Hello, my name is George. I'm unemployed and live with my parents

Felt a bit like George Costanza at my .50/$1 game last night - every instinct I had was wrong. The fun started early with a flopped set of nines on a nine-ten-king board. Wiley was out of position and lead into me. I raised, then he called.

Turn brought an eight, not changing a whole lot. This time Wiley checked, I bet for value, and he went all in. Ehhhh. No strong draws on this board, just a made jack-queen. No flush draws to semibluff, and semibluffing is usually done on the flop anyway, not the turn. What hand could he play this way? All I could come up with were the hands that had a set of nines beat. A higher set or the made straight. I made what I felt was a very disciplined fold. Wiley told me later it was a bad one.

I went over the hand again and I wasn't angry - my instincts said I was beat and I went with them. Poker players are constantly trying to trick each other at the table - sometimes they succeed and you tip your cap. Perhaps I should have called only because Wiley hadn't bought in for the full 100BB - but if you think you're beat, even with a set, why put more money in at all? I stood by my own decision.

A couple hands later, with a bit of resolve to make sure I wasn't being so weak-tight - I raised up limpers with AK. The big blind reraised. He was also short, so I put him all in. He called, with aces. Whoops. Wiley said to me "you didn't see that coming - limp/reraise?". Uh, he was a limper? Great, now I'm not paying full attention to the action and losing big pots because of it. Ok, that's a bit irritating. I can forgive myself for coming up with a wrong decision based on the available information, but to miss available information at the table is not forgivable. Why am I at this table if I'm not paying full attention?

I did manage to keep my composure despite folding winners and shoving into monsters. Always look for a silver lining, even when you're mired in shit, I suppose. I did manage to make a correct decision when a player I didn't know represented a nine on a board with two more of them - I folded and he showed. Had he waited one more street, the fourth nine would have come, and I would have been sitting with a hard-to-escape full house. So I managed a little victory there and saved some chips.

It didn't matter. The chips dribbled away - no cards, no flops. My last hand had me all-in with two diamonds on a board with four spades and three opponents. A hopeless ending to a hopeless evening.

I'll be taking a shot at the live $50 tourney tonight. Let's hope for some better play.