Couple Of Sessions With Very Little Luck

Well 2 session with a total loss of $39 over a total of 800 hands (-4.9BB/100). I've played decently and actually have won a few stacks but it seems like I'm losing just as many and quite often, at least recently, it when I'm getting my $$ in VERY good. So I'm not going to beat myself up over this loss. I know that if I keep getting my chips in this good things are going to turn sharply upward sooner or later. :)

I had bigger losers today but I think this hand illustrates a real issue I have too often:



Our villain here is pretty laggy (29/23/3) and will likely bluff raise this turn often enough to make my second barrel very -Ev. We likely only get a fold from this villain if he holds a pocket pair under 99 and even then he'll bluff raise sometimes. Check/folding here saves us a bet and occasionally we'll get to SD without putting any more (or at least much more) money in the pot. Bad turn bet.

I also decided to join the Cardschat Tuesday Full Tilt night free roll tonight. Man I hate tourneys any more but it's always nice to play with the great people from CC. It's the only time I even turn on my chat anymore and I really enjoyed it even though I busted out around 50th when I pushed with AQ v AT v AK and AK held. So rigged. :)

Finally...I Luck Into A Winning Session

So early this morning I played a 415 hand session ending UP $76 (18.25BB/100). I played ok, but I probably could have done better. It just feels good to win again.

I did get extremely lucky in one hand:



The villain here is tight (11/10/3) and 3betting preflop probably should be my standard play. I of course decide to just call and then we get all-in when he hits his set (I'm not down on the all-in call because he would have done the same with a SD, FD , QQ, and maybe AJ with the A of clubs). The turn of course saves me $25 and makes the session look $50 more profitable.

Undoubtedly the worst thing I did during this session was this hand:


I have no business flatting the bbs 3bet. I'm not getting any kind of odds to set mine and the cutoff could still 4bet me out of the hand. Plus I'll be in horrible relative position postflop no matter how favorable it may be. It all adds up to being a horrible call.

3 Sessions, Still No Winners!

Well since my last post I've played about 1500 hands for a net loss of $68 (-4.65BB/100) over 3 sessions. I ended each individual session down. I feel though that I actually played better than I had been overall. I've just hit a horrible bad luck streak and I think my opponents can smell the blood in the water. It's just been sick. I'm actually down ~$22 overall for the month despite starting the 1st 2 days up ~$450! I've so far stuck at 50NL but still may move down before BR would dictate.

Here are a few of the worst I've played over the past few days:



This should have been an easy fold when the button 3bet. AQ just doesn't win here enough when called and it's an auto fold to the all-in. Just a poor decision to 4bet light OOP.



Just a bad bluff against a player with a broken fold button (WTSD over 35%). Note to self: Looks at SD stats before doing anything too stupid!



I raise preflop here with ATs to try to steal the blinds because of the extra money in the pot because of the UTG poster. Anyway when the cutoff flats and then raises my cbet, I decide to get cute (again OOP). Just giving it away really.

Anyway, I've decided that today is a poker free day. I'll see what happens when I hit the tables again tomorrow. Can't be much worse than the last week (at least I hope not).

I Officially Suck

Another day, another huge loss. Down $174 in 538 hands (-32BB/100). I haven't won a stack in days. Seems like every time I get my stack in, it gets pushed to my opponent. Whether it be by suckout, cooler, or just a bad play by me, I'm just taking a beating at the moment. It's starting to effect my play (and probably making the losing continue). I'm playing more passively. I'm failing to cbet. I'm still bluffing. I'm just playing horrid poker.

I'm really thinking about dropping back to 25NL for a bit just to get some confidence in my play again. I don't know.

Sorry no horrible hand today as I can't bear to look right now.

Does Playing Bad Lead to Running Bad

Something I've noticed for a while now. When I'm playing bad (I mean at my worst), I end up taking more bad beats than when I am playing well. I think it may have to do with table image. People, even at micro stakes NL, notice when you say call down with an underpair or push on the turn with a OESD with little chance your opponent will fold and they tend to stick around long enough maybe catch those hands that beat you.

I unfortunately noticed this again tonight. I played horribly tonight dropping $157 in just over 600 hands (-26BB/100). Along the way I made terrible plays and bluffed entirely too much. But I also had people calling me down with middle pair and catching their 2nd pair on the river. These are players with decent stat too, not just the calling stations. Basically my horrid image had made it right for them to call me down with little to nothing because well let's just say they had plenty of implied odds :( .



This one's bad. I think I had some major tilt issues by the time this hand rolled around and damn it I was going to keep betting till he folded. Of course that didn't happen. Good thing I didn't have a deeper stack here. I wouldn't have stopped. Please take my $$ sir.

Woops...What A Bad Bet

Tonight session was a roller coaster ride that ended with me being up $19.50 after 550 hands (3.5BB/100). I was fairly fortunate to get back to positive numbers when I took my only stack of the night with my KK beating AJ that flopped a J.

The absolute worst play of the night was also my only lost stack. For your entertainment:



Villain here was 11/8/1 and I knew when he bet the river I was beat but I figured he had a J and might fold it to an AI. I don't know if he would have or not but he's certainly not folding a set. My line here is horrible and he probably calls with KJ or better anyway. Just very poorly played on my part.

Calling 3 Street Against A TP = Dumb = Me

We'll I've played 2 small session since my amazing run on Friday with mixed results. Saturday's session ended with me being up $115 in 500 hands (23.5BB/100), while Sundays session cost me $91.50 in 580 hands (-15.75BB/100). So the month so far is still VERY far above expectations but there has been a bit of a correction. I guess 53BB/100 wasn't sustainable after all!

Anyway here's a hand that I think I misplayed totally postflop:



The villain here is Tight-Passive player (12/4/1 over 150 hands) who's probably never double barreled in his life, yet I decide that calling 3 bets against him is smart. I'm actually a little surprised he bet on all 3 streets with "only" TPTK. I expect to win this hand almost never. Definitely a losing play against this type of player.

I also played for about 5 hours at a friends home game Saturday night. I ended up losing $40 (AK < 75) but the real interesting thing was that I decided to keep track of the number of hands we managed to play, using chips as a makeshift abacus. This is your typical pass-the-deal home game and we managed only 72 hands. Yes, just under 15/hour. I knew it was slow but I never realized how slow until last night. It's no wonder it seems like I only play about 2 hands/hour there, it's because I do!