If I were truly hardcore, I’d have turned in my final paper for Demography on Friday and headed straight to Vegas with no room reservations, no bankroll, and no sleep. But I’m more of a softcore kind of guy, so I drove home. Good thing I did, since I’d probably be stuck in some god-forsaken town between here and Vegas. My engine developed a weird noise again on the way home. Note that this is the second engine for this car, so I’m thinking my car likes to eat engines for lunch. I hate cars.

Car troubles aside, I really think I’m missing out on a good time this weekend, and that blows monkey chunks. And Pauly’s a bastard for scheduling it for this weekend versus next.

So of course when I decide that I can’t go off into the desert to play poker because I have finals, what do I do? Play poker at home. Mostly bonus whoring at Doyle’s, but I have sat in on SirFWALGMan’s 5/10 6-max game at Party. I know, way above my bankroll limits, but it was an interesting experience.

I’m not the first to say it, but I certainly won’t be the last, so why don’t I just add my flavor of noise to the Blog-o-sphere: any pair can go to the showdown and stand a chance of winning in a short-handed game. Now, I don’t think this means I should play anything and everything, though your starting hand requirements can definitely be looser, but here’s the corollary to what I just said: Top pair is much more likely to hold up. Wow. Great feeling.

And I was getting hit with all sorts of great hands–monster and big pocketses, and big broadway cards that connected with the flop. And since there’s so much bluffing and pre-flop raising in these games, I found a lot of people were initially paying me off. Then they caught on to the fact that I was betting good cards, which usually made them fold in later hands even when I missed the flop with my AQ.

You know, it’s really a whole different level of fun when the pots get to be sizes where you’d really miss the money if it fell out of your wallet. Okay, so I’d miss losing a fiver, too, but that’s beside the point.

I think online poker is rigged to suck me into playing in high variance games like 6 max and NL. Oh? There’s a NL 6 max table? I shudder to think. Which reminds me… clearing the bonus at Doyle’s playing limit sucks ass. No limit’s much better for that kind of thing. And getting a guy to hand over his entire stack is also one of those different levels of fun.

Yeah, this post sucks, but not as hard as everyone who’s having fun without me.