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Old 12-20-2005, 08:57 PM
The Goober The Goober is offline
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Default bad cards + bad playing = teh suck

(this is the forum for whining, right?)

live game, I dropped just over 41BB in just under 3 hours. It wouldn't hurt so much if it was just bad beats, but it wasn't.

Table was shorthanded most of the night (6, sometimes 7-handed), and full of what seemed like good, aggressive players (I didn't leave, mistake #1). I'm watching pot after pot get stolen with agressive bets, but I still can't call because I've got such junk. I finally get a hand and push it too hard, just to run into a slightly better one. One hand I get JJ in BB and 3-bet an EP raise from an agro player. He caps. Board comes low and ragged, I check call to the river and lose to his A7s that made a straight on the turn [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] Later on we run into each other again, I try to make a move on the flop with some crappy hand (that I shouldn't have seen the flop with), he 3-bets me, gives me a free card on the turn, and then bets the river. I somehow convince myself that my A-high is good, call the river bet, and he turns over AA [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img].

I make a free SD turn raise against an aggro player with pair+flush draw... and I get 3-bet by the made flush (and better than the one I was drawing to - thank god I didn't get there).

My big hands win the blinds or take it down on the flop, my big overcards all miss and I push too hard with them. It seems like every time I get A-face, I raise PF, get cold-called, and bet out and get called down. Or I lose my nerve and check the river, but then feel obligated to call when my opp. bets, since I "don't want to get run over". I basically bet enough to determine that my opponent has something, and then hand him the option to bet to his better hands and check through his worse ones, while knowning that I'll pay off either way.

I managed to convince myself that everyone is constantly trying to make a move on me and that I need to try to re-steal - virtually every time I did it turns out that the guy simply had the goods and I managed to scare him out of value betting and into letting me bet his hand for him.

I raise 99 first-in from LP, only BB calls. From comes with a J overcard and he CR's me. Of course, he must be just making a move, so I 3-bet and lead all the way. He turns over TT for the win [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I get a free play with 9To. Flop comes AAT, two-suited, and SB bets into me. This guy was one of the more passive players at the table, and on a better night I'd realize he probably had at least a better T than me and I'd just muck my weak little pair with no kicker, no draw, and a chance that I'm way way behind. Instead I raise it up. A cold-call behind me and SB calls. Thank god SB donked the turn so I could come to my senses and fold. Turns out both guys had an A and were playing passively because they feared their kickers [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Later I finally look down and see black AAs and get that desperate feeling that you get when you've been getting kicked in teeth all night - "ah-HA! Now lady luck is make up for all that [censored] treatment she's given me!" I raise from EP and a straightforward player 3-bets me. I smooth-call since its heads-up. The flop comes ragged, I check-call. Turn comes a K, I check-raise, he mucks his JJ, and I realize that I probably couldn't have made less money with that hand if I tried to - I smooth-call PF to disguise my hand (at this table raising PF didn't mean a whole lot), play passively when he's got nothing to be afraid of, then get agressive when the scare card comes [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img].

short table, tough opposition, not enough sleep, bad run of cards, lousy image, lack of concentration, and a smoldering fire of pure hatred towards the world

=

"Well, I might as well hit the ATM one more time - I mean, why leave now, right?"

Sorry for the vent, just had to get out my frustrations, somewhat with the world but mostly with myself. The other sucky thing is that this is last time I'll get to play in 2005. I started the year with a painful downswing (much like this night - a great combo of bad cards and bad play), had a wonderful recovery, slipped a little, and now I get to finish it with my face in the mud.
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Old 12-20-2005, 09:27 PM
ZenMusician ZenMusician is offline
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Default Re: bad cards + bad playing = teh suck

teh suck for sure [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] !

Been There. Now you have a New Years resolution.

-ZEN
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Old 12-21-2005, 03:20 PM
The Goober The Goober is offline
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Default Re: bad cards + bad playing = teh suck

thanks, it was surprisingly cathartic to write it all out (it's nice to have a forum dedicated to crap like this). I've gotten in the habit of not really talking about my losses, since most of my friends and family either don't play or play very small stakes, so the numbers often freak them out.

The hardest part about a night like that is balancing between putting it behind me and learning from my mistakes. I still don't know whether I was outclassed or not - it's awfully hard to tell when you are running bad. I mean, you raise PF with big cards, miss, and a guy calls you down with bottom pair despite some scary cards on the board. Did he make a good read, or is he just a calling station? Next hand I actually hit the board and he folds - again, good read or did he just miss this time? Every time my AJ loses to A3s, I wonder if the would have paid me off the whole way if an A fell, or if he was too smart for that?

The whole thing reminds me a bit of the drunk driving dilemma. You go out and say to yourself that you'll take a cab home if you get drunk. But when the end of the night comes, if you're drunk then your judgement is too impaired to realize how drunk you are. When I'm getting spanked badly at a table (either bad luck or bad play) I tilt too much to be able to judge whether or not I still have a positive expectation. I need a tilt breathalyzer - until then I think I'm going to have to reinstate my silly stop-loss rule.
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