Jenn’s Corner: I Blew It
I wanted to wait until after the North Kanto League to write this month’s column. Now I wish that time hadn’t come. Last month I wrote about all of the opportunities I had and how scared I was of losing these chances this month. Well, my worst fear came true.
I managed to squeak out of any sort of prize or final table in every single league I was in.
Starting with the Special League at the end of January, I had a bad day, putting me in the red when I had been in 3rd place with a big lead. The next day was only slightly better, in that, I posted a much smaller negative.
The next week was North Kanto and I kept my position in 2nd place for the pro league, but dropped down to 11th in the Pro-Amateur Mixed league. I remained the most confident for these leagues.
The next week was the JPML Pro League. I had a small positive and my goal was to at least keep it and then try to come back in the Special League. This would turn out to be the only goal that I was able to achieve. Despite having a terrible time concentrating and despite a few mistakes, I was able to win the table and get a positive 20 points or so, putting me in 14th place.
Then we had the Special League and it was horrible for me. I started out well, but then gave all of my points away and more. It was a very disappointing day. Champions League wasn’t much better, but I wasn’t even hopeful for that one, so we’ll skip over it.
Last weekend was the North Kanto league I had been waiting for. I had a great chance in both leagues. I woke up early and even had time to stop by Starbucks on my way to Gunma. I felt well-rested, I had eaten and I was ready to go. There was good music on the speakers and I knew my opponents and even had a plan going in. I got a big hand at the beginning and made it all the way into the South round with a big lead. Then I gave all the points away. That happened again and again, for 3 games… In the final game I was down to about 90 points. I had to get a positive score in the last game no matter what.
In the final hand of the game I made a 5200 point hand. I had just under 25,000 points. There was a Reach stick and a couple of continuances. The final dealer discarded the 6-dots that would give me the higher score (9-dots would only give me 2600 points) and I had done it. I posted my positive score and there was nothing left to do but wait and hope.
The final announcement came, and I was in 5th place. I lost my chance at my first final table by 400 points… Not even enough to declare Reach. If I had done one of a million things differently, I would have made it, but I didn’t.
It looks like I still have a long way to go on this journey.
