1k hands in

Ninja.

Tonight is one of the two poker nights so I want to talk about the cash game experiment before the live play overshadows my thoughts.

I am almost 1000 hands in- not quite- and still a loser. My loses are about 50/50 split between “omg are you kidding me” suckouts and “believing” Tracker. How is it that the guy who has played 40% of of 35 hands with a 100%aggression rating always has a hand when I play back with a moderate pair?

Harrington makes it sound like the only way to make money is by having monster hands. So you need to play for flushes and straights and mine sets. He says that you won’t get paid on your royal so you want to look for hands like 97s because nobody sees that coming. Well, at almost 1k hands in I don’t see ANY truth in this. Every monster situation I’ve had has lost. Straight to a bigger straight, straight to a flush, flush to a full house, top set to a runner runner backdoor flush, over pair to rivered set after he called every street… Its ridiculous.

I feel completely ill at ease and confused about how to play. I feel marginally better when I play for straight value- but even then the loses have been pretty strategic in their confidence undermining. My top set top kicker to the runner runner flush to the pocket aces guy really hurt- and then the next day pocket aces against middle pair T kicker where he calls a preflop raise and a raise every street to hit trips on the river… I just feel like, why bother? Meanwhile I’ve managed to be all in preflop against small stacks with pocket aces FOUR FUCKING TIMES. Hey! As I wrote this I got the guy with middle set all in against my sneaky 68 straight… and he rivered a full house. Honest to fucking goodness.

I am fairly “not pissed” at the moment- playing at the small stakes helps… But it seriously feels like I am being cheated.

The Tuesday night home game this week was my favorite (non winning) night ever. I don’t know why, but the tenor of the game was just really nice. Truth is out of town so The Cute Helpful One came to deal. We had five players- nobody was out by the end of round 3 so there was no dead stack purchase.

I took a nice lead early with a run of decent cards. Although, its one of those funny things- I didn’t have to show any of those cards so I could have held anything… Paint anyone?

I get in a big hand with top pair vs. Hollywood where he limped UTG with A3 and flopped the wheel. He, no pun intended, hollywooded like a motherfucker and got me to pay him off. Then, he took another big hand from me when he flopped the nut flush. I was glad I booked those wins early as this only put me down to about 65% of starting stack.

Then, Hollywood imploded. He doubled Sheriff up on a total bluff. He shoved all in- after Sheriff was pretty pot committed- with Q high and no meaningful draw. Then, a couple hands later, same sort of thing- but this time he CALLS all-in with A high. He left upset.

From there on out though it was just a super pleasant night… Lots of laughing and good spirits… So, with Hollywood dumping all his chips to Sheriff we had stacks something like 6k, 5k, 30k, and 5k. Table was the first person to shift into short stack aggression gear and he took about half my stack by shoving against small raises or called pots. I probably could have gone to the mat in a couple of these situations with decent odds, but I folded them. Suddenly I was ultra short stacked and Sheriff made a 4x raise that looked weak for some reason. I shoved over him hoping he would fold.

There were two problems here. First, I “misread” my stack and my reraise was utterly meaningless. He had odds to call me with 72off. Second, he had KK. So, I was next out.

Table went hyper aggressive and took small pot after small pot from Sheriff while Giggles drank beer and folded his way to the rail. No amount of aggression in heads up was going to save Table from Sheriff’s 10x+ chip lead.

Everyone went home. I was happy.

Then I decided to rock some more of my 2max cash. I am really not feeling in the zone here so I decided I would play one table ultra tight and see how that worked. I folded TPTK to a massive checkraise after the flop. I lost half my stack when I ran my straight into a bigger straight. I lost the other half when I ran my overpair into a bigger overpair.

And then I went to bed upset and demoralized.

It looks like my sleeping issues are back. For the first time in a long time I am up and puttering at 4:30 in the morning. This is unlikely to be good.

Anyway, first table, I took a big hit- don’t even remember with what… bought another 80 cents. Then got stacked. Bought back in. Then I got a nice double-up plus which helped. I decided to leave the table after I made it through my UTG hand. I had QQ. Raised, called, soft board, bet, called, turn puts a 4 straight on the board, we check, river completes the straight on the board, I check, he bets, I fold. At best we chop, at worst he has a jack and I pay him off. I still left with an extra stack but after the felting and the 80 cent add on I was still down slightly.

Certainly the suckouts and counterfeits have hurt me, but at this point I think I need to say that I’ve lost most of my money by just making shitty calls. I don’t know how to get into a headspace where I can give credit to the villain for having “that one wonky hand that crushes me”… I hope to find it though- right now I just feel stupid all the time.

So, some depressing stats…

1,006 hands
-36/100 bb

I really think it would be best if I completed my 10k at this level, but I am really tempted to move to .02/.05. A) I’ve been told again and again that it is easier to beat because there is something more like sense behind player decisions (my SNG experience reflects this) and B) and this is the big one, the values are so low at 2max that its just way to easy to make “fuck you calls”. I don’t feel like my roll is in danger so I play horrible.

You know what? I just convinced myself. I am unclicking auto-post and moving up a bracket. It puts me from “totally fine” re: bankroll management to “edgy”, but I think its right- I just don’t respect the denominations here.

Okay, maybe fuck that? Every 5max table is full with a waiting list. That, CAN’T be good. Okay, not fully true- the 9seats are all full and queued up. The 6seats had a few spots. Not sure what I think of this, but will do a buyin and see.

Okay, did a session at 5max and came out up 10/100bb which was nice… not sure how I feel about it. It did feel like a healthier game.