys like us? It was Hershler's first live tournament, according to Card Player, and it just goes to show you this is a game where anyone can win.
A few years ago, when I wrote a poker story and interviewed ESPN poker color analyst Norman Chad, he had a great comment along those lines. He said we could play Tiger Woods or Roger Federer, and we'd get beat 100 times out of 100 games. In poker, on any night, he said, you or I could beat Johnny Chan or Phil Ivey.
There's hope!
On to my own game, my bad run of luck in tournaments continued at a $50, 36-person freeze out at my favorite spot to play. That's a big tournament for me!
Short-stacked with one limper, I pushed all in, only to get two calls. With Q-J of clubs, I was looking to pick up the blinds and the chips of a limper. I knew I was behind, and pocket Aces and K-Q suited confirmed that. (Surprisingly, according to cardplayer.com's odds calculator, I was actually a very slight favorite over the K-Q of spades, while the aces were almost 70 percent to win.)
After a rainbow flop of 8-9-10, I took the lead! The aces, at this point, were 3 percent to win.
The turn was a 10, and so was the river, and the guy with aces got a runner-runner boat to kick me to the curb. Ouch.
Keep hitting the felts, and don't forget: If you want to improve, know the score. Log your results, take notes, and get serious about the game. You might be the next Eric Hershler.