Bummer session, needed to write about it somewhere....

[Dentist]

This post is simply to cry and whine a bit - I played great (well, what I thought was good) and got some of the best cards I've seen in awhile, and proceeded to have my worst session ever.

My monthly dentist game (3-6 hold 'em and about 1/3 Crazy Pineapple hi only)

I won't bore you with too many details, but this is a 10 handed casino game (10% rake to $4) and very loose 6-8 players per flop. We play 4 hours.

Started good with quad 8's on my first hand - yay!

Then: AJ flopped top pair, lost to runner-runner flush
QJ small blind, flopped a Jack, lost to KJ - legit hand..
AA lost to flopped set of deuces
KK lost to flopped two pair (2's and 5's) to the players credit it was crazy pineapple and he tossed a suited Ace to his five.
QQ lost when an Ace came on the flop
AQ which got top pair on the turn lost to a flopped set
77 flopped set, loses to inside straight draw caught on river
J 10 suited - flop comes A J 10 with 2 diamonds, lose to flush that gets his cards on the turn.

Also, none of my straight or flush draws made it.

BRUTAL!!!!!!!!

I've had days where I get no cards
I've had days where I get big cards and flop NOTHING
I've had days where I flop stuff and win BIG

But I've never had quite the day where I got big cards, flopped great stuff, and STILL Lost to ridiculous stuff (and some non-ridiculous stuff) consistently.

It's like I got exactly what I hoped and dreamed for, and it was no good.......

I'm sure you've all had days like this, but it just really hurt - I didn't slow play, I worked in some timely check-raises, NOTHING worked, nothing could make me win.

Rant over and OUT

[Bob T.]

Yesterday I played an 8 hour 6/12 session. The game was very good. Two complete calling stations, several more loose passive types, Later in the session, two stone cold maniacs got into the game.

I made two plays that were hopeless, or slightly worse, which cost me three big bets. 1) calling on the turn and river with a big pocket pair after one of the calling stations woke up on the turn when an ace hit the board. I watched him watch the card come off, I said, that's a man who just got help, he bet out, and I called him twice anyway. and 2) I semibluff raised the other calling station, with middle pair no kicker but a huge draw. I knew my hand wasn't good unless I improved, and it was headsup, and I obviously didn't have 50% chance of improving. It was a big draw, about 40%, but still a play that had no chance of winning.

I picked up AA for the first time in 1157 hands, and it lost to 98 suited, who called three bets cold, and then told me that he made a good play, because he was in late position.

Then, I lost two hands to the Maniac who cold called raises with 82 suited, and made a running flush on the river, and 32, and flopped a wheel, against my AK, and I put in too many bets, because I thought that he might be playing a hand with a worse kicker than mine. Against everyone else, he played strong, then powermucked at showdown. Against me, he showed his hand, and yelled 'SHIP IT!'.

I thought besides the two terrible plays, I played fairly well ( at least no hands that I thought that I made obvious mistakes). I saw 22% of the flops, but I won only 6% of the hands, In a usual session, I average winning 9%, and three of the hands I did win, I only chopped. So I was short about 8 pots for the time that I played. I lost 29 big bets, so if the average pot was 5 big bets, I would have made 1 and 1/2 big bets an hour if I won those 8 pots. I suspect that the pots yesterday were a little bit bigger.

What are you going to do?

What I am going to do, is get up this morning, go for a little walk, come home stretch for about 15 minutes, and wander over to the card club, and play again. Playing the way I do, wins more often than not, and I know that at that level, I am a winning player. Just like you have to not go on tilt, after losing one hand, you have to not go on tilt in your next session.

[Barry]

We all have days like that from time to time.

Sunday AM I played at Mohegan Sun for a few hours, in one of the softest games I have been in for a while with a few folks that were total ATM's. Of course, I got no cards most of the time, and when I did, they turned out to be second best. In order to not go on tilt, I need to get up and walk around for a while. I wound up down 15BB's. Eventually, I left and went to Foxwoods for a change of scenery and won back 10 of those BB's.

It is frustrating when you have days like that, but all of us must continue to resist the very strong urge to start playing trash. Somewhere S&M say that even when we lose, we must still feel good, because a worse player would have lost even more than we did. I also try to remember the days when I got hit over the head with the deck (up 75BB over 6 or so hours) The cards equal out over time.

[Louie Landale]

If you are looking for comfort and understanding you've come to the right place. /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

Its your ability to handle days like this (don't tilt during, don't tilt the next day) that will make the difference between "success" and "failure" at the table. This is far more important than trying to eack out some additional pennies in EV for a particular situation.

Its going to happen again. Plan for it, figure out how you are going to handle it.

- Louie

[34TheTruth34]

IMO, this is the single worst way to lose. No cards sucks, good cards getting cracked sucks (and is expensive to boot), can't hit a flop sucks, fish constantly hitting gutshot straights and seven-high flushes sucks, and second best all night sucks. But the worst is when there is one or two big fish or major maniacs in the game, and everybody else crushes them and their crappy cards, but they always show up with something legitimate against you. Nothing sets me off like that.

For example, Foxwoods 4/8 the other day. I'm in the great position, to the left of someone who is raising with any high card and any two suited AND a table that is folding to reraises! Perfect, right?......Yes, until I 3-bet with AJ and he shows up with AA (of course a ragged, ace-high flop /forums/images/icons/frown.gif ). Isolate with big pairs like 99-JJ and see him hit an ace or king on the river and win with A4o. And the worst hand, flopping a set of sixes against his set of sevens on a K-7-6 flop. Garbage like that. Next thing you know, you're down $200.

Nothing worse than a bad player taking your chips and giving them to the rest of the table. Remember, maniacs and fish can get AA too...

[bad beetz]

as my friend would say, your just a few sigmas out of line.

check out www.tiltboys.com (http://www.tiltboys.com) and read the sixsigmasout post.

I played in the best $6/$12 game I've ever played in in my life on Saturday and lost $600. It happens.

The human brain in incapable of modeling exponential increases (ths is proven). Short term results hold more sway over your brain than they should, you need about 20 more session before you know diddley.

besides, hey, you're a dentist at a $3/$6 game. how bad could it hurt?! I play $6/$12 and $8/$16 and I ain't got no damn job. end rant.

[cferejohn]

Sorry about the session, and a random terminology question:

I thought "crazy pineapple" was, by definition, hi-low, and that regualar "pineapple" was high only.

For those who don't know wtf we're talking about pineapple is like hold-em except you get 3 cards pre-flop, then you discard one after the flop and before the turn.

[Bob T.]

Crazy pineapple, you discard after the flop, in regular pineapple before the flop.

[bernie]

welcome to the funner side of holdem.

sometimes you can play flawless sessions and lose. there may be nothing wrong with your game at all. sh*t happens.

didnt you once post how gravy this game was. and how i probably said, 'see ya on the other side when the cards turn.'

welcome to the other side...

why do you think i tell newbies if they want to feel what plaing cards seriously is like, have a friend hit em in the gut with a b-ball bat.

hang in there, it can get worse. imagine a solid week of this. or more.

but it always made me feel better to get it off my chest.

b

[Dentist]

You can play Crazy Pineapple hi only, and that is what we do.

I have played it hi-lo, but only in a random casino game in Lake Tahoe - otherwise I've never seen it spread.

Pineapple is discarding before the flop, and I think it's generally lame.

[Dentist]

Yes, I did write the game was gravy, and I still think it is!

Yup, I know the cards can go bad, and I really don't think my play was bad.

You're right, cards can be a bitch sometimes...
I like the b-ball analogy.
Sometimes I wonder why I put myself through it.

I've only been playing a year, so I'm still new, and I just hadn't had the session where I get hit with the deck pretty hard and still lose.. Thankfully this did happen in my 'friendly' way too loose dentists game. Had this happened in my normal 'serious' play, I'd have had a real problem with it.

Oh, and for the guy who mentioned that it can't be that bad since I'm a dentist in a 3-6 game and he's jobless in 8-16 games. I don't play the game for the money, the EV on poker is way less than work for me and so it's frankly just a game scored by chips. If you'd like to imagine the game being played by super-rich dentists with black chips in a 300-600 game, that's cool.

I don't care about the $150 I went down, I just hate to lose in general.
That being said, I am working on my game so that I'm good enough to play 10-20 or 15-30 at stake levels that would matter. I'm just not good enough yet.