Running Good is More Fun

As you all know I've tried out the whole "running bad" thing for a long time now, and I can say with great confidence that it is not the way to go. You get irritable, you start to play bad because you're running into skewed hand ranges, you lose your confidence, you don't want to put in your hours, all kinds of bad things happen to you. On top of all that, you don't have any money, which is never a good feeling. So what's the solution? Just run better. I know I've talked a lot on here about variance and how possible it is to run bad and for how long, but the flip side of that is that it's possible to win money hand over fist for a long time. without really doing anything special. When this happens you're happy, you play well because you have more patience, and getting in your hours is easy.

In my past 3 days at Commerce I have won 12 racks in the 20/40 game. My buddy Quantum Hoops has been present for a good portion of my shock and awe campaign, in which I have mercilessly bludgeoned everyone in my path. Twice on Wednesday I flopped the nut flush after opening a "not quite good enough" suited ace after a limper or three. Not only did I have the nut flush, in both cases I had the straight flush cock-blocker (on a flop of 986ddd I held A7 of diamonds). I 3-bet a guy with KT on a KT9-7 board. He had J8, didn't 4 bet the turn, and lost the hand when I filled up on the river. My aces held up like very single time. On Friday and Saturday alone I think I held AA or KK 7 times, and I can only remember losing once. I didn't play a hand for 45 minutes and picked up AA UTG. I get 5 callers and flop an ace obviously. Two of them make a flush, but it doesn't matter because I have a full house before the river even comes off the deck. 3 players limp and I raise JTs in the sb for multiway value/fun. I flop a gut shot and fire a bet why not. Two of them call. I turn a flush draw so I bet again. They both call again. River? Flush.....the guy is beside himself. A passive player has QQ and elects to just call the BB preflop and check/call a JT4 flop. I check the turn because I have pocket 8s and their are still 4 people in the pot, but the the two people behind me also check and the what comes off on the river? 8. All of this come on top of simply flopping a pair almost every single hand. AQo? There are days when it feels like you play that hand 10 times and never even flop a gut shot. This past week there is at least one queen coming out on the flop, sometimes more. To be honest I'm almost surprised I haven't hit a jackpot.

On top of actually running well, when you have an image at the table of "cannot possibly lose a hand" people play very straight-forwardly against you AND you have the confidence to accurately assess that this is happening. In short, when you do somehow manage not to claim the chips in the middle, the damage is minimal. It's easy to fold the turn, you don't need to make ace high call downs. You haven't been caught bluffing because you've had the stone nuts like 15 times in the last two hours. They aren't messing with you when they check/raise you on the big street. Folding is even easier. So I'm headed back today hoping to extend the 3+rack winning streak to 4 days.

As an aside, I should feel extremely happy about all this, but actually my main emotion has been simply relief. Every time I think about the fact that I've won $6000 in three days right behind it is the thought that "yeah that takes care of this month but what about the other 9 you didn't win any money during". I'm going to need to eventually just forget about this horrible streak I went on and focus on the present and future. Hopefully I can continue to win for a while and get back on my feet confidence and bankroll wise; it sure would be nice for a change of pace.