Keeping the emotions in check

This has been a pretty emotional week for me but I thought I had under control until last night. I went to my regular Thursday night game which was incredibly busy. I believe there was over 70 of us. Anyways I got seated and first hand I get dealt pocket 8's in late position. I raised it 3x BB (probably should have done higher) and only 1 lady called me. Flop came AJ6. Not a good flop for me. She bet and I folded. She flipped over J5. HUH?? She stayed in with J5. Normally these kind of plays don't bother me but it was a sign of things to come. She played just about every hand and the problem was she won just about every hand. She was hitting flushes, two pair you name. She put one guy out when on a flop of KQ4. He went all in and she called. He had pocket Queens while she had pocket Kings. Her trip Kings held up of course.The look of disbelief on his face was priceless. The thing is this lady is one of the friendliest nicest person you could ever meet and I could never get mad at her for the way she plays. Its her style. I could do nothing. I finally got moved to a new table and I think feeling the frustration of a difficult week I pushed with KJ in the dealer position. SB who had just won a huge pot called me with AJ and the board whiffed on both of us but of course his Ace held up and mercifully I went home early.

When I got home I finally got around to reading the May edition of Bluff magazine (yea I know its almost July). I always have a couple books on the go and for some reason never quite finished reading this magazine. Anyways there was a good interview with Annie Duke (who looked quite hot in the pics). It was mainly about her appearance on the Apprentice (yawn) but it also dealt with keeping her emotions in check. She said that has been her greatest success in not letting things get to her at the table whether it be questionable play, suck outs or whatever. You make such better decisions when you don't let things bother you. You also need to be in the right frame of mind to play well and that's so important. I of course wasn't last night and should have just stayed home. A good lesson learned.