More Breaking Even and Frustration

Today was a bad day. I played for over 7 hours and won $27. At one point early on I was up 900, and a few hours before I left I had a win of $1200 in the bag. Then I took a couple of rough ones and may or may not have went on tilt...it's so hard to tell. I folded the best hand twice and called down drawing dead two more times, but I'm not really sure I misplayed anything. I did work on my theory of the nuts. Specifically, I know where to find the nuts....the nuts lives in the hand of the player who check/raises you on the turn. Always. I don't care that you're getting 9:2 to call down from that raise. Dude has the nuts and if you can't beat 'em you best lay your hand down.

I did see some hilarious stuff today, but even thinking about it makes me feel like a bad person because I kind of turned into a jerk at the table at one point....meh, ok here goes.

This guy who's a "new regular" the past few weeks puts two bad ones on me. The flop is 33T and he's the big blind and I'm the 3rd limper in the cutoff. He has A3 and I have QT. He check/raises me on the turn and for some reason I pay him off. I even take off my headphones and announce to the table "Jeeze he's shaking!" while noting that the hand he bet his chips with is shaking a little. I'm more mad at myself than anything else. Like two hands later I open raise KJs and the flop is KT6 and I bet and he actually asks "so if I raise will you raise again" and I say "that's not very fair to the other person in the hand sir" and he's like "Ah well then I raise" and the other person folds and I turbo 3-bet and he calls. I practically dark bet the turn which is an 8 and he raises in rhythm. Again I call him down like a retard, and this time I see T8 for the turned two pair. A few hands later I extract a little revenge when I raise 3 limpers from the big blind with pocket 8s, flop a set, get raised by the aforementioned villain when a 3rd club hits on the turn, and check/raise his ass on the river when the board pairs.

So this guy leaves...and like 90 minutes later he comes back and is at my table again. I open raise 98 of hearts two off the button and of course the flop goes off 4ways (that's 3 of the 4 people who still had cards call me). The flop is like T54 with one heart and two spades and I just check. I end up calling a bet getting 11:1 closing the action with two weak back door draws. Of course the Q of hearts rolls off the deck and it checks to the guy who bet the last street...he checks, but our favorite villain now bets from the button. The small blind (his name is Jesus and he is not good at the poker) raises and puts me right to it. There are 9 bets in the pot and I'm being asked to call 2...the problem is that my flush draw is often not good here, as one of the hands bad players raise the turn with in ridiculously massive and protected pots is a naked flush draw. I call though, as I can't make the soul read. Villain calls. The river checks through and villain fastrolls Q3 of spades on the button. Jesus says "that's good I missed" and flashes two hearts (my flush draw was in fact no good). I look at him in that way players who have just lost a hand often look at one another, saying but not saying "why did you light my chips on fire sir?" and he gets the message. He says "I thought I could steal it" and I say "You thought he would fold? He's never folded a hand in his life!"

Obviously I should never have said this, but boy was it funny. Villain seems to think he's not an awful player and takes offense. I quickly don my head phones and try to not listen, but he's muttering something. I'm still kind of upset about his whole "if I raise will you raise me" speech he made in the middle of that hand a while back and figure perhaps I've fanned the flames enough. 10 minutes later the following lunacy ensues....

In an 8 handed pot I see a flop with his hand...Q3 of spades....from the big blind. The flop comes down pretty boringly....52T with two spades. I donk because the raiser is like one off the button and there are about 47 players with live hands between me and him. 45 of them call, then it gets 2 bet and the preflop raiser 3 bets. I call only, hoping to keep the pot 4 or 5 way and abandoning all hope of winning without drastic improvement. Our favorite villain goes into the tank and eventually calls. We see the turn I think 5 ways, and I pick up a 3 for a board of:

52T-3

Now with two spades and two hearts. I check and end up calling one bet. Our favorite villain calls in rhythm this time. The river is the Ace of Diamonds. I check and our favorite villain...comes to live and bets. Two players call him (I of course don't) and he tables 44 for the wheel (5 high straight). The preflop raiser flashes his set of Tens and says "You were right! He never folds anything! 3 bets on the flop....with nothing! Nothing!" and so forth and so such. A great clamor did ensue with villain trying to "splain" himself, and I just kind of sat there.

I learned another lesson today, and that that I'm not learning how to keep my mouth shut. Damn it why is this so hard?