MiniQuest: 50 games in 60 hours

[LinusKS]

Just lost when a 44 called my AKs all-in preflop. Grrrr. Classic example of when the best play for him (folding) would have been the best play for both of us. I really just wanted what was in the pot there - though I admit I would have been a happy camper if he'd turned over a lower ace.

[LinusKS]

Gonna have to take a break. I've lost three consecutive coin flips and three dominating hands in the last few games, mostly on the bubble. Just now I lost QQ v KQ and A8 v Q9 one after the other (yeah, I know the second one wasn't that bad). But I can feel myself getting frustrated.

[LinusKS]

Still no good:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (4 handed)

Hero (t3012)
UTG (t2630)
Button (t3782)
SB (t4076)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 8[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
UTG folds, Button folds, SB completes, Hero checks.

Flop: (t400) 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
<font color="CC3333">SB bets t600</font>, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t1200</font>, <font color="CC3333">SB raises to t1800</font>, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t2812</font>, SB calls t1012.

Turn: (t6024) K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>

River: (t6024) 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>

Final Pot: t6024

Results in white below: <font color="white">
Hero has 8h 6h (straight, nine high).
SB has 5s 9s (full house, fives full of nines).
Outcome: SB wins t6024. </font>

Two dimes sez 82%. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[cagedman]

A few more bad beat posts should clear it right up...

[LinusKS]

[ QUOTE ]
A few more bad beat posts should clear it right up...

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for your contribution.

[LinusKS]

Update: 35 tournaments so far, with an average -$7/game. That includes my recent 9 in a row OOTM. I'll have to press to make 50 by tonight. Obviously, the other half of the goal is out of the question. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[edge]

Your raises are far too small, as you're giving proper odds to call to pretty much any hand that would bet out (even a bluff?). Make a pot-sized raise or at least a larger one than you did in the first hands if you're trying to scare someone off.

[LinusKS]

In the first, second, and last hands I wasn't trying to get anyone out - I was betting in an effort to get them to raise me.

In the third, fourth, and fifth hands I was bluffing into scary boards. In that situation, I think you have to consider one of your opponents might actually have the hand you're pretending to have.

[LinusKS]

Final report:

Finished the fifty games with time to spare (twenty minutes), but with abysmal results.

Three firsts
Nine seconds
Five thirds.

For an ITM of 34%, and -$3.60/game (ouch).

It's a mixed bag. I don't think I played too bad. Except for a few hands at the end, I think I held up my end of the deal pretty well. The cards, on the other hand... well, whatever's the opposite of getting hit in the face is what happened to me. I had two long stretches that were particularly bad.

But that's part of the deal, I know.

I take a certain satisfaction in finishing the 50 games, especially since I played 28 or so of them today. I don't think I'd want to play that many of them on a regular basis, though. Twenty is probably stretching it.

I'm used to playing a few games when I get home from work, maybe as many as ten on a weekend day. Playing all day long is a different thing.

Two things that struck me - how often you get punished for playing correctly in poker, and rewarded for playing wrong. And how natural it feels when you when you're running good to suck out on someone now and then, compared to how evil it feels to get sucked out again and again.

[PrayingMantis]

Linus, In the few hands you have posted, there are too many small bets and small raises by you. If this is typical to your game, you are playing too weak, giving people chances to bluff you out, or call with marginally OK odds. You really don't want that (you say in one post that you just don't like people calling you. They will when you play this way). You should be aiming for a much stronger, aggressive play. Negative ROI for 50 games, is, of course, something that can happen, but my feeling (reading this thread) is that it's not only bad luck (and from my expirience, the $27s on Stars are not the toughest games around, to say the least).

As a side note: I will think twice about making these kinds of quests, without having a really solid ROI at a specific game for a long enough sample. If you are not sure about your game, these quests are a good way to throw money away (playing much more games than you are used too, multitabling too much, and having the "pressure" to post good results when it's done.) Usually, it will not help your game. Although posting some hands is always a good thing to do.