A B&M BM (long)

[Bill Smith]

I just wanted to vent... err... share with you all a sort of reaffirming yet dismal account of my live experience tonight. For the last 3 months, I've been struggling to adjust to 5/10 6 max, and I'm barely a break-even player through 40k hands. However, one place I seem to have been able to fall back on when online times are rough is a B&M about 90 minutes away.

The 5/10 tables play as loose as many .5/1 Party tables. This table was no exception. 5+ players seeing the flop regularly, and a lot of bad calls and overplayed hands. For the first 2 hours, I see practically nothing to play. I finally hit a set of aces and win back most of the blinds I had paid, but I pay a chunk of it back the next hand when my J /images/graemlins/spade.gif T /images/graemlins/spade.gif flops 9 /images/graemlins/heart.gif 8 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 4 /images/graemlins/spade.gif and misses completely. (which was almost a blessing, because one person had A /images/graemlins/spade.gif 3 /images/graemlins/spade.gif while another had K /images/graemlins/spade.gif 5 /images/graemlins/spade.gif)

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Hand 1
Down about $60, I find 9 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 9 /images/graemlins/heart.gif in MP1. UTG (LAG) raises, 2 calls, and I tag along. 8 players see the flop.

Flop (16 SB): K /images/graemlins/diamond.gif K /images/graemlins/spade.gif 2 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif (8 players)

Checks to UTG who bets, call, fold. With only 2 players behind me, I call getting 18:1 on 2 outs. CO and BB call as well.

Turn (10 BB): 9 /images/graemlins/club.gif (5 players) OH BABY!

UTG leads again, UTG+1 calls again, and I raise. Only UTG calls and the inevitable happens...

River (15 BB): K /images/graemlins/heart.gif (2 players) DOH!

I check-call and UTG shows big slick.
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A couple hours later, my VP$IP for the session is probably about 9%, despite following SSHE loose game standards. I pick up a pot here and there, but they are smallish and I'm being blinded to death. My only real "move" of the night gets a tight player to fold TT to my 99 on the turn. Still, I've lost about half of my original $210 buy-in.

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Hand 2
Hero has A /images/graemlins/spade.gif T /images/graemlins/diamond.gif on the Button.
2 folds, UTG+2 (somewhat aggressive) calls, 3 folds, CO (LP) calls, Hero raises, SB (bad postflop) calls, BB (TAG) folds, both call.

As I raised, UTG+2 and CO both grumbled.

Flop (9 SB): K /images/graemlins/spade.gif J /images/graemlins/club.gif 5 /images/graemlins/spade.gif (4 players)
SB checks, UTG+2 checks, CO bets. With a gutshot, an overcard and a flush redraw, I call. Both call.

Turn (6.5 BB): Q /images/graemlins/club.gif (4 players)
SB checks, UTG+2 checks, CO checks. Hero bets. SB folds, the other two call.

River (9.5 BB): 7 /images/graemlins/spade.gif (3 players)
Both check. I figure this has to be a good value bet. UTG+2 folds, and CO calls.

CO drags the pot with 8 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 2 /images/graemlins/spade.gif.
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I get fortunate enough to win a kill pot shortly thereafter, but again I just can't get starting cards. After almost 8 hours at the table, I have managed to survive with $86. I can't leave though... the table is too ripe, I think.

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Hand 3
Hero has K /images/graemlins/club.gif K /images/graemlins/heart.gif in the BB.
6 players limp, I raise, all call.

Flop (14 SB): 9 /images/graemlins/club.gif 3 /images/graemlins/heart.gif 3 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif (7 players)
SB (LP) bets...

I recall several past hands with this guy where the board was paired on the flop:

JJ5, he led with QT
TT7, he led with 65 and showed down a turn 5.

I confidentally raise and knock out the field. SB 3-bets me and I make him showdown. He flips J /images/graemlins/spade.gif 3 /images/graemlins/club.gif, even rivering a J for a boat.

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With my last $38 (after paying the SB) I decide I had had enough and would leave when the blind came back around. When I finally get under the gun, I look down at...

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Hand 4

Hero has A /images/graemlins/spade.gif A /images/graemlins/heart.gif in UTG.
Hero raises, UTG+1 (Loose-tricky) calls, 7 folds, BB (same guy as last hand) calls.

Flop (6.5 SB): K /images/graemlins/heart.gif J /images/graemlins/club.gif 8 /images/graemlins/club.gif (3 players)
BB checks, I bet, both call.

Turn (4.75 BB): J /images/graemlins/diamond.gif (3 players)
BB checks, I bet, UTG+1 folds, BB calls.

River (6.75 BB): T /images/graemlins/club.gif (2 players)
BB bets...

I lean back in my chair and look up. The table is silent. The two decent players across from me begin shaking their heads. I decide that it might as well all stay here, and I call, saving 3-$1 chips for a drink and snack on the way home. BB shows...

Q /images/graemlins/heart.gif 9 /images/graemlins/spade.gif for the rivered gutshot!

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I say nothing and put my coat on. The table is visibly stunned. As I start to walk away, one of the players (MILF) who has been at the table most of the time I was there stops me and says quietly, "Not only are you a very good player, but you have a lot of class."

I smile and nod. That really just put it all in perspective for me. Somehow I have been able to survive 2 recent 250+ BB downswings at 5/10 6 max, a few blows a full ring 3/6, and a crushing defeat at a casino I usually pwn. As I left, it occured to me that I've matured some while playing poker over the last 8 months. I've been known to lose my composure fairly easily, and I still do - only now it waits until I'm in appropriate company or no company at all.

I don't know if that realization was worth my $207, but the bottled water and hard-boiled egg for the 90-minute drive home was definitely worth $2. I'd have paid $3.

[cardcounter0]

When you get out in the parking lot, and no one is around, yell FUUUUCKKKKKK!!!!! at the top of your lungs.

FUUUUCCKKKKKK!!!! FUUUUUCCCCKKKKK!!!! FUUUUUCCKKKKK!!!

It helps clear your head, gets some air moving in your lungs, and makes you feel better.

[pokerjo22]

Hmmm, a $200 down night at 5/10 is not that unusual methinks.

[Evan]

I'm gonna have to echo this. Losing 20 BB is hardly something to write home about.

[Bill Smith]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm gonna have to echo this. Losing 20 BB is hardly something to write home about.

[/ QUOTE ]

Losing 20 BB was the culmination of a lot more losing poker lately. If you think the 20 BB was the point of the article, you missed it. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Evan]

I'll be honest, I didn't read most of it. I will show you what I did read:

[ QUOTE ]
UTG shows big slick

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
8 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 2 /images/graemlins/spade.gif .

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
rivering

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
rivered gutshot!

[/ QUOTE ]

Was it not a post about a bunch of bad beats and a night you had not so much fun playing cards?

[SayGN]

nope, was a post about how poker has made him a more controlled person even in the face of unfortunate variance...he just had to include the bad beats to show us that. nice post bill.

[pokerjo22]

'Unfortunate variance' is the -510BB David Ross just posted. -20BB over 8 hours of poker is more 'standard variance' IMHO.

[ravballz]

nice post

better luck next time eh? /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Evan]

I went back and read it thouroughly. I'm glad he's able to control himself while he has a bad night, I guess. But honestly I don't think that's so much of an accomplishment. If not acting out in anger after someone rivers a gutshot straight is difficult for you than I am sorry and I don't think poker is a game you will be able to excel at without drastically changing that outlook.

[Stormwolf]

[ QUOTE ]
Hmmm, a $200 down night at 5/10 is not that unusual methinks.

[/ QUOTE ]

i routinely have this a ten minutes swings on party 6 max tables

[Bill Smith]

[ QUOTE ]
i routinely have this a ten minutes swings on party 6 max tables

[/ QUOTE ]

As do I, but I consider the money on here to be much less accessible than money in my pocket... kind of like watching a mutual fund or stock.

[Monty Cantsin]

I decided to give you emotional support the best way I know how, by providing unrequested criticism:

In hand 1 the guy just called your turn raise holding top trips A kicker? Are you sure he's a LAG?

Looks like you had some stack management problems towards the end of the night. Playing a hand with less than 4 BB in front of you is pretty sloppy.

Now, don't you feel better? I know I do!

/mc

[illunious]

Ghen, Lots of tough situations in big pots.. that's poker.

Your biggest mistake was having $38 with AA utg.

[Bill Smith]

[ QUOTE ]
In hand 1 the guy just called your turn raise holding top trips A kicker? Are you sure he's a LAG?

[/ QUOTE ]

Call it table image. I think my read was more preflop based.

[ QUOTE ]
Playing a hand with less than 4 BB in front of you is pretty sloppy. *echoed by illunious*

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't even have $50 more with me to just throw out there for the last orbit. *shrug*

[Kevroc]

[ QUOTE ]

Down about $60, I find 9 9 in MP1. UTG (LAG) raises, 2 calls, and I tag along. 8 players see the flop.



[/ QUOTE ]

I try not to dwell on net +/- on a hand by hand basis. If you get too caught up on the hand by hand chip count you may miss something else. You can tell if the table is good or not by other indicators than the rising and falling of your stack.

I'm guilty of counting my money at the table too but, its something i'm working on. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Lawrence Ng]

In the last year I have live B&M sessions where I lost 50 - 75 BB on 4 occasions. It happens.

Lawrence