Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The joys of running badly ...

I like to think of myself as a reasonably level-headed person. I am a calm person by nature who rarely gets visibly upset. I play poker knowing that there are elements of skill and luck to the game. I know that many of my opponents do not think about poker the way I do. I rely on this difference, and the resulting mistakes, to make money.
But sometimes you just run bad ...
The last few days have been horrible in the grand scheme of poker as a money-making venture. It doesn't seem to matter what the game or the stakes, there is a way for me to buy-in for chips that end up somewhere other than a rack headed to the cashier before I leave the game.
In the last few days I have been on the wrong end of the following:

$1/2 no limit holdem
I raise to $7 UTG; new player who has posted $2 to play his first hand calls; player to his left announces 'raise to $10' & places two $5 chips in front of him. The dealer then corrects him & says that it must be $12 as he cannot raise to $10 after I have already made it $7. The player on the button calls. I re-raise to $45 total. The new player says 'I'm short-stacked ... fuck it I'm all-in' & slides his remaining chips towards the middle (he had bought in for $50). The 'accidental' raiser also calls, the button folds & I toss the additional $5 chip into the middle. The flop comes down AJ4 ... I check & the other player checks ... we check both the turn & river (6 & 3 respectively) before the all-in player proudly shows his A8 SOOOTED. The other player mucks his KQ offsuit & I throw my hand into the muck as well ... oh, I had KK by the way ... FML!

$5 two card Manila
I have played tight for a few hours. Previously I'd shown down a flush where I had called a bet on '1st' (Manila is played with 32 cards - Aces to 7s - and starts with 2 hole cards to each player & 1 community card, followed by a round of betting. Another community card & round of betting continues until there are 5 community cards in the middle. The best 5-card hand, using both hole cards & three community cards win. Being a 'short deck' game, flushed beat full houses), checked '2nd', raised '3rd' & bet '4th' & '5th' before showing my winning hand.
In this hand a checked my option with AcQh with the 8c on board. I also check-called on '2nd' which was the Qc. I then bet '3rd', the 9c, '4th' Th & '5th' 7c. The final board is 8Q9T7 with four clubs. In my mind it looked exactly like the previous hand ... and I obviously had the flush ... and of course my opponent called me down with KhJd for a straight. My one bluff for the evening doesn't work. FML!

$2/3 no limit holdem
A player raises to $15 UTG, UTG+1 calls, I re-raise to $40, a player two to my left calls the $40, the original raiser moves all-in for $108, I 'tank' & move all-in for $95 & the other player calls (having both of the all-in players covered). We decide to show our hands pre-flop. The UTG player has KhQh, the other player has QcQs & I have AcAs.
The flop comes K43 ... turn 3 ... river Q! FML!
To make matters worse, the player who won the hand decides to leave the table two hands later, and two hands after that when the hourly time charge is collected, two of the big ($500+) stacks also leave ... this prompts the remaining player with over $500 to also leave ... and the table breaks! FML!

$2/3 no limit holdem
5 players limp in pre-flop & I raise to $15 on the button. Every limper, except one, calls the raise, so its 5-ways to the flop. The flop is 822 rainbow. A player who has been betting at flops that he has 'hit' bets $25. I re-raise to $75. Everyone else folds. He eventually calls. At this stage I know he has exactly one 8 in his hand. The turn is a J & he moves all-in for around $130. I don't think he has a J or a 2, so I call. The river is a Q. He turns over Q8. I have 99. FML!
The same game becomes short-handed after all the big stacks leave (deja vu anyone) ... I procees to get 22 & the flop is Q72 & my $5 bet takes it down. Same again on an 885 board when I have A8 ... and then I run my K4 (in the BB) into KJ (in the SB) on a KJ4 flop ... and he put all his chips in the middle ... and I didn't fold ... FML!

Maybe I need to listen to Tommy Angelo's 'Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment' series again, or perhaps learn from blog posts such as How to Tilt. Perhaps I need to Enjoy a Bad Beat like Joe Tall ... or maybe just have some favourable short-term variance!

Lets hope things improve before the Victorian Championships!
At this stage I'm going to play the opening event & the 8-game, as well as some (if not all) of the midday series & the PLO. Will see how things are going before deciding on playing any other events ... needless to say some run-good would be appreciated.

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