The brutality of Poker
So I returned home yesterday from a weekend of playing poker down at Pechanga Casino which is in Temecula, California (North of San Diego). I played 8-16 LHE and one $95 tourney. The tourney was not exciting and relatively short. I don’t care for the structures there but it was a 15k guaranteed and decided to take a chance. I played one hand badly and then called an all in in a blind vs. blind action which crippled me. I had 2600 left from my original 3k stack. Blinds were 100/200 and in the BB with 77. Folds to SB and he goes all in for 1300 total. I call and he has QQ and it holds up. I don’t think it was a bad call but I couldn’t recovered. Went card dead from there and eventually pushed my last 500 all in in the 200/400 level with Q9s and the flop came with Q98 w/2 hearts. Of course the bb’s 34 of hearts gets there on the river. I busted, No biggie. Back to the really juicy 8-16 game.
Of course I’m down 400 in 4 hours playing 8-16 kill on Friday. Kinda card dead and nothing really exciting or bad beats that I can remember. I just know the play was horrendous with people calling 2 bets in a kill pot with mediocre hands. So I went back Saturday and played a 12 hour session. Started down again and it got worse. Rebought and had my Aces cracked by my buddy’s 56 on a A42 flop, turn came a 7 giving him an opened ended str8 draw and then hit his 3 on the river. Thankfully it was my buddy who was the chaser (getting odds to call since all the other donkeys in the hand kept calling) and we just checked the river.
I then ended our morning session by winning 2 big pots at the end with KK and A9 and finished slightly down. We came back in the late afternoon and proceeded to play till about midnight. I broke about even fluctuating up and down. I coudn’t just get anything going. 2 hands I do want to talk about from the evening session.
First I had KK in the BB and raised it up after 2 limpers (playing 5 handed at time at a a must move table). Flop comes Q72 with 2 hearts. I lead out for 8 and get raised to 16, next player calls the 16 after pondering a call for a few seconds. Comes back to me and I make it 24 and they both call. Turn comes Ace of hearts. It checks around. I’m think one of them might have the flush or a ace because nobody folds an ace on the flop in this game. River comes a 3 and it goes check check bet and I call and other guy folds. The better turns over 32 for rivered 2 pair. I couldn’t believe it. How do you call 2 bets on the flop w/bottom pair. I should have known though since this was the same guy who called my flop bet on a
Q-8-3 board and then the turn is an ace and we both check it down and he shows A4. Another hand at the same table. This time table is a full ring game and I have AA. I was in BB and it was 3 bets to me and I cap it. Flop comes Q9x rainbow. I bet out and original raiser makes it 2 bets and sb and I call. Both sb and I check call all the way down. I have AA, original raiser has AQ and SB had 99 for flopped set. We both thought original raiser had QQ but still called. A bad play on my part but in these games, it is hard to know exactly what these maniacs have.
Now comes the last day and the unluckiest poker session of my life. We played for 2 hours and started a new 8-16 kill game. We played for 2 hours. I’ll spare you the specifics but in 2 hours I was dealt AA 4 times and only won 1 pot losing to 85, K9, and K5. I first couldn’t believe being dealt AA that many times and then to lose 3 of the 4 pots to such mediocre hands, it was ridiculous. I dropped $540 that last night to take my total losses up to over 1k for the trip.
Due to this I probably won’t be able to play in the WSOP Circuit event being held at Rincon later this month. I wanted to go because the last 2 years I have played 1 tournament each year and made the final table in both. However, I have basically blown my bank roll this weekend and my play over x-mas so I probably won’t be playing.
I have now had about 6 str8 losing sessions which is a record for me. The only difference this time is the amount I am losing. A couple $100 here and $100 there, but mostly $300-500 at a time. The play is just really poor imo but I can’t beat the game right now for whatever reason. I’ll be taking a break from poker till my family trip to Vegas at the end of February. Hoepfully this time off will ward off the the bad juju that has been following me.
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Comments
Thanks for the comment, I only shared the big pp’s I lost with because I had them 8 times in 3 sessions which is extremely rare and only won 3 times which seems low to me. I do like to play connectors (suited and unsuited) and will even call a raise if I have position. I just rarely made hands with those and folded on flop or turn. A break is good and needed. Hopefully I can be good and just chill till Vegas, we shall see.
I think you may be playing too tight. It seems like every hand you lost you had AA or KK.
Also, you have to realize that in a crazy game big pair value goes wya down. Try to see some cheap flops w/ 910s, j10s, even 78s. Try to make a made hand, then you can really win a big pot.
Also, I think taking a short break may help. Whenever I run bad I take a break, so that the next time I look at the game it will be with a fresh pair of eyes. Also, when I am running bad, I am probably making subconscious mistakes that I can’t see, but that will not occur after taking a break from the game. Good luck on your trip to Vegas.