why am i mad at ub right now?

[crockpot]

as i type this, i'm up over $50 in just over an hour's play at various UB PLO and PLO8 tables, and yet i still want to, as mike tyson would say, eat their children after they delivered the magic one out on this hand:

Flop (board: Jc Qc 7d):

HERO checks. chromeman checks. grafclark
checks. jopye bets $3.50. Landcruiser calls.
bunnybeef calls. Nassoon folds. HERO raises to
$21. chromeman folds. grafclark folds. jopye goes
all-in for $4.50. Landcruiser folds. bunnybeef
folds. HERO is returned $16.50 (uncalled).

Turn (board: Jc Qc 7d 7h):

(no action in this round)


River (board: Jc Qc 7d 7h Ah):

(no action in this round)




Showdown:

HERO shows Jh Qd 9c Qh.
HERO has Qd Qh Qc 7d 7h: full house, queens full of sevens.
jopye shows Ts 7c Td 7s.
jopye has 7c 7s 7d 7h Ah: four sevens.


Hand #287456-1640 Summary:

$.95 is raked from a pot of $19.50.
jopye wins $18.55 with four sevens.

(of course, my annoyance is compounded by the fact that Landcruiser claims he was going to call my check raise, which was virtually all in for me, but clicked fold by mistake)

the thing is, UB was dealing me much more than my fair share of nice hands and good boards tonight, allowing me to actually utilize my poker skills to win that money. yet all i can think about is the one outer, and i want to walk up to the creator of the UB random number generator and punch him in the face.

does anyone else suffer from this problem, even when they're registering a big win? do you have any strategies to combat it and stay on balance at the table? i'd appreciate any positive feedback.

[TAFKAn]

You've never lost to a one-outer before?

[Glenn]

I have taken 20323 bad beats tonight and am stuck a 4 digit number with no decimal point. If you complain about losing another $18 pot while you are up for the night, I am going to eat YOUR children [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. Seriously.

[folded_a_monster]

You are going to lose this hand roughly 1 out of every 40 times. Let's assume the game is PLO. Those are not astronomical odds considering you are dealt roughly 80 hands an hour and flop a set 1-3 times per hour depending on your degree of looseness. Now, let's assume that you flop set over set 1 out of every 20 times you flop a set, meaning this will occur every 7-20 hours of play. Now, you will be one outed roughly one out of every 40 times, so this should happen once out of every 800 times you flop a set, which would occur once every 270-800 hours you play. Say you play an average of 5 hours a day and this will happen to you every 54-160 days. This assumes stats that are obviously rough but sound reasonable. This also assumes that you won't be folding when you flop a set. And finally this assumes you play nothing but PLO. The point I'm getting at is that this will happen a few times a year and is not worth getting excited about. Just be happy he had no money left and you weren't hurt much.

[crockpot]

heh heh...sorry guys, i didn't mean to come off in a whiny "look at my bad beat" tone at all. i'm actually quite fine with what happened, and i know $18 isn't much in the grand scheme of things. my main goal right now is just to build as complete a set of poker skills as i can for when i move up to bigger stakes. as such, the point of my post was just to set a context for my question, which no one answered (bravo), about tactics people can use at the table to avoid letting little slips like this get to them.

what i really need is to pull off a massive outdraw in a big pot, like stewart reuben discusses at the beginning of the pot-limit omaha chapter in his book. unfortunately (or thankfully), i can't ever remember being in a hand where i was 2% to win, and i certainly haven't won one. i think that memory would stick with me for quite awhile.

oh well, back to the drawing board. of course, if anyone wants to give me the advice i sought, feel free.

[Guy McSucker]

Anger is the enemy.

This is the biggest leak in my game. I make technical errors, I don't read tells too well, but I believe my game is solid enough to make a decent profit in both live and online games for smallish stakes.... until I get steamed, when I am capable of going through three or four buyins very quickly.

You will become immune to beats over time. Make it your goal to play well, not to win money (think I got that from John Feeney's book). Recognise the situations which upset you and your play and back off when one of them comes up. Take a break, or quit for the day. Think about better things in life: I'm willing to bet there are several aspects of your life that you're proud of outside poker, so bask in some inner glory for a while.

When I get outdrawn by a thin draw, most times I just don't mind. Occasionally it sets me off. I am coming to the conclusion that on those occasions, I was probably in the wrong frame of mind before the beat anyway, so I try to recognise this and quit.

Not much help I guess but there you go. I feel better for admitting to being a tiltmonster anyway.

Guy.

[gavrilo]

I don't know what to say, but maybe time. When I play live and get sucked out on, rub it off, it happens, part of the game, and this sounds like such an easier said than done thing, but you need to do this, need to. Now, at my home, when i'm playing online, i swear at my computer a few times a night, but don't let it affect your game. all this has been said over and over by many people.

[ArtVandelay]

I have by no means achieved this goal completely, but I did demonstrate the beginnings of it a few nights ago. Playing 5/5 PLH I had just bought in and got all my money in on the flop about a 4-1 favorite (also, my opponent played badly, it wasn't a bad match-up). After discussion he decides to just deal it once (I would have done however many he would allow), and he hits his hand, costing me a $1000 pot. I smile and tell him nice hand, call for another $500 buy-in, and go on to play one of my all time better sessions.

Of course this morning I screamed at the top of my lungs at Pokerstars for 4 times out of 4 getting out-drawn on all-in situations, but at least sometimes I deal with beats well.

Online it's not a big deal, but live it's really important to be nice to the fish when they suck out on you... you want them to feel excited for winning a big pot, not embarrased for getting out-played.

[Max Weinberg]

yet all i can think about is the one outer, and i want to walk up to the creator of the UB random number generator and punch him in the face.

So you're mad at UB because the guy who designed the random number generator specifically built it to make you lose $18 to a turned one outer? It was built for the sole intention of taking you for $18 at this specific moment in time?

I have some advice, don't blame the card room for the cards that are dealt. You got your money in when you were a huge favorite, and got out-drawn, it happens. Don't try to find reasons why it happened, it just does. Would you blame the dealer in a live casino for dealing out the fourth seven? No, because it's stupid. You're blaming someone or something for that which is random. It doesn't make any sense.

[crockpot]

thanks, this is a very refreshing commentary.

i'm a very math-oriented person, so i guess i should just look at a pot like this as an investment that has a big positive EV return. i guess i just feel sort of powerless when i play my best and still don't win consistently.

maybe with experience, all pots like this will just become part of "the long run".

thanks to everyone who posted advice here, i'll take it to heart.