I'm illin'....

Last Thursday, at about 3:00p, I started to feel cold. The A/C at work is up pretty high in the summer but never so bad that I would feel this cold. After all, we're in an office environment on a large floor and everything is usually relatively moderated as far as that's concerned. So it was pretty unusual when I started shivering. I went downstairs to get me a cup of hot tea (always helpful) and maybe even warm up outside. The walk outside did make me feel better, temperature-wise, but I still felt a bit weak in my legs and in my head. And I started sweating more than I normally would just going outside. A cold sweat.

Hmmm...

I felt my head, just like my mother would, for temperature. I don't know why this is a time honored method, because I don't think I'm super-human in my skin temperature reading abilities, but I'll be damned if I didn't feel a little flush on the forehead. I finished up my work day and headed home. By the time I made it back (a normally pleasant 15 minute walk), I knew I wasn't going in to work the next day. I was shivering and weak and I had lost my appetite already.

Thus began the really crappy weekend. From Thursday until Tuesday morning, I didn't leave my apartment. Ali, bless her beautiful (outside and inside) soul, brought me Shiksa Chicken Soup, which is to say a quart of Ben's Chicken Soup. She even stuck around and watched some TV with me. Project Runway. Sadly, I liked the show. Clearly, I had caught something serious.
Alone in my apartment for all that time, I played a lot of video games and managed to play some online poker too. I won two HORSE sit'n'gos (one with Matty Ebs in attendance) and gave back all my winnings at limit Stud/8 and Razz. I was drawing something awful this past weekend at those games. I'm not talking about "oh I missed the 3 cards I needed for a low". I mean I had 20 outs with 3 streets to go and I whiffed every one. That kind of bad.

Here's the worst miss I had:

The game is Stud/8 -
I'm dealt (Ah 2h) 7h. A guy with an Ace showing completes to $5 (this was $5/$10) and two people call. I call is well with 3 hearts and a 7 perfect low draw.

Fourth Street - 4h. Wow, could I have asked for a more perfect card? Even better, none of the callers in the pot had two low cards, so they were either all going high or I was at least leading the low draw. And a scoop was looking good too! It checked to me and I bet $5. Everyone called. At this point, I had 21 outs to improve my hand to either a low or a flush or both. In reality, it was about 17 outs given that a few hearts and low cards were already visible or mucked. Still, 17 outs on three streets gives me about an 85% chance of improving.

I'll make a long story short, but after betting and/or raising every street, I whiffed and ended up with Ace-King high. The winning hand for a $200+ pot (and the scoop) was a pair of 7's!

WTF!?!?!?

This was not the only time I missed that kind of draw and I became increasingly frustrated. Luckily, I played pretty well in NLHE and was able to make at least some of my money back, though I did donk off $25 sitting next to LJ at a little .25/.50 NLHE game. She quadrupled her buyin by playing nice and tight and getting paid off like a MOFO on AA, KK and JJ. I, on the other hand, flopped top/top against KK and AA and paid off both of them. Sue me for not thinking too much of the $8 in my stack at this stupid stupid game!

Tonight is my band's gig at the 'R' Bar at 218 Bowery. It's 3 hours before the gig as I'm writing this but it won't be posted until tomorrow, most likely. Needless to say, we rocked!