More Misery

You know, despite warnings from everyone (Pete, Babar, Danielle, and others) that I need to maintain a positive attitude and that doing posts like this is bad for my state of mind, I'm going to make this post on the premise that writing it all down helps me release the memories from my mind. They say to be a good poker player you need a very short memory, and writing down the times I get eviscerated helps make mine shorter.

First of all we had the joy that was Sunday. I watched the Steelers lose to the Kansas City Chefs in deplorable fashion, then went to The Oaks for my daily beating. At first there wasn't even a 15/30 game (only a chock-full-o-nuts 30/60) and I sat at 6/12. I won half a rack in 10 hands. Then they called down the 15/30 game, and I won half a rack in 20 hands. Then I moved up to the 30/60 game, didn't win a hand for 75 minutes, decided to drop back to 15/30 as the 30 had basically over-fished itself, promptly flopped a set of 3s and turned two pair from the big blind to win another half a rack in like an hour or so, then went back up to the 30/60 game and proceeded to not win a pot for another 75 minutes. So in the small games I won like a rack and a half over the course of barely 2 hours, and in the 30 I went potless (not like just a small pot or just stole the blinds once or whatever...completely potless) for 2 and a half hours. Now since it was in two different sittings I can't really count it, but 2.5 hours without a single pot (in what by this point was mostly 6-7 handed play, mind you) would probably be a record for me. Eventually I get pushed two pots in a row and somehow, some way I am somewhere in the general vicinity of even for the day (I sort of intentionally lost count of how much I was in from all the game-changing, but I had over 2 racks in front of me and that was somewhere near what I'd bought). But it was not to be. I was planning to get home by 9 or 10 and and as the hour approached I missed 3 flush draws in 5 hands and that as they say was that. I only lost 30 bets at 30/60, but as usual it seems that I ran bad in the biggest game I played and good in the others. I've done some thinking the past few days and decided that varying the stakes you play by a largish margin (a factor of 2 or more) is a really good way to introduce another degree of freedom into your results, which is just a fancy way of saying it's a good way to make it possible that you can run bad for longer. But what is one to do; when they 40 is good, you sit, right?

Yesterday the 40 was good. It was so unbelievably good I can't even go into words. I played some 20/40 waiting for a seat (which is rare for me....usually I put my name up for the 40 and decide when I get called if I'll take it or not. Not yesterday. Yesterday I wanted the 40 and that was all there was to it) and got called around 11:15am (early day). I ambled over to the game, waited patiently to post in, and promptly lost a rack and a half in an hour. I've gotten to the point with the 40 that I'm actually scared of it, mainly because I know that playing it all day can cause me to take truly big losses, like 3 or 4 thousand dollar losses. So I picked up and went back to the 20/40 game, stuck like $1700 and planning to play for another 4-6 hours. You can't play scared or frustrated; it's just not a good idea. This hand kind of illustrates it:

The button open-limps. This is not some trick with kings, he really just open-limped the button in a 7 handed 40/80 game because that's how he rolls. I raise with AQo and Ed H calls the big blind. Ed is...let's just say "good for the game" right now. The button calls and we see:

973 with two diamonds

I lead out with a 100% completely standard continuation bet, and Ed H raises. The button calls two cold and I peel at 11:1 closing the action figuring to have 6 clean outs the majority of the time. With implied odds, it's a super easy call. The button still being in the hand is a concern, but he probably doesn't have a flush draw (he'd 3-bet....that's also how he rolls) and he is unlikely to have my Ace outs reverse dominated (with like A3 or A7 or something) since he'd have raised preflop with those hands. Honestly I think he has some sort of gut-shot with overcard(s) draw.

Q

Victory! An ace would have been a tough card to play, since Ed might check back his one pair hands, but a Queen is basically gin in this situation. I check, Ed bets, and the button calls once more. I spring the raise and Ed 3-bets me before I finish cutting off the chips. The button folds meekly and I call the 3-bet and the blank river. Ed shows me Q3s and I lose my cool for a second, slamming some chips on the table. The reason I lost it is pretty obvious and still pretty inexcusable. On the flop there are 45 cards that aren't on board or in Ed or I's hand. Two (2) of them get me to lose more money on this hand, three (3) put me in command of the hand, and the other forty (40) probably result in me folding or perhaps getting a free look at the river (Ed does have a pair of 3s for crying out loud. Something tells me he's not betting the King of diamonds). But what card do I get? The one that costs $320. Did I spike any of my nine outs on the river? Of course not. And can I fold the river? Well, not really at 14:1. Ed really could have AQ or even KQ or QJ of diamonds. Like I said, he's good for the game.

So I move back down to 20/40 and am seated at simply one of the best tables I have ever seen. Double O is there. Mega-Fish Indian guy is there. Tom B is there. Guy who open raises A3s under the gun is there. It's just a giant party. So Megafish open limps UTG and I raise AJo in about the high jack. This is sorta like a combo iso/value raise. If I get it heads up or 3 way I'm h happy, but my hand is good enough to hold up against more action. The cutoff, button and big blind all call, and megafish calls obviously. So we're off, 5 ways for 2 bets a piece.

J43dd

I even have the ace of diamonds. Looking at this board objectively, there are really not any terrible turn cards for me to even see. Sure a ten, queen or king is bad, but otherwise I'm pretty safe. A 2 or 5 adds a gutshot to my hand, and any diamond gives me the nut flush draw. Sure people can have straight draws around the 43, but in general this is pretty darn good. Two of them check and I bet. The cutoff raises, and they all call. Not some of them. All of them call two bets cold. I 3-bet, he calls, and they all call again. 25 small bets now and I am the lead dog.

J43dd-Js

Jiminy Christmas I've done it! Two of them check and I fire. All 3 of them call....then Megafish raises! I look into his soul and like what I see. Specifically, I see the last jack, not pocket 3s or 4s. This guy is bad, but he's super-over-aggro bad. He doesn't make expert slow play (which is actually good for him, since he raises and over plays so many hands) and him having a full house just doesn't make sense. How could he have top pair then you ask? Yeah, that's troubling also, but he was facing a 5 handed pot that had already been raised. Maybe he didn't want to check/3-bet two players who obviously had monsters. I dunno, but with 3 players left behind me calling isn't much of an option. I 3-bet. They all fold and Megafish calls only. This is it, I'm gonna drag this $1000 monster.

J43dd-Js-Qc

He donks. Just fires right out there. No check/raise, no hollywood, just fires. I call and he rolls QJo.

A few hands later I 3-bet "guy who raises A3s UTG" with AJo from the small blind. This guy had raised Double O's limp in like super early position, so maybe he actually has something this time, but I really doubt it. Double O folds somehow (he's tightened up a bit it seems) and the guy calls. We'll run this one quickly:

J33hh

He calls

7s

He calls

8c

He raises. I call and he shows me T9o.

I have a few more but they really pale in comparison. Megafish calls 3 bets cold from the small blind with 32s (after a laggy guy opened and a nitty guy 3-bet while on the phone) and I defend my BB with 99 (good seat change Jesse). The board of course runs out like 754-5-6 and he actually check/raises me on the river. The other two players had AK....And then I flop bottom two pair (queens and tens) and manage to lose to QJ when the board pairs the Ace on the river. My opponent actually had like close to 10 outs there, so that one wasn't even that interesting.

Today it's off to The Oaks for some 30/60 madness. Maybe I'll be allowed to win :)