My nose against the glass

I am sitting in my computer chair, with my arms crossed, rocking back and forth and mumbling to myself, a numb zombie against the poker forces that have kicked my ass this March.
Poker, officially, is no fun anymore.
These last few weeks, I’ve felt like a poor kid at Christmas being forced to watch as his cousins open present after present, while all I get to open is a candy cane, and one of those awful strawberry ones at that.
I’ve looked over my notes, and in these last few weeks, during the worst month of my young poker career, I have played the best poker of my life.
And as a reward, I’m going to lose money for the first time this month.
Yep, March will be in the red.
Through it all, everything I know about poker seems to be a lie.
I can’t believe the percentages anymore. I’ve lost far too many all-ins when “the percentages” say I’m at least a 4-1 favorite or higher. Many times, these have cost me a tournament that, had I won the race I was heavily favored to win, I would have cashed for sure.
As an example, Friday night I was playing a 30-person SnG when, again, I was playing great poker, bluffing at just the right times despite getting no hands (which, also, seems to be a pattern this month).
I got JJ and, seeing a raise from a donkey, decided to push all in, hoping he would fold, but confident I had the best cards if he didn’t.
Sure enough, he calls with 7,7.
Sweet. I win this and I’m well on my way to the final table and a cash.
Flop comes 8,9,10, which worries me, but only for a second. I have the straight draw, too, only I have the higher straight.
10 comes on the turn.
6 falls on the river.
It’s happened far too often this month for me to believe now that JJ against 7,7 is a 50/50 proposition at best.
The worst part about this streak, other than being patient and then having my rare good hands getting fucked on the river, is watching so many bad plays get rewarded, and not just against me.
All Friday night, after my knockout in the 30-person game, I watched top pairs with weak kickers win 100 BB pots. Over and over, I saw crazy, transparent bluffs get picked off with low pair. Or someone pushing all in and catching their miracle card on the turn or the river.
I would imagine the feeling I had would be like walking into the Playboy Mansion and having no girls look your way while the guys who inspired the movie “Revenge of the Nerds” have one on each arm.

Here’s a hand from the 30-person SnG I played Saturday night:


ANTES/BLINDS
Leykis 101 posts blind ($25), Bones6538 posts blind ($50).

PRE-FLOP
brandon2x folds, mikmerlo folds, 8overeasy folds, dengl5 folds, brutus8070 folds, corey33bd calls $50, DirtySants calls $50, Leykis 101 bets $225, Bones6538 folds, corey33bd folds, DirtySants calls $200.

FLOP [board cards 7H,9S,10C ]
Leykis 101 bets $250, DirtySants calls $250.

TURN [board cards 7H,9S,10C,KD ]
Leykis 101 bets $400, DirtySants bets $1,000, Leykis 101 calls $600.

RIVER [board cards 7H,9S,10C,KD,5D ]
Leykis 101 checks, DirtySants bets $1,000, Leykis 101 calls $1,000.

SHOWDOWN
DirtySants shows [ JC,QH ]
Leykis 101 mucks cards [ JS,KC ]
DirtySants wins $5,100.

By the way, last time I check, Leykis, the guy who thougth his J,K was gold, was chip leader by a lot and well on his way to winning, off hands like thisone:

ANTES/BLINDS
DirtySants posts blind ($100), Leykis 101 posts blind ($200).

PRE-FLOP
Bones6538 bets $600, brandon2x folds, mikmerlo folds, dengl5 folds, DirtySants folds, Leykis 101 bets $800, Bones6538 calls $400.

FLOP [board cards 5H,QC,8D ]
Leykis 101 bets $200, Bones6538 bets $700, Leykis 101 calls $500.

TURN [board cards 5H,QC,8D,8S ]
Leykis 101 bets $1,000, Bones6538 calls $1,000.

RIVER [board cards 5H,QC,8D,8S,5D ]
Leykis 101 bets $1,000, Bones6538 calls $1,000.

SHOWDOWN
Leykis 101 shows [ JD,JH ]
Bones6538 mucks cards [ 10H,KH ]
Leykis 101 wins $7,500.

Of course, watching plays like this over and over, and getting no hands in that cash session for yet another card-dead hour (and when I say no hands, I’m not whining because I’m not dealt AA, I’m talking K,J looks GREAT kind of card dead), when I was finally dealt A,Q, I raised $1, and I had two callers, and a Q fell, with Q,10,8 on the board. I have TPTK.
I bet a quarter of my stack.
One caller.
I bet again, when a harmless 3 falls, and he raises me $3.
OK, normally I fold, but I’ve watched guys putting too much into their top pair all night, and I ignore the straight draw because surely he wouldn’t call a raise with J,9 would he?
He pushes all in. I call.
Bad call.
He would call a raise with J,9.
It’s such a brutal, confusing streak that it’s gotten me to start making bad calls. I’m being influenced by donkeys, and that is not a good influence. It's made me question everything I thought I knew about my playing. I must play too few hands because I'm not getting I'm happy with, I think as I endure yet another card-dead session. I must not try to bluff enough, knowing that bluffing with 5 loose players in a pot is a bad play (and when isn't there that many players in a cash game online?). I must fold too much, knowing that, in fact, me not folding last night was the problem that led to me being in a hole.
The streak, in fact, has taken an activity I truly loved and wrung all the joy out of it, even though it's not the money. I won't go broke anytime soon. My bankroll is healthy. I honestly haven't even lost that much.
But now I honestly feel like a junkie, where I play because I have to, hoping for the highs of before and only feeding the addiction instead of getting any real pleasure like I used to.
Surely the highs have come again, right? I mean, this can’t last forever, can it? I scratch my arm where the needle would go, hoping I can continue to chase the dragon before it burns me for good.

Just as I thought...

I played a $10 SnG for just the third time in my life last night and took second for a decent cash. The guy sucked out on me, of course, at the end when he got runner, runner for a straight, but that's OK.
The players were just a touch better, which actually made it easier to play. After the last two donkeys chipped out, bringing us to three, we battled for quite a while.
Player A was far too predictable, but that's probably the weakest part of my game, too. Player B was harder to read, but he went all-in far too much, which got him chips but would eventually kill him when he pushed too hard with a pair of pocket 9s with 10 high on the board and the guy flipped over A,10.
One side note: Don't ever motivate a player.
I was low stacked and starting to try to find a hand to go to war with (i.e., sort of give up, we've all done it, and I was very discouraged after this month) when Player A said to us, "You both have a lot to learn about playing poker."
Oh, really?
Well, after my 3,3 smashed his pretty A,Q, and I doubled against him, I was bound and determined to crash his ass. I bluffed more than I do, played hands carefully and doubled up against him two more times, when my AA destroyed his QQ and my A,9 dominanted his A,7.
Every time, I typed in the box, "Gosh, if only I could learn how to play."
In fact, I would have had him and his huge mongo stack (he got from getting gift hands and even larger gift calls from the donkeys) if it wasn't for his runner, runner, but he admitted I scared him after sucking out on me.
Whew, he said. Remind me never to talk again.
Here's your reminder.

Stuck in between

OK, I just realized something.
Sometimes a good old fashioned rant can help clear your head.
If I'm going to continue to play $5.50 tournaments and $2.25 tournaments at work, I'm going to have to learn to accept more suckouts and just grit my teeth when they happen.
I play them because:
• I'm still a bit of a chickenshit and struggle with the idea of putting up more money for a SnG where anything can happen, even though I know I could hang with them and probably even be successful at them.
• I'm still trying to improve both my skill and my bankroll, giving me even more confidence to play at the higher levels.
• I know I'm one of the better players at the table when I play at the my level, and I want to take advantage of the weaker players.
• The $2.25 tournaments at work require very little attention on my part until it gets down to the nitty gritty, so I can play them and still keep my job. :)
But if I continue to stay in the barn, I'm going to have to accept the fact that I'm hanging with donkeys, and donkeys, of course, make donkey moves.
Most (Some?) of the time, this is profitable for us aggressive-tight players. But it can also be incredibly frustrating, as you just saw, when the donkeys' moves continually pay off the donkeys and leave you bitching and empty-handed.
So maybe I continue to play the $2.25 tournaments and smile not only when I collect money at the end of the week from them, as I almost always do, but smile through gritted teeth when I get donkeyed over and over and over.

Fuck March

(Editor's note: It's rant time. Deal with it.)

First my Jayhawks lose in the NCAA tournament.
Now I suffer yet another week of suckouts.
I really can't tell you how many times I've been in with the best of it and the river has fucked me.
At least 20.
I'm serious.
I know you won't believe me, but it's true.
OK, Variance, thank you for a wonderful February, no need to punish me anymore for it.
The thing that really pisses me off is I rarely, rarely suck out. Almost never. Maybe once this month.
Why? Because I'm not a fucking donkey. I don't get my money in with the worst of it. I don't call a fucking all-in with two diamonds when I am chip leader so I can get my third on the river and then type in the box about how I knew that was going to happen.
So, what I'm saying is, I don't need suckout luck. I don't really even need much luck, other than getting hands to play.
What I need is normal poker. When I put my money in with the best of it, I need to win most of the time. Notice I am not saying all of the time. Like, say, when I get my money in, and I'm an 80 percent favorite, I need to win 80 percent of the time, instead of losing 80 percent of the time.
I should not be punished for playing good poker.
But I am.
So fuck you, donkey.
Fuck you, variance.
Fuck you, poker gods.
Just go fuck yourself.
Please.

Bad Boy

You have AA in third seat. You raise 4x the BB. Someone raises you back. You call.
The flop comes K,2,7.
You bet a fifth of your stack and you get called.
A 4 falls on the turn.
You shove all in because nothing frightens you out there and this is a $5.50 tournament.
The guy calls you with K,4.
Now, instead of asking you a poker question, I ask you now.
What do you do?
Do you say nh, congratulate him or berate him?
Well, I broke my rule and berated him.
Nice hand, donkey, I said.
Fortunately, I was able to control myself when I was answered with, "?????."
I didn't say anything else. Don't educate bad players, says Mike Caro, and I agree. Plus my classy outburst was enough anyway.
I am a competitive person, almost to a fault, which is one reason why I love poker tournaments and play many of them, even if ring games are always more profitable for me.
Occasionally, that competitive spirit gets the best of me.
Usually I just sit there if a guy outdraws me, but as the bad beats pile up, my ability to take them cracks and then starts to fall down before it finally collapses and I rip into a guy for calling my AA with KK even when "he knew I had aces" but gets his K on the turn, as I did last week, when it seemed like every time I was ahead when I got all my money in, I would lose.
I hate table captains and will even tell them to shut up when a guy makes a mistake and Capt. Poker chirps up, "How can you call that?" in the chat box.
But lately, I've found myself wearing the Skipper's Hat.
So, this is my New Year's Resolution, as I did not make one until now. I will not, cannot and won't not say anything but nh, sir when as donkey outdraws me.
I'll just take their money next time.
It appears that, for the moment, my losing streak is over, but it's not like I'm on a tear. I've been mostly card-dead and unlucky in tournaments, but that's better than suckouts. At least you don't lose a lot of money that way.
And your dignity.

Situations

When we’re in a losing streak, we’re far too anxious to blame our misfortune on bad luck.
Bad luck is always part of a streak (oh my God, is it ever), but last night, I had several opportunities to pull myself out of the ditch.
And I didn’t take advantage of them.
Poker is a game of situations. If you have a straight, and there are four hearts on the board, and a tight player pushes all in, sorry, but you fold. Learning how to fold, even when I have a pretty, pretty, pretty hand, because the situations calls for it has saved me a lot of money and made me a winning player.
But now that I’m well versed on folding (good laydown!) and waiting for the nuts at my full-table .25 NL cash games, I’m looking for ways to improve my game and maybe add a little more aggression to my life, without the whips, chains or various scented lotions.
I need to rely on the old standby.
Situations.
I’ll go through a few hands here last night to see what I mean.
• OK, so I get Q,K in early position, so I just call the .25. A guy two spots to my left raised 8x the BB.
I fold automatically and regret it almost immediately.
The guy was a pure donkey, one of the worst players I’d seen, and though he hadn’t been at the table that long, he’d already dropped a buy-in. I had a good read on him. Normally I would never call a raise that high with only K,Q, even soooted. You’re only asking for trouble.
But in this case, it would have been a good time to call. He was making raises much higher than that. It turns out the flop was Q,4,4, and a guy who called won with 9,9. The donkey had A,7.
The situation called for me breaking my rule. I ignored it and failed to scoop a big pot.
• I have 7,7 in MP and the guy to my right raises 3xs the BB.
Now, this may seem tight to you, but I have never understood why so many people fall in love with pocket pairs. It’s a pair, people, and once you’re committed to it, it’s hard to improve it (7.5 to 1 chance of hitting a set), and without improving it, you are vunlerable to overcards, draws and small little donkey two pairs.
Of course I shove all in with AA after a couple re-raises and usually with KK, but after that, I treat them like a normal hand and will fold them many times. Hell, two weeks ago I folded KK preflop and the guy showed me AA.
So I normally fold little pocket pairs, up to 8,8, to raises.
But in this case, the guy was a habitual raiser. I pegged him as an OK player, so he wasn’t raising with junk, but he could be raising with any pocket pair, or J,Q or even something like A-x.
I folded the 7s when it was a perfect time to call.
4,7,3 appears on the board.
Sigh.
Another 7 appears on the turn.
I’m never one to regret a fold. If the miracle card hits, well, so be it. But in this case, again, the guy was a raiser, and you let him scare you off. As it turns out, he folded to action, but two other players pushed all in.
Another great opportunity passes me by.
• Finally, I have K,10, and I throw a quarter out there, with the intent to play it cautiously.
I get an OESD, but there are two hearts out there.
Now this play might take some debate. Why not raise to get the flush drawers out of the pot and protect your draw?
I thought about the play later. It has two sides to it.
The good side is the play is an aggressive one, which may allow you to take down the pot right there, add money in when you do hit your draw and throws your opponents off a bit.
The bad side is I play .25 NL, and at that level, most players pay no attention to pot odds. While this is a good thing most of the time, as it allows us to get paid, it’s tough when they hit their draws. If they have one heart to go, they’re calling, even if they’re getting horrible odds for it.
I have been very successful staying within myself and just playing the cards.
The hand played out when I got my A. But it was the A of hearts, and of course, that made the guy’s flush. I ended up down for the night, not by much, but down nonetheless, after the crying call on the river.
He was playing suited connectors, and no one raised him off them, so he really wasn’t even being a donkey.
I doubt he would have folded to a raise.
But I’ll never know.
That’s exactly the kind of thing that many players would say was typical. They were up for the night, playing well, and then, OF COURSE the guy hit his flush and ruined your great hand. They can’t win, they say, and when will this losing streak end?
I was chirpng that a bit, but I realize, bad luck, last night, was only a small part of my current woes.
Losing streaks start when you take a few bad beats. They hang around when you get scared and fail to take advantage of situtaions that may help you dig your way out.

Haunted

When the going was good in poker, the game seemed as easy as a hike through mountain meadows.
Now it seems as trecherous as a minefield.
My bankroll has taken many hits lately. I have KK and an A flops. BOOM! I get AA, as I do last night against KK, and a K falls on the turn. BOOM! I get AA today and a donkey calls my raise with Q,2 soooooted and then calls my all in with a flush draw. The heart falls on the river. BOOM!
I probably shouldn’t have written that post about my fitty-cent move up. It made it seem like things were going well. Honestly, this has been the most frustrating month of poker in my life. If I would have won, instead of lost, when I was at least an 80 percent favorite heading to the river, my bankroll would be plumped by another half.
Instead, BOOM!
Medic!
I know this is variance after a wonderful February, but the thing that is most frustrating to me, right now, is I rarely sucked out in that month. It’s just that my opponents didn’t hit their miracles. The odds held up, and I was rewarded for my good moves.
Now I’m getting my limbs blown off for them.
BOOM!
All kinds of thoughts go through my head during a streak like this. Here are a few:
• I hate poker. Imagine any other game when you lost every time you made the right move. Would you continue to play it?
• Maybe I’m not playing enough hands. Maybe I’m playing too many. Maybe this is why most players don’t make money, and maybe I’ll lose all my bankroll.
I don’t want to lose my bankroll. I’ve worked very hard for it.
• I’ve moved back down to .25 NL. Sorry, but I can’t take these hits at the .50 NL. When things start to look normal again, I’ll play higher. Not right now.
• Poker sucks.
I woke up at 4 a.m. last night frustrated. I don’t want poker to dominate my life.
I’m almost haunted by poker right now.
The problem with being a good player — and I do think I can call myself that — is you never really get to experience the joy of sucking out on others. You don’t get to steal money because you’re usually in with the best of it. In other words, you just need the odds to hold up. That means when they do, you simply nod your head and sigh instead of experience any sort of elation. When they don’t, it’s crushing.
The highs, in other words, aren’t very high, but the lows are terribly, painfully low.
Aren’t drugs the same way in the throes of an addiction?
In fact, the only way I’ve kept my sanity is the realization that I’m a much better player than I was even three months ago. Almost all of my big losses this month have come with me being in with the best of it, usually by a 4-1 or even a 5-1 favorite. When I suffered through my last major losing streak, in December, I couldn’t say that. I lost to better hands most of the time, to trips when I had two pair, to flushes when I had straights, etc.
If I continue to get my money in with the best of it, I’ll avoid the landmines, and my bankroll will start to heal, right?
Right?
I have too soon. I’ve only got so many limbs left.

Confidence

Well, since I had my great virgin night at .50 NL, I've done nothing but lose, lose and lose.
The losses haven't been bad. I'm still ahead at the .50 NL level. But they've been higher per session than I'm used to. And I would love to say that they were the result of suckouts and bad beats, but they were not. I couldn't get away from QQ on one bad hand, even when K,K was on the board, and in another, I had top two pair with K,Q and yet when an obvious straight card came down, I refused to fold. What's even worse is I allowed the guy to draw to the one card he needed because my bet after the flop was very weak, a greedy, tiny bet that was just a hope for more money later on.
These are the kinds of calls I avoided during my great month of February. But I think these last three weeks are getting to me a little bit. Lately I've been extremely card dead, so I think I"m being pussy for not playing any hands, so I play hands I shouldn't, and when I finally get a hand, it looks like A,A, even if it's K,Q, and I can't get away from them. OR I get a great hand and get beat by a better one.
I could just accept these as variance, and after winning a SnG today, I reminded myself that patience, patience, patience is my weapon, that you are very good at picking your spots for aggression. But now that I'm playing at the .50 NL level, every mistake gets magnified, and I've started to question myself yet again.
I even moved back down to .25 NL in the hopes that the late Saturday night players would be drunk and foolish at that level, but I actually lost a couple bucks. My only consolation is I'm working on another bonus, so at least I'm clearing points.
Repeat this after me: I really can play. Honest. Seriously.
Sorta.

We're a movin' on up...

So I finally dug my balls way out from in my throat, pulled them out, coated them in steel and moved up to the .50 NL cash game tables last night.
This will, most likely, also mean I will move up to $10 SnGs, although I'll probably still take cracks at $5 30-persons and MTTs.
And just as I was staring around in wonder at all the big chip stacks (wow, $100!), I pick up A,K UTG.
View Previous hand for this table.

Texas Hold'em $0.50-$0.50 NL (Real Money), #222,769,603
Table Erlangen, 9 Mar 2006 10:34 PM ET



Seat 1: amun-ra ($46.45 in chips)
Seat 2: BamBam58 ($112.75 in chips)
Seat 3: x jermdawg x ($51.30 in chips)
Seat 4: LSU235 ($12.45 in chips)
Seat 5: Stegelhare ($40.35 in chips)
Seat 6: UFMatt3 ($38.25 in chips)
Seat 7: phickshun ($59.20 in chips)
Seat 8: kenster07 ($40.20 in chips)
Seat 9: SCFS777 ($48.40 in chips)
Seat 10: Pokerpeaker5 ($50 in chips)



ANTES/BLINDS
SCFS777 posts blind ($0.25), Pokerpeaker5 posts blind ($0.50).

PRE-FLOP
amun-ra folds, BamBam58 calls $0.50, x jermdawg x folds, LSU235 folds, Stegelhare folds, UFMatt3 calls $0.50, phickshun folds, kenster07 folds, SCFS777 folds, Pokerpeaker5 checks.

FLOP [board cards 3S,JS,KH ]
Pokerpeaker5 bets $1, BamBam58 bets $2, UFMatt3 folds, Pokerpeaker5 calls $1.

TURN [board cards 3S,JS,KH,AC ]
Pokerpeaker5 bets $2, BamBam58 bets $4, Pokerpeaker5 bets $4, BamBam58 calls $2.

RIVER [board cards 3S,JS,KH,AC,5C ]
Pokerpeaker5 bets $15, BamBam58 calls $15.

SHOWDOWN
Pokerpeaker5 shows [ AH,KS ]
BamBam58 mucks cards [ JD,3C ]
Pokerpeaker5 wins $46.75.



SUMMARY
Dealer: kenster07
Pot: $47.75, (including rake: $1)
amun-ra, loses $0
BamBam58, loses $23.50
x jermdawg x, loses $0
LSU235, loses $0
Stegelhare, loses $0
UFMatt3, loses $0.50
phickshun, loses $0
kenster07, loses $0
SCFS777, loses $0.25
Pokerpeaker5, bets $23.50, collects $46.75, net $23.25

It was as if the Poker Gods were not only apologizing for all the nut-smashing beats I've taken this week, they were saying I belonged here and gave me a nice pot to boost my confidence right away.

Just a few hands later, I pick up AA in EP and raise $2.
And I get re-raised by a guy directly to my left with $60.
I have nearly $75 at this point.
OK, ecstasy, right? Of course, except this is exactly how the last two nights have gone, AA early in the session, I push a bit, they push more, I push harder and they go all in. Only I lost those last two, both times when they sucked out on me on the river and even when I flopped a set.
My heart thumps. If I lose this pot, I'd probably move back down to .25 NL and lick my wounds the rest of the month.
All numbers, no flush, no straight draw.
He shows K,K.
And suddenly I have about $125.
Now, understand that since October, I've had many good nights, some great ones and a couple dream nights.
But the most I've cleared in one night, profit, was $60.
So now do I hit and run or really see if I can play?
I stay to help clear more bonus points.
I win another pot when I raise someone out of it, but for the most part, the next hour and a half is uneventful, and I am down to $110.
Then I pick up J,10 sooted and decide to play it. I've played lke three hands in an hour.
I flop the nut straight with a rainbow.
$32.
Thank you.
And my next hand I pick up A,K again, 5,5,3 so I bet the pot, guy calls, bet again, guy calls, check, check.
$15.
I lose one hand, when the guy spikes his club on the river with 7,5, but I leave with $125.
My best night ever.
The Carpenters goes through my head...
"We've only just begun.....to live."

Why do losing streaks come in sets?

Poker is a skill game, right?
You get your money in with the best hand, and most of the time, you win, right?
If you're 80 percent to win by the river, you'll win four of those five hands, right?
Not if you're on a losing streak.
I've lost 10 percent of my bankroll in the last two days on Hollywood Poker, and though that doesn't seem like a lot, it's enough to sicken me, as if I've just downed a fifth of Jack (Jacks did me in once) and some Coors Light silver bullets (AA loses twice, once to 10,6 os) all at once.
I've only played for real money since October, so on my past losing streaks, they were partly my fault, like losing with a flush to a paired board, losing two pair to a hidden set or going all in with A,K and losing to AA.
And yes, I have made a couple tilted calls, like pushing with J,J and losing to Q,Q or chasing one flush draw down and not getting it.
But I've lost 75 percent of my money on five hands, and on all five of those hands, I was at least a 75 percent favorite by the river, and every time the river fucked me.
It's been a horrible week. Even in the $2.25 tournaments at work, I'm getting spiked.
So my question is, it's mathmatically impossible for "streaks" to really happen, right? I mean, what are the odds, really, of four of the worst suckouts youve had against you happening in two nights? Do I have a shorty memory? No. I can't remember the last time my full house lost to a spiked four of a kind on the river, for instance. I can't remember when A,A lost to 10,6, as I did last night on an all in after he re-raised me twice.
OK, enough whining.
Why does it happen?
Why do we fall into losing streaks after playing winning poker for more than two months? After the game, quite frankly, seemed so easy we contemplated moving up a level or two?
I have some theories based on what's happened the last couple of days:
• Beckoning sirens — I haven't been card dead, as I was last week and only lost $5 in ring play for the week (and more than made up for it in tournament play). My starting hands have been beauties, with full, bouncy boobs, soft, whispery voices and a hell of a tail. AA four times, JJ, KK, QQ, A,Q and A,K, along with other pairs, three of which flopped sets.
I lost with most of them. AA twice when it flopped a set.
It takes amazing discipline to fold great hands, the kind you see in Navy Seals, and when you're losing, the siren's call of "you'll be back to where you were if you win this hand" is just too hard to resist. When you already have a healthy stack in front of you, you can fold almost anything, at least I can. I showed remarkable discipline during my winning streak. I once folded KK two weeks ago because I knew the other guy had AA. He showed them to me after I folded. I folded flopped sets because my kicker wasn't high enough, and every time, I was right. I folded a flush to a full house.
Now? No way do I fold that KK. And it would have cost me another buy-in, and the spiral would have continued.
• Confidence — You can't raise a guy off his hand because, after all, he'll just suck out against you or he's got it already, right? You always think that way. Why stick with a hand? He's got it! My top pair isn't good enough...
Calls or moves we would normally make are not options in a losing streak. Not only do I play like a pussy, I play like a tiny little worm penis, just hoping even a stinky carp will take pity on it and take him home for the night.
• Beaten down — Dieters will call it the what the hell day, a day when they eat that extra cake, drink that extra beer and skip their workouts because they've already done the damage. Mike Caro calls it the point of no return, or something like that, when you've lost so much money that you don't care if you lose another buy in or two.
I have been remarkably disciplined during losing streaks to quit when I'm down a buy in, subscribing to Greenstein's theory that when you quit when you are losing, you're ahead for the next game. That has prevented my bankroll from looking like an extra in "Saving Private Ryan" in the D-Day scene. But I am guilty of tilting off the rest of my buy-in after I've lost a huge pot to suckout. I just bet off the last $6-10 so I can reload. Even when you do that, you've lost a lot more than you normally would.
You start to become the sick gambler in Phil Gordon's book, the guy who not only expects to lose but wants to so he can revel in his own misery.
• Injustice — Surely I've been a good boy, right? I've folded instead of chased, gotten my money in with the best hand and waited all night for this hand to come, so I deserve to win, right?
No. Poker is a cruel, unfeeling game. It doesn't care that the guy called your raise with A,3 and hit his 3 on the river. It laughs at such pain, actually, and asks for another buy-in, like that big plant asking Seymour for just a little more blood. So you continue to call, thinking that the scales will finally tip your way just because you deserve it. In fact, you might even call, saying to yourself you deserve a suckout. It's your turn, you say.
Nobody deserves anything in poker.
Of course, at the end of the night, I won a huge hand with K,K, and finished $25 ahead, so I actually broke even for the night.
Finally.
Guess it was my turn.

Variance is a cold, hard bitch

Never, ever shave while playing poker.
I'll explain why in a second.
You've read plenty of bad beat posts. You won't see specifics here, but let's just say variance decided to put on a some steel-toed boots and kick me square in the nuts a few times last night.
When it was all done, I was down two $25 buy-ins.
That's the most Ive lost in a night, I think.
It's been a long time, at least.
February was a terrific month, probably way better than it should have been, so I know this is what we call a correction.
And I know, wah wah wah. I can hear all of you telling me to suck it up.
OK, sure. I know.
The thing about bad streaks, though, is they keep resurfacing when you think they are over to snatch out your heart, hold it up for the natives and throw it into the fire.
Last week I was card dead before a Friday session put me at a loss for the week.
I can handle card dead.
Who can't?
But it wasn't too bad until tonight.
Corrections:
• A beautiful set of 10s ruined by a spade on the river (meanwhile, the person raised me twice and called my all in with merely the draw and then tried to justify it, saying he had a 50 percent chance of making it on the river, um, no, donkey, you didn't, but please keep believing that and what was your name again so I can take it down?).
• K,K ruined when a guy calls me with J,9 (top pair on the board, but...) and a 9 comes on the river.
Bye bye $25 after those two.
• I get J,J. I don't like J,J a ton but I do raise, and the Flush 50 percent guy raises me all in with his last $5. He is wild (yeah, surprise, he donked off all my money), so I call, WTF, and he has QQ.
Yep.
OK, that's only $5. I've got $20.
I'm not really thinking turn it around. That's danger talk. I'm thinking cut it in half. Cut the losses tonight in half. Or at least work off a bunch of points and just break even.

So I run into a card dead session, which, when you think about it, makes sense, since I was getting great hands, even if they were getting torn apart.
So for an hour and a half, I put up with 8,3; 9,2; 10,2; K,3; etc, etc., etc.,
Well, at least I'm not losing money.

So I go into the bathroom to shave and let the poor hands keep being dealt.
I hear the chirping but I ignore it until curiousity gets the best of me.
I run in.
And see A,A.

Being automatically folded.
Because I didn't get there a second too early.

OK.
So I do get 5,4 two pair, a BB special, and I make a little off that. Then I get A,K, and a K flops, and I get a little more off that, and I'm back up to $25.

OK, well, not bad, I think, as I almost finish shaving.

Then AA appears again.
So I raise $1 and get four callers.
9,4,3 comes down.
They all fold to my $2 bet except for one. He raises me.
OK, would a guy really have a pocket pair?
Maybe, but I have to push with this.
Raise, raise, raise, he shoves his $21 in, and I call, hoping he has A,9.
He has 4,4.
But then...
An A appears on the turn.

Finally, justice. Finally, I get to suck out on someone instead of the other way around. Finally. This will make up for all the losses tonight. It won't be that bad of a night at all, actually. Just a few bucks after those brutal beats? I can handle that, I mean, what's a few bucks, right?
It's nothing, I can...
wait...
what was that river card?

Yep.
A 4.

And I'm glad we don't use straight razors anymore to shave.

Thoughts for the day

• Poker continues to go well at the full tables. I've raised my starting hand requirements, as probably 75 percent of the time there's a raise either before or after I play (sometimes I'm the one raising), but that's gone fine. In fact, I'm reading "The Theory of Poker" by Skalansky, and he said the lower the ante, the fewer hands you should play. Given that most of the .25 NL tables are pretty wild anyway, and that you should play the opposite of your table, my tight-tight aggressive style seems to fit this perfectly, given these two points.
• SnGs are also going well, I'm cashing most of the time, which leads me to think I'm just going to have to suck it up and start playing $10 ones. I'm told there's no difference, but I just can't quite pull the trigger. I have friends who play on my level who crush the $20 tournaments, so I suppose I should look at that as well.
• I'm clearing my fifth bonus at Hollywood Poker. Hollywood consistently offers reload bonuses, so I just take my SnG profits from Pokerroom and deposit every month. I'm a big believer in getting paid to play, and Hollywood so far has satisfied that.
The only problem is it forces me to play rings a little bit too much, and my dial-up doesn't allow me to two-table very well, so after next month, I'll take a break.
I wish I could two-table. I find myself getting bored and not paying as close attention as I should. This hasn't really affected my play, as I won't change my style at this low level, but I'd bet two-tabling would help me focus even more, as crazy as that sounds.
I'm also wondering if maybe I should move up...maybe a move up would interest me more.
Maybe if I get my bankroll on Hollywood to another $100 beyond. I made almost $400 in February, so I don't see a reason to push it.
• I've often wondered how much luck people need to win even a SnG? I have to have cards, but I also usually only need the same amount of hands that others expect. In other words, I don't need an exceptional run to win. I also notcied that I rarely suck out against others anymore.
But I also need for my opponent to not have great luck, like flopping small two pair when I have A,K and an A comes down, or sucking out on me. I did not do well in my SnGs last week, and the reason for that is took a major suckout like five times in five tournaments.
• Happy Tuesday!!!

What should I do in the long run?

I am a goal-oriented person.
Others might refer to me as "anal," but that's a little harsh.
Yes, instead of occasionally climbing a 14,000-foot peak in Colorado, I had to finish all 54, and not just all 54, but all of them in five years.
Yes, instead of jogging off some weight and getting in shape, I decided to run a mini-marathon less than a year after I took up the sport.
And yes, instead of just taking up poker, I decided to read many books, watch a lot of ESPN and the Travel Channel and read blog after blog for ways to improve my game.
As I said, goal-oriented.
Not anal.
In many ways, I've accomplished far more than most because I can't be satisfied with just having a hobby.
On the other hand, poker, by its nature, was a tough hobby to take up because you will fail at times. Even the best players fail. It took me a long time not to obsess over hands, even when someone sucks out on me, convinced I could have done something to avoid it. I still have problems letting bad hands go. It took many posts by even the best bloggers talking about their losing to help me past it.
Yes, even all those bad beat stories were worthwhile.
So now that I'm a successful poker player at the .25 NL and $5 SnG level, I'm wondering where to go from here.
I want to start setting some long-term goals.
I have some immeadiate goals that I believe will be reached fairly soon or, at most, by the end of the year. The big one is to buy a new computer with my poker winnings. I purchased a running GPS and now am convinced I can save my money and cash in for a brand new puter that I otherwise could not afford, unless I wanted to pimp Jayden, the cutest 8-month-old you've ever seen, out to some Huggies commercials.
Believe me, I've thought about it.
I've made $450 just this month, just by sticking to my level and playing smart poker, and though I know that won't happen every month, I have posted winning months every month since I started playing for real money in October. I am convinced that will continue, even when variance rears her ugly head.
Those numbers aren't huge, but I'm thrilled with them. All that reading apparently is paying off.
See? Goal-oriented.
Not anal.
But beyond that, I'd like to learn more about playing real poker.
I want to learn how to bully a table in a tournament. I want to bluff like the big boys. I want to take advantage of scare cards. In short, I want to be somewhat of an aggressive badass, instead of the accountant, straight-laced, none-for-me-thanks poker player that I am.
At my level, knowning when to fold is, unfortunately, your biggest weapon. In other words, play tight-aggressive, and don't play stupid, and you'll win. Don't try anything fancy. You don't need to, after all, and it will only be lost on dumbfounded players.
It's solid. It works.
But it's not very exciting.
It, of course, has it downfalls, too. What do you do when you don't get solid starting hands for the night? Well, you limit your losses instead of attempt to bluff your way to wins. What do you do when your top pair with great kicker gets re-raised? If the guy is any kind of a solid player (yes, they do exist out there in .25-cent NL land, many more than you think, actually), you grit your teeth and fold. What do you do when you get sucked out on over and over? You quit instead of trying to win it back and hope for a better night tommorow.
You rely too much on the cards. But, usually, you'll get your share of hands, so it doesn't matter.
The problem with poker at my level is I could stay at that level for years and probably remain a profitable player. I could buy lots of computers, maybe that brand new X-Box system, or a trip to Las Vegas for the family.
And I could never improve.
I could never play in big tournaments. I could never play, and win, at the larger tables in Vegas. I could never play in the World Series of Poker. Maybe I'll never get there anyway, but one day, just once, wouldn't it be fun?
I am wondering when to move up. And I'm wondering if I should.
I hold a good hand. Given the brutal, honest statistics on winning players, some might say I hold a great hand.
I'm just wondering how far I should push.

Karma Connection

It's an online playa's worst nightmare, but I"m sure more than one of you has lived through it. We're like all the kids on Elm Street, except our biggest fear is a connection that goes south as soon as you are nearing a cash in an SnG.
Last night I was the chip leader in a 10-person SnG and coasting to a cash, just waiting for one of the three to get knocked out and also waiting out a bad run of cards, when my computer froze.
I have OS X, so my other programs worked (a friend who was railbirding me chatted merrily away on Yahoo) while my table acted like an episode from the Twilight Zone. No one was moving. The time bar stayed on yellow. Time had no meaning.
Shit!
The blinds at this point were 400-800, so it wouldn't take long for the sharks to agree to fold and knock me outta there and steal my chippies. I quickly said Fuck. Then I logged out, quit my browser, logged back in, dialed up again (listen, all you cable users, I will advance my Internet as soon as we move into a new house, which requires that we sell ours first, I know dial-up is lame but it's all I have right now, I don't want to pay two installation fees) and waited for my 500 MhZ processor to bring back up Safari. I waited, I have to say, rather inpaitently, punching a pillow on the bed in the basement. I would have been able to erase the national debt if we had a swear jar in the house.
I came back to find myself in the BB, with an automatic all-in, less than 500 chips.
And A,A was in my hand.
Praise Jesus.
I won the hand, of course, but that still left me with 1,060, or about one-fifth of my stack pre-fuck-up and an M of less than 1, which Harrington says is, to put it bluntly, not good.
So I had A,6, everyone folded to me, and I push all in, just hoping to steal the huge blinds away from the BB.
He calls.
With A,4.
OK. 2100 now.
Next hand.
A,Q.
I push all in again. I don't mind a call, but even if I don't get one, I'll be up to a somewhat comfortable level again.
Same guy calls.
With K,9.
A,Q flops.
Sweet.
4,200.
Three hands later, I get AA.
Again.
I push.
Someone calls.
He's out.
No, wait, he's not, he has 300 left, in the theme of this SnG. He quickly comes back.
But I'm at 7,200 and back in the lead.
I continue to steal at this point because the others think they need a monster to call with those blinds, which are now at 500-1000. I don't blame them, but ty anyway.
Once the fourth guy finally goes out (finally, did I already say that?), it takes us two hands to get to heads up.
First hand, I have A,J. Guy calls with 10,3.
He gets his 3. I get nothing.
OK. Second hand, he folds, third hand, he folds, so I'm back.
Fifth hand, I have A,J again. He calls after we trade raises and an allin with 8,9.
He gets his 9 on the river. I get nothing.
OK. We're even now.
I have him covered by 15 chips.
He immeaditely goes all in.
I have Q,Q.
I smile and call.
His A,9 does not improve.
I win.
Karma is beautiful.

Am I good or am I lucky?

Last night I had one of those nights when I could have probably played 80 percent of my starting hands.
I saw K,K three times and more Aces than anyone playing Pete Sampras in his prime. A,Q and A,K came at least six times each in an hour, and I also saw A,J. I saw pocket pairs, although they were usually low. My only complaint was I never saw A,A.
But, despite all that, I managed only to book a $18 profit, or 72 BB in the hour session.
I'm certainly not complaining. I'm clearing a bonus at Hollywood Poker (one of many, by the way, that site is really good about reloads), so any profit is well, bonus. But I felt a little guilty about the good fortune, that anyone could have at won something, given those hands.
In fact, I won most of my money in one hand, when I re-raised a dude with my second K,K and he raised me all-in. He had $15, so it was about half my stack at the time, and a third guy I had already pegged as a donkey stuck in his $8. I considered it, figured I was getting good odds on my money and called.
I will fold K,K - in fact, I did earlier last week — when I've pegged the guy as a good player and he has a big stack and bets most of it preflop. It's just a feeling I'll get. The guy wound up having A,A.
But I called this time. My heart sank when an A hit the river, figuring I was doomed because the guy probably had an A. The $15 guy had 10,10. The other guy? K,9. Ha.
So I got lucky.
This is what I struggle with. Am I lucky or am I good?
Wouldn't a good player, with those hands above, make a lot more money? Sure, the flops didn't really match the cards, but still...
I know the cards don't play themselves, but without luck, I'm no good. Does that make me good or just lucky when I get them?

Um....no

Plans for Saturday a month ago: Climb Crystal, a Centennial, one of the highest mountains in Colorado, via a snow route near Breckenridge.
I'm going for the top 100 mountains in Colorado now that I've climbed all 54 14ers in Colorado. I have about 40 left.
Average temperature a month ago in Greeley: 50 degrees.
Overall attitude toward the climb: Good. I'm in great shape and the weather, although very snowy in the mountains, has been great.

Plans for Saturday a week ago: Climb Crystal.
Temperature last Saturday in Greeley: 30 degrees but sunny in the mountains.
Overall attitude toward the climb: Good. I'm looking forward to it.

Plans for Saturday as of Friday night: Poke my head out of my hole and shiver and scurry back in.
Temperature as of Friday night: -8. Wind chill of -25. (Which, by the way, is 8,000 feet lower than Crystal).
Overall attitude toward the climb: Um....no.

Full or half-empty?

I used to love shorthanded tables. I was fairly successful at them, especially at 5-person SnGs, and they were a great way to cut my teeth into real money.
Now I'm wondering if I made it harder than it needed to be at first.
When I switched to playing full tables full-time, I made more money in one week than I usually make in a month (and I usually make pretty good money for low-limit poker in a month), both in tournament play and in rings.
I had cards, sure, but more than that, I had action on them whenever I did have a monster.
And that brings me to my post.
I"m now a full-time, full-table ring player.
And I'm loving it.
It's intimidating for a new player like me to sit at a table with nine other pokerites. Almost every hand, someone seems to have a whopper. I mean, if there are 10 strippers, one of them has to be hot, even if the others all have C-section scars and don't believe in trimming down there, right?
But I realized that I was already playing for a full table when I was playing five-table hands. A-10 in early position? A limp or a pitch. Raise up to 9-9 and then play passively. Only call a re-raise with the big three, AA, AK and KK (I probably even pitch QQ).
You can call me weak/tight if you want, but I'm very picky about my starting hands. They make my decisions easier after the flop, as Harrington advocates.
The only problem with that was at the 5-person tables, the blinds come around fast, so many times, I found myself down even if I had good hands and wasn't calling much.
Not only that, but when I would have a monster, I wouldn't get action, either because no one had anything or they were afraid of my squeaky-tight image (understandably, by the way).
But in a full ring table, not only is it pretty certain that someone else will at least have something, they rarely are able to pay attention to individual players, so image isn't nearly as important.
I can see why Willy Wonka had trouble with the full tables in the higher limits, as tables full of good players are hard to overcome.
And in a tournament, well, the payoffs are simply bigger. Yes, I don't cash quite as often, but I cash far more than I thought I would with a full table, and therefore, my profit is much bigger.
I always thought peite was the best package, but now, I'm starting to appreciate full sizes even more.
Just in poker. Not in my choice of strippers.

A little luck never hurts...

NO_LIMIT TEXAS_HOLDEM $2+$0 (Real Money), #126,930,594
**Bonner Ave Single Table Tournament, 14 Feb 2006 6:23 PM ET



Seat 5: -FTA- ($7,765 in chips)
Seat 8: Pokerpeaker5 ($7,235 in chips)



ANTES/BLINDS
-FTA- posts blind ($300), Pokerpeaker5 posts blind ($600).

PRE-FLOP
-FTA- bets $7,465 and is all-in, Pokerpeaker5 calls $6,635 and is all-in.

FLOP [board cards 4C,5C,6H ]


TURN [board cards 4C,5C,6H,5D ]


RIVER [board cards 4C,5C,6H,5D,8H ]


SHOWDOWN
-FTA- shows [ AC,AD ]
Pokerpeaker5 shows [ AS,5S ]
-FTA- wins $530, Pokerpeaker5 wins $14,470.

Poker is not a job

Hobbies, in the hands of Type-A personalities like myself, can become obsessions.
I have to be constantly viligant about the time I spend with my family over the timeI spend with myself. Unfortunately, there are many, many things I love to do, and most of them involve spending time away from my family.
I love video games. I love playing online poker. I love reading. I love watching independent films that my wife thinks are weird (and I suppose they are). I love running and, when the season calls for it, climbing mountains.
I also love eating dinner with my wife, playing with my son and cuddling with my dogs, so they can't take my hobbies personally. And yet, sometimes, they do.
I always try to wait before Kate puts down Jayden and then goes to bed herself before I go down to the cave, the basement where all my fun, like the computer, the books and the X-Box, are located.
But even then, occasionally, I'll hear murmurings of, oh, are you going to play poker again? When I smirk, occasionally I get the rolling eyes.
It's a tough balance. We don't have as much free time anymore, especially now that Jayden is around, and so the minutes are precious before I have to go to bed and recover for tommorow. And yet relationships also seem to need daily maintenance, and I enjoy oiling them up before we rest.
Poker, especially, can be tough, because you usually have to play a while, unless you get lucky right away and pull off a hit and run, and even if you do get lucky early, bonus clearing can take a while too. And you have to study poker, so you have to read and read and read. And you have to watch it on TV and talk about it with friends and...
Oops. See what I mean?
Wouldn't it be great if we could stretch time beyond the 24 hours? Until then, I have to constantly find that balance, or else I might as well be living by myself in a cave.

Just so I don't get too cocky:

The Poker Gods have a way of making sure you remain humble.
I still was up last night, so it was a good night, but I played a $2 SnG, full table, over my dinner break at work.
I was in third place with six to go, with about $3,500 in chips. You start with 1500.
These hands were, amazingly, all in a row or close to it.
• I'm dealt 10,10. I raise 4x because I tend to raise more with the lower pairs, if I do at all, to increase my chances of winning.
Guy goes all in. I'm tempted, but this guy has a large stack, almost has me covered, and he seems like a really solid player. I fold.
He shows me A,A.
• I'm dealt J,8 in the BB. No one raises, so I check,and it's a J-high, trash flop. I bet half the pot because the blinds are worth taking and I hope, with two other callers, no one has a J. I plan to pitch if I meant resistance because I don't like my kicker.
Guy puts me all in again. I fold.
He shows me J,A.
• I'm dealt Q,Q. A guy with about two-thirds of my stack goes all in. I have to admit, the previous two all-ins influenced this call, even if they were good folds. I call for two reasons: It's a great hand, the blinds are getting big, and if I win, I totally dominante the table and insure my self of a cash. OK, those are three reasons. My fourth is typically in these games, people will go all in with ANY pocket pair, he's getting low, so his standards are decreasing, and most people would call with Q,Q anyway. It's not like I'm facing a double re-raise. Everyone else folded.
He has K,K.
Ouch.
• Now I'm crippled, with only 600 left, but I'm dealt J,J and I push.
No one calls.
Damn.
• I'm still crippled, and I have Q,J. A weak player does the minimum raise, and I push, thinking that my cards will probably be live, at least.
He has K,K.
I'm done.
:)
One reason I love NL Texas Hold Em, and the reason I can hate it, is you can play hands perfectly fine and get knocked out in a short time. I don't think I misplayed any of those hands (although I'd love to hear from you if you think I did).
I'm always reminded when I think I start to figure out this game at how dangerous it is.

In the zone

The light is not only on, it's burning bright.
I hate braggy poker posts, and posting them, it seems, is a great way to invite the poker Gods to slap you down (as I've felt before).
But I want to talk about my progress.
I made $150 last week playing, at most, .25 NL and $5 tournaments. I am already, after one day, ahead $60 this week.
And I have not sucked out once.
Part of this, I think, is my move to full, 10-person ring tables. You're almost certain to find a donkey or two, and you get action on your monster flops. You have to have more discipline and patience, but that's not a problem for me, especially because I'm probably too patient anyway.
But most of it is just making great reads, great calls and even better raises.
I'm starting to know what people have, or, at the very least, I know when I'm beat and when I'm not beat.
Last night I had K,K in mp and raised 4x in a ring game. Four callers, and a flop of 7,10,3,6 rainbow. I bet half the pot, and all call. Shit.
Again, I'm first to act. I check and the other guy checks. A small bet from the third, and I raise. The two others fold, and the guy calls.
OK, I'm not worried by the board anymore, and if there's a two pair out there, the guy, a tight player, would have had to of called me with a lame hand. I have $18 of my buy-in,and I push all in.
He calls quickly.
He has QQ
Just like I thought.
If he had A,A, he would have re-raised me. If he had a straight, I don't think he would have contained himself. Most players at my levels don't.
But that's what I mean. I know when I"m beat now. Another time this week, I had J,J to an underboard, and a guy pushed all-in with his last $15, and I folded. He had two pair even though I knew he had 10,9. He was BB and would have called it with my raise, I thought. I was right.
Last Thursday, I had QQ and folded to KK.
And I had KK another time, and I re-raised a raise, and he re-raised me $10.
So I folded.
He had AA.
For many of, these seem like academic moves, but for a new poker player who is starting to see the light, they are starting to shine my path to poker semi-goodness.

Drinking too much from the well of luck

Phil Gordon, in his brilliant little book on poker, says it's bad luck to be superstitious.
I agree with him for the most part, though I do have a card protector, a rock from the summit of the last 14er I climbed to complete my goal, called, appropriately enough, Holy Cross, that I consider to be my little talisman. I clutch it at times even during online tournaments.
Though I've always believed luck is how you make it, and that poker is still a game of skill despite all the suckouts (on both the good and bad ends), I do worry about variance, probably a little too much.
My question is, is there such a thing as too much good luck?
After a horrible week in tournaments, when I was more card dead than a loving grandmother (OK, I don't get the analogy either, just stick with me here), this week I've gone 6/6 in cashing, including three firsts and a second, making my bullimic bankroll, for the moment, fat, happy even.
I would love to say that it's because of my brilliant skill at the table. And that is true, in some part, although you could argue that it takes no skill to sit back and let all the donkeys kick down each others barn doors while you sit idily by and collect a third-place cash in those $2.25 tournaments.
But it's also because of luck.
I've seen more AAs than a flight attendant and anxious, eager and willing callers, ready to hand me their money when I show it down. Strangely enough, those are the only pocket pairs I'm seeing, but if you're gonna go, you might as well go gold, right? Or even platnium?
I've only had to suck out once, with A,K on the button, I raise and J,10,3 comes down, and I throw out a continuation bet after my raise, and a guy pushes me all in, so, OK, my stack is too small to fold now, and he has J,9, well, shit but not terrible, and then, a beautiful A comes down.
Ha.
He hated me for that.
Deal with it.
I find myself, however, worrying about my luck in these $2.25 tournaments. Too often, I tend to think of it as the dollars in my wallet. Shouldn't I spend my luck, I figure, in those $5, 30-person tournaments, when the pot at the end of the rainbow is much bigger?
Luck, I figure, seems to be budgeted, and sooner than we like, variance comes, cold bitch that she is, to wipe out those warm feelings of I Heart Poker.
What's even better is Ring Games are going well too. In fact, I can't even remember the last time I lost a hand, and yes, Mike Caro, I AM calling lots of hands, even a couple I called only because pot odds demanded it (including 6,2 versus A,9, you gotta love that).
Luck is a fickle thing. When I look at my records, it seems that bad weeks, losing weeks, are always followed by good weeks or even great ones.
My worst week ever in poker, in December, I lost $125, which is a TON considering I play .25 NL. I honestly wondered if I was going to be able to continue poker. I know now some of my calls were questionable, but back then, all of two months ago, I really thought I might lose it all. And even in what I considered good calls, I lost when the guy would hit his runner.
The next week I promptly won all but $5 of it back.
And the next? I won $100, most of it in one night.
Maybe just by posting this, the Poker Gods will think I'm being cocky and smack me down again, but I'm really not. I understand that this can change with the flip of A,K versus 2,2. I know how it goes. Believe me, I know.
It is possible to catch lighting in a two-liter bottle. I'm just wondering how long you can keep it around before it loses all its fizzle.

Good game but commercials lame (and poker rocks)

Man, what a good game, better than many of the blowouts that haunted the Super Bowl throughout the 80s and 90s.
But boy, those commercials were horrible.
I liked, like, four.
• I LOL at the Budweiser "streaking" sheep commerical. That was my favorite.
• I liked the Hummer being picked up by the two giant monsters, namely because I loved all those monster movies when I was a kid. Godzilla rules!
• I liked the woman saying, "I'm surrounded by jackasses" line as a take on all those monkey commercials.
• And I liked Kermit the Frog selling the car, but only because I'm an outdoors person myself and could relate to his adventures. Hey, Kermit, if you ever want to climb a peak together, look me up.
Now, onto the lame commercials:
• Burger King and the huge production? Are you serious?
• That Jessica Simpson cover of "These Boots Were Made..." was horrid enough, but did she really have to make a Pizza Hut commercial with it? Does she have any pride at all?
• The Diet Pepsi machine commercials were bad enough. Really, do we need another ad campaign featuring a can or a soda machine as the centerpiece.
IT'S NOT FUNNY!
• I know it's only a movie preview, but does anyone want to see that new Shaggy Dog movie starring Tim Allen? Is this what parents are reduced to, two hours of crappy cinema to give their kids a good time?
Sheesh. I'm taking Jayden to the park.
• Could the NFL be any more pretentious? Its NFL Network commercial basically stated, through glossy photos of families and good, wholesome people, that the Super Bowl was the most important event in American history. It was like watching a tribute to WW II vets or something.
Better luck next year, ad agencies.
• • •
In my last post, I talked about how the cards were improving, but they went sour again, and last week was probably my worst of tournament play in my life. I cashed 4 of 17 SnGs. That's just sad, sad, sad. It makes me question my whole game plan of being patient and playing good starting hands. If you don't get good starting hands, what can you do in that case?
Well, Saturday, it took a live game at my buddy's to turn things around. My biggest hand of the night was an Omaha hand, of all games, when I had K,K, trash, trash, and the board came K,J,A rainbow. A very scary board, especially for Omaha, but the guy bet only a quarter of the pot, so I hung with it. These are not experienced players but they do have some tricks up their sleeves and are getting better all the time.
We checked it around when a 4 fell, making me think that maybe my hand was good after all.
On the river, another 4 fell, eaning the only hand that could beat me was if someone was holding A,A. Again, no one raised, and even if they don't raise much, I knew they would with A,A, so when my friend bet the pot plus some, I raised him the pot back.
He paused, paused, paused and then showed me J,J and folded.
Wow, good laydown. See, he's getting better all the time.
The other friend called me nothing.
Ah, well, he beat me last week in Omaha, so justice is served.
So after a very good night at the live felt, our game broke up at 12:30 a.m., early, so I went home for some late-night Saturrday night poker, usually when the drunk fish are out swimming. Sure enough, I doubled my $25 buy-in in about a half-hour and then went to bed.
Sunday I won one tournament and took second in another.
Poker gives you such a good feeling when things are going well. Ahhh.
I just wish it went this well all the time.
Don't we all.

Notes to self

• If you are ever card dead, write a blog about it, and your luck will change immeaditely. I won a tournament today and won $40 in a ring game last night, which is a pretty nice night in a .25 NL game (I was pleased), mostly because three pocket pairs hit their sets on the flop.
Ironically, I won with K,K, 5,5 and 10,10 but lost with A,A when a fish called me down and hit her inside straight on the river.
• Thank you, Poker Gods.
• I have cut down on poker a bit since I was playing it basically all the time after Jayden and Mrs. Pokerpeaker went to bed, and last night's successful session, an hour-long, focused sit-down, was probably the result.
I need to pay more attention when I'm a little tired of the grind and do something else. There's lots of books to read, for instance. Stephen King's new one is fun.
• I also re-read Harrington, and he's not advocating that you sit back and wait for good starting hands the whole tournament. He's saying to play it smart and play the Gap Concept but steal when you can in the later rounds. I acted accordingly and won the tournament. I had gotten away from being more aggressive and I hope this is a return to form.
• A,7, for instance, is a great hand to raise on the button when there's only one caller.
• Or 8,5, for that matter.
• One hand was interesting: I had K,K, one guy raised 4x, so I pushed all in with my stack lead, either thinking I had him beat or I would just steal his raise. I was fine with either result. Short stack called, 2nd place calls, the original raiser calls.
Short stack had K,8, 2nd place had A,8 and original raiser had Q,10.
Teh?
Flop comes A,A,3, two diamonds, but I hit diamond, diamond to get my flush (ha, I had best hand anyway) and I ride the big stack to first place.
• Harrington advocates aggression a bit. He does not advocate stupidity.

Dead cards can kill your confidence (and your patience)

I'm starting to see 9,4 in my sleep.
2,8 floats through my brain, giving me cold sweats.
I'll even jerk awake. "Ahhhh!," I shout. "Another 7,4?"
No, I haven't lost to these cards.
I'm holding them.
Way too often.
I can't remember the last time I was so card dead. I've played eight $2.25 tournaments and cashed only four of them, and all of those were third places, mostly because I was simply one of the last men standing after all the carnage of players going to war with K,9 versus A,3.
I'm seeing more monsters than a 3-year-old, only I'm not the only holding them. And now I'm wondering if I'm really one of those rocks I hear so much about, a predictable, namby-pamby player who refuses to call a raise, who has M&Ms for testicles, who goes pale when someone calls my bet.
Jesus, I hope not.
There is something equally as frustrating as someone beating your A,K with J,8 (more on that later), and that, I believe, is watching all the donkeys have all the fun with K,Q and scooping huge pots from tards who call raises with 10,9, when you hold a limp little 9,3 in your hand. You can't take the tards' money because you'd be a tard yourself if you called with your junk, and by the time all the easy targets have been picked off, you're left with a puny stack to battle the giants.
Folks, I'm serious. In the last SnGs I've played, I've had Q,Q twice, A,K once, 10,10 once and A,J four times and A,Q a couple.
I have forgotten what K,K or A,A looks like. Can you remind me?
That's it, ladies and gentlemen. Most, then, I've lost my stacks when I do raise with one of these hands, and the flop misses, and my continuation bet gets slapped down.
Then I get nothing else, and I basicallly get blinded off.
I have a game plan for the tournaments I play online. Play few hands and raise with them, limp a few times on flyers (small pocket pairs) but pitch them to raises, occasionally bluff at small pots (but only when pots have two or less players) and never, ever call a raise with a marginal hand. Complete all small blinds. Play your hands aggressively if you do play them.
Would it win the World Series of Poker? No. Does it show profits at my level of online tournament play? So far, yes, yes and yes.
Unless, of course, I don't get my starting hands.
Then I go limper than an 80-year-old.
Does this make me a bad player? I don't know. This is my internal debate right now.
And that's what going card dead can do to you. You start to question your poker-playing skills. I should raise more. I should be more aggressive. I should steal more. You forget that, hey, your formula, while not very fancy, works pretty well, and that when, in fact, you do have to push because your stack is low, your A,8 always gets blasted by A,Q.
And so, of course, last night , during a ring game, I had A,K (so pretty) and raised 4xs with it. A caller. 8,8,A comes down. I put the somewhat tight player on an A, and he bets $1 and I call. A K comes down. Now I think I have two pair, and I think it's good.
Eventually my last $15 goes in.
The guy has J,8.
I should have recognized that, but I was so happy to have a hand, I got carried away.
Being card dead can also turn you into a donkey.
Patience is never one of my strong suits, but I've been remarkably patient through this.
I just need to remind myself to stick with the plan.
Stick with it, stick with it, stick with it...
Oooo! A,10!

Variance

There have been many "oh, so this is what it's like to be a parent" moments since we've had Jayden seven months ago.
Five stained shirts in one day? Oh, so this is what it's like. Blowing out a diaper on a road trip? Oh, OK. Smiles in the morning and cawing with delight in the evening when you come home from work? Oh, OK. Cool.
Unfortunately, I had another moment last night, when Kate called me, in tears, telling me that the nurse from his doctor's office said Jayden had to go to the E.R. Now.
Oh. So this is what it's like.
Oh, man.
I was at work, Sunday night, for my editor's shift, so I told her to be strong for him and call me as soon as she heard something. I called her five times in the next 15 minutes.
Jayden was battling what we thought was a cold. He was at her parents' house, enjoying the weekend with the grandparents, so we could clean up the house and get it ready for putting it on the market.
I suppose we should have insisted on an urgent care appointment after they were up all night with him because he was so congested, but we thought it was a cold, he would be fine, as he was earlier the year with the sniffles. Deep down, I think we knew it wasn't the best decision but we were hoping anyway that things would work out, kind of like when you call an all-in with A,10 and your short stack.
Kate said by the time she picked him up, Jayden's cry, normally an event that rivals a Metallica concert in sheer volume, was a soft meow, like a choking kitten. And his lungs and nose seemed to be stuffed with snow.
I felt OK once they made Kate wait a couple hours for the E.R., figuring that if they needed to crack his chest (like I saw on "E.R." once), they probably would have done it sooner. And by time Kate called an hour or two later, she sounded calmer. Doctors weren't panicking, at least.
I got there at 9:30 p.m. Jayden had a mask on, part of a breathing treatment, and he sounded like oxygen could barely squeak into his poor little lungs.
My little guy, I thought to myself.
When the doctor, a huge guy with long blonde hair, a beard and a sort of etheral presense about him (I almost expected him to wear sandals) came in and told us the congestion was not in his chest, I almost hugged him.
Thank you, Jesus.
After a few steroid treatments, we brought Jayden home, and he finally crashed in his crib, able to breathe for the first time in three days. When I came in today, at 7 a.m., he was sitting up in his crib, all seven months of him ready to play, despite his stuffy head.
He had croup. I'm not sure what that is, or even if I"m spelling it right, but it really sucks. A nurse came in as we were about to leave and said, yeah, his kid had that too, and it scared the crap out of him.
No kidding.
So this is what it's like to be a parent. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes it's exhausting. Sometimes it's really fun. Many times, it's rewarding.
And, occasionally, it's really, really terrifying.
In my last four SnGs, I've lost on three of them, which is unusual for me. I’ve lost mostly because in my last six races, I've been the favorite in every one, sometimes a heavy favorite, and I've lost all of them. So I’m the guy you see on TV with the 80 percent behind his name, and I’ve lost every time.
Normally I'd whine about my bad luck.
After Sunday, I realize that sometimes, luck just evens out.

Floating on Cloud Nine with Flyers

One of my favorite things to do at the poker table is play flyers.
I love playing small pocket pairs, suited connectors, or other hands like K,10 os or J,10 os or Ax suited or hands like Q,J, K,9 even, or Q,10 or, my favorite for a while, J,5, the last because I had a soldier friend who folded J,5 every time, even when he was in the big blind without a raise, because he lost to it all the time. So I started playing it and sucking out with it a lot.
For some of you aggresive types, all those hands above might not only be worth playing, but worth raising. And in a tournament, occasionally, they're worth raising in many circumstances.
But I especially like playing these hands, occasionally, in ring games, when you don't have the blinds threatening to swallow you like a porn star named Johnny Cum Lately (hi TripJax!).
Last night, I played J,10, and 10,10,K came down. I threw out a bet of $1, about half the pot,and a guy called. The fish (I knew he was at that point), then bet the rest of his $5 when a bust card came down. I put him on a K and called. He had a K and I scooped a pretty nice pot for the level I was playing.
Of course, playing flyers correctly is the difference between being a fish and being a, er, non-fish (I can't call myself a shark yet, not even a nurse shark), I don't call raises with them, even if it's a .25 raise, unless I have a terrific read on the player, and even then, I proceed cautiously. Almost always, I pitch the hand if I don't flop to it, and if I have a draw, I pitch it if I'm priced out of it. If I flop top pair, I play it aggressively until my opponent tells me he has a better kicker (but then, I think, why didn't she raise?). And I rarely play them slow, even if I flop a great hand.
I know these are no duh tips, and yet, I've noticed, it's the no duh tips that we don't follow that help us lose money. Poker is full of common sense rules, and we should constantly be viligant in following them, unless it's fun to break them by taking a flyer on a hand.

Did Phil Ivey start on .25 NL?

OK, Hollywood Poker has these $2.25 10-table, SnG tournaments, and I play them at work as I write my stories for the Greeley Tribune for three reasons:
1) I want to continue to practice 10-person play, as I cut my teeth and continue to play six-person tables for .25 cash games or shorthanded SnGs.
2) They are profitable. I've cashed like 15/20 of them.
3) They require about 10 percent of my attention most of the time.
The ease at which I've been cashing them made me think about where I was a year ago.
I am, like Low Limit Grinder, a .25 NL player and a $5 SnG level player. I have relatively small bankrolls on Hollywood and Pokerroom, about three hundred bones each, and I play well within those bankrolls. If I lose $25 in a day, that's a big loss to me, and, of course, any win over $10 for the day makes me happy. In fact, I'm good with $5 a day.
And yet, that's far above where I was a year ago, when I was a play money player, not even ready for the $10,000 table on play money, when I thought reading a book about poker was a waste of time and I wondered why people would watch poker on TV.
The addiction dug its little kitten claws in, of course, and after losing my initial $25 faster than you can say "rigged Internet poker" (he he), I decided that if I was going to play for real money, I was gonna DO IT.
I'm that kind of person anyway. Why climb only one 14er in Colorado when you can climb all 54, the quest I completed this year, becoming the 1,300 in the state to do that. Why start running when you can try to knock off 4:30 off your 5K time in a year? Why not be obsessive about something rather than just enjoy it? I'm not bragging when I tell you this. There are advantages, of course, to being this way, but I wonder sometimes (especially during a losing streak) if being obsessive about a hobby, rather than just enjoying it, is really the way I want to live my life. I don't want to have my first heart attack at age 45, for instance.
Ah, the price we pay for being Type A!
Anyway, I read and read and read, and now plays that seem absurd to me, like calling an all-in with A,9, were pretty routine for me back then. And that's why I continue to do well in those Hollywood $2 tournaments. I'm playing a bunch of mes, like I had cloned myself a bunch of times and dove into The Matrix of Poker, only the mes are from July of last year, not now.
There are still many flaws in my game. Though I understand the concept of bluffing and representing and forcing opponents off pots, I still, for the most part, need cards to win. I can read players, but I'm still wrong too often about what they have. I know how to bet and what to bet, and yet, many times, I still overbet great hands, getting a fold instead of some extra money for them.
But, rather than focusing on Will Wonka and his hundred-dollar dailies, I've tried to focus on how far I've come. I am a few hundred ahead since I started playing for real money full-time in October with birthday money. I have two healthy bankrolls and should be able to play real money for a long, long time if I stick to my current limits. I recently made my first purchase solely with poker money, a running GPS that I could not afford otherwise.
Poker is still scary for me. Journalists don't make a lot of money, and my wife is a teacher, and we've got a 7-month old and my wife is murmuring about how having another one now would be better, given that we're both over 30 (she's 29, actually) and we'd like to be able to walk at our kids' graduations rather than use a walker.
But I am encouraged by all your posts and piddly little tournaments.
If you're ever doubting yourself, a daily occurence for me, play a $2 sit and go. It's all the therapy you'll need to see that, hey, you've come a long way, baby.

Learning how to get my grr on

I can get my grr on.
The only problem is it needs fuel.
My grr purrs like a kitten on catnip when I get even a decent run of good starting hands to raise with, some chips and a pegged donkey or two.
When I don't have that, though, or even part of that, my grr turns into a purr, and I try to fold my way to the money.
And that, as we know, almost never works.
When I first started playing SnGs, I was way too tight. I would only bet on top pair, and if someone pushed, I folded. Predictably, I won when I got monsters and check-raised with them, but many times, when the monsters didn't come, I wouldn't cash.
Now I've learned enough to raise, push and bet people off pots, even when I don't have the monster, and, as a result, I'm winning and cashing enough so SnGs are a profitable part of my overall poker package, if not the most profitable part.
But now that I'm starting to play larger tournaments, with more tables, and more seats, I've turned weak again.
I always assume someone has a hand worth raising. Many times I'm right. But not always.
Saturday, in that live tournament, I got no hands all night, as I've previously mentioned, and finished just out of the money, in 7th place. Sunday, I played another 30-person table, thinking it worked last time. And my third hand brought me K,K, with a K on the flop. Beautiful. I scooped a huge pot.
And did not win another hand the whole night.
That's what happens when you rarely enter them.
I figured, of course, that with my huge early stack, I didn't need to be involved in pots. It was the passive, old Dan way to play, instead of putting pressure on the table. When I was moved to another table with three other big stacks, my opportunity was gone, and I folded my way down to almost nothing, when I got A,A and wasn't paid off. The blinds consumed me soon after, and I finished in 10th place.
Now, I had no hands worth raising. When I get hands, I play them aggressively. But what happens when you don't get any hands?
One of the reasons I win a lot is because I do play solid, sound, tight-aggressive poker, and that's enough when you're playing against mostly weak players.
But I think, now, I've got to learn to fuel my grr with something more than high pocket pairs or A,K.

Good news, bad news, ski traffic and a wet cell phone

So my final stats from SnG week were good, 10/13 cashed, and Friday night was the kicker. I played a 30-person MTT on Hollywood Poker for the first time. $5.50, sure, and I wanted a longer tournament to try. I have played a couple MTTs, but I've never come close to cashing, either because someone sucked out on me or I failed to suck out on them.
I was the short stack with the usual aggressive blind structure you find on these Internet tournaments with five people left, and five get paid, so I was in "survival" mode, hoping to outlast the other short stack. Sure enough, he went all in with Q,8 and got knocked to the canvas.
A newfound freedom from worrying about getting paid or not, coupled with my first run of the cards for the night (J,J and A,8 both won races) left me as the chip leader. The other three quickly fell, and after a long heads-up battle that ended when the dude got the higher flush than me (three clubs on the board, can you believe that, heads up?) and I collected $45.
Not a ton of money, but for me, it's a very nice night and the cherry to me clearing more than $80 just from playing SnGs for the week.
Sweet.
I went to bed at 9:30 p.m., which is like most people going to bed at 5:30 p.m., but I had a ski excursion planned for Saturday, and I wanted to be somewhat fresh for Saturday night's big live tournament, which, of course, was the main reason for playing all those SnGs.
The alarm went off at 5:15 a.m., which, of course, was quickly snapped off by me, in the hopes of not waking the J-man, our seven-month old ball of feist. I made it to the Park N Ride near Denver to meet my brother and was met by chaos. It was 7 a.m., and already, cranky drivers wrapped in fleece and goofy hats were jostling for the last few spots in four Park N Rides. Last month, my brother and I met at 7 a.m. and were greeted by empty lots and little traffic, but I should have considered that there was a record snowfall going on this year, the Broncos were playing Sunday and it was supposed to be a beautiful day. I checked the third Park N Ride in the group of four and finally told a group of four Denver yuppies, parked in the middle of the road, to get out of the way (only I wasn't that nice about it) and I scooted up the road just in the hopes of turning around. I pulled into the final Park N Ride and was preparing to turn around when I saw Red. Brake. Lights. I dashed over there and turned on my blinker, no doubt frustrating the seven cards ahead of me and already past paradise. The car pulled out. Thank you Jesus.
By the time we got to the ski resort, it was 11:30 a.m.
All that for four hours of skiing.
So, finally, a bit wrung out but happy after a good day, I showered at my brothers, grabbed a quick snack of chili cheese nachos and went to the guy's house, where, thankfully, a lot of my old poker buddies were waiting for me (our weekly game has broken up after he moved to Denver a month ago).
I was struck at how wild our table was. One girl won a huge hand with 10,10 with J,K,A on the board. The other guy had 8,8.
That, of course, handicapped me a bit, since they were calling every damn bet I made because, hey, they had lower pair, right. So bluffing was out. And normally, I'm a tight, fairly conservative player until the blinds force me to shift gears, so this plays right into my hands. All I would need is a few good hands and I was golden.
I'm still waiting.
I did get A,A early but no callers to my 3X raise, and I had A,K one other time, and that, dear reader, in six hours of play, was the extent of my hands. I did manage to double up late with Q,8 and a Q on the board and a drunk guy called me with a straight draw, and an inside one at that, and that prompted a trip to the bathroom.
Where I promptly dropped my new cell phone in the toliet.
Shit.
I immeaditely took it out (clean water, at least) and shook it and took the battery out, and after much cell phone love, it works fine. It didn't look good for a while there but was able to pull through.
Thank you, again, Jesus.
I got knocked out in 7th place out of 30, two slots from the money, because my short stack wasn't going to hold up and I went all in with A,8 and some guy called me with A,K. Ah well. I didn't want to stay up to 3 a.m. anyway.
This did expose what I consider to be a hole in my game, and that is I need cards to win. I'm much improved in the sense that I don't need monsters to win, anymore, but I do need a normal run of good hands, and I can usually cash, especially against a weak field, as the SnGs demonstrates. But I am rather helpless if I don't get that normal run, if I get, say, 9,4, as I did all fucking night long. I can bluff with the best of them, and I did, but that only takes me so far.
Is that true for everyone? I'm not sure. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this topic. For me, weak hands are like fighting in Braveheart with a plastic sword.
Or one of those cool Jedi toy light sabers.

So far, so good

It's been a good run so far. Good decisions, good results and, yes, even a suckout or two.
My favorite was last night.
I had this guy heads up in a 5-person SnG, and by that time, he might as well have been playing with his cards face up. Whenever he had a monster, he raised. When he had a decent hand, he called. When he had nothing, he checked. Sounds obvious, I know, but he really was that predictable. Every time he checked, I bet, and he would fold.
But every time he finally would put his money in, I, of course, had the best hand.
And every time he sucked out on me.
If he had 9,6 and I had A,K, a 9 would fall on the river. If he had A,8 and I had A,J, an 8 would fall. If he had A,8 again, and I had Q,Q, the A would fall on the river.
It really was unbelieveable. And yet, every time, I could claw my way back because of the aggressive blind structure and his frequent folding.
The guy tried bluffing once, into a board of four diamonds, when I had the A. Oops.
So if I had lost to him, it would have been criminal, and yet, suckout, suckout, suckout.
Finally, he was down to $2,000 in chips, and I had $5,500, and I got A,J and finally decided to just start putting him all in every time I got a great hand (heads up, A,J is a great one). I bet, and he flips over...
A,A.
Of course.
Only the luckbox saw three clubs flop, and guess who had the one A of clubs? It looked so good against my J. Fourth card was a bust, but the fifth?
Club.
Yes.

I think I'm ready for the big tournament on Saturday, but I'm gonna play a few five and 10-tables tonight, Thursday and then a MTT on Friday. I've also been reviewing Harrington, who wrote the best tournament stragety books of all time.

Stats:
6/9 cashed.
Four firsts, one second, one third.

Take that, Low Limit Grinder!

SnG Week

To prepare for my first big-time live tournament ($20 buy in, which, please don't make fun, that's big time for me) Saturday, I'm going to only play SnGs this week. It seems like I'm best at tournaments, but I guess we'll find out.
This was sort of inspired by Low Limit Grinder, so did this one week,had great success at it and then got away from it.
Here we go.

Kicking a losing streak in the nuts

(Note to Poker Gods: In no way am I bragging here. I know now that, in fact, Poker Gods NEVER put a losing streak on someone unless you boast about your good fortune. In fact, Satan runs losing streaks. So, PGs, consider this a slam on Mr. Sympathy himself and not your Highnesses. Thank you and GL at the tables).

Well, I'm in a downswing. After I posted my last blog, talking about my horrible winning streak, it quickly turned into a horrible losing streak when I called a 2x raise at a 5-person table with K,10 and the flop came K,K,3. Sweet, right? I bet the pot, the guy pushes me all in, I call, bam, he has K,Q.
And that made me think.
A losing streak is a whirlpool of bad beats, which make us inpaitent, which make us lose even more, which makes us play hands we normally wouldn't to win the money back we lost, which makes us lose more, which....
Yeah, we've all been there. I don't need to go on, do I?
When I hit my losing streak for two horrible weeks a month ago, I looked back at my notes and realized that many of the beats I took weren't really bad beats. They were tough beats, sure, but they also reflected the whirlpool of poker more than sharp plays that just got donkeyed out. I had top pair, top kicker, for instance, and pushed all-in when a guy raised me $5. He had two pair. I lost another $25 when I had two pair and a guy just simply sighed and called when I overplayed them and he showed me his pockets, making him a set of nines. It went on and on that week, until I finally started getting lucky again and, consequently, playing better poker, and, consquently, started winning again.
This time, after cursing my hand selection (especially what I call a raise with) and realizing I was a bit rash there, I decided to approach the losing streak with a challenge: Let's see how little I could lose until my luck turned around.
So when I had a set of Ks, but there was a straight draw out there, I bet the pot twice, and sure enough, the guy went for his gutshot card on the river, and I knew he hit it when he bet 2xs the pot without hesitation. I folded and he showed me his cards. I declined to show him mine.
Total loss: $10.
And when I had the nut flush with one card the go, and the board paired, I simply bet the pot instead of pushing all in at first, and when the dude, who I knew had two pair, hit this third card on the river, he checked, hoping to trap me, and I checked back.
A flush losing to a full house.
Total loss: $9.
Now I know this just seems like logical betting to you, but in the past, I would have lost much more because I would have just assumed I had the nuts and then started complaining when I didn't. During a losing streak, I've learned, people hit their flushes and straights and full houses. I'm just trying to lose as little as I can to it.
So when I play a SnG, as I did last night, and I win four races near the end, including a heads up when he has K,K and I have A,8 and my beautiful A flops, or when I have two pair, Q,10, and the third heart falls, but I bet the guy all in anyway, and he calls, and I get my Q on the river, well, then I can kick the streak in the nuts and thank the Poker Gods.
And tell the losing streak to go to hell.

The spoiled brat of poker (and it ain't Phil Hellmuth)

At the risk of sounding like Veruca Salt, who wanted another pony the moment her father handed her a golden ticket, I'm going through the worst winning streak of my poker life.
It's a pristine mountain filled with a glacier of AA and four callers, fields of KKs and a K on the flop (with the other guy having a lower set), and forests of two pairs that actually hold up. I've had J,J that actually won, K,K that didn't get sucked out by an A and Q,Q that didn't lose me a lot of money.
Except my base camp is littered with piles of bad beat shit, the kind that make you double over and puke.
Two days in a row, I've started slow in my .25 ring game, worked my way up to a $50 profit and left with a $25 profit one day and $10 the next.
Why? Well, no, I'm not one of THOSE players, who just gets lucky and then variance takes over and depletes my winnings. I have a healthy bankroll (for me, anyway) stuffed with winnings on both sites (Hollywood Poker and Pokerroom). I have finished every month with a good profit.
But I've had J,J,5 with my J,A lose to 6,2 when they got their runner, runner, runner flush. I've had A,A,3 with my A,K lose to another flush, yes, another runner, runner, runner, only with another runner in there. A Q,Q,J with my Q,10 lose to, you guessed it, runner, runner, runner flush. I've seen more runners than my Wednesday night track group.
I've had more people draw against me than the cast of Deadwood. Have I ever, this week, hit one of my draws? No.
And let's not even talk about the SnGs, OK? But just as a small example, I had A,A lose to A,J when he got his straight on the river. That cost me a cash.
Because I'm a poker player, the losses have stung far more than the fact that I'm seeing great hands and cashing them. It feels like a horrible losing streak, even though I'm ahead this week.
Because I'm only ahead by a small amount, and it could be so, so very much more.
It's almost worse than a losing streak, because you count those chips as yours after you've won them, even though Kenny Rogers tells you not to. You begin to question whether you are just greedy, even though Mike Caro has a great response when someone asks why you didn't just quit when you were ahead - the game was good, the players were loose, and I was getting good hands. So you question if you called loose because you were winning. No, I had great hands and cautiously bet when I saw that third (or fourth) spade or heart or club because I knew I was in trouble.
I am bonus clearing, and that has something to do with it, because I don't want to hit and run, I'd rather stay with my big lead and earn my points. But, then again, many times last week that helped me, because I was down and would have stopped, only I hit with a few hands and finished up, long after I would have stopped.
I tell myself that, if someone asked me if I would like to finish a session $10 or $25 ahead, I would, of course, scream yes yes yes like a porn star.
I remind myself of that as I turn off the computer, grumbling all the way to bed.
Sometimes, it actually works.

I'm a genius...I'm an idiot

After watching USC 4th and 1 the national title away from Texas, I had to get in my usual hour of poker, lest I start scratching the red rash that would surely break out if I didn't play.
And I was struck by how, many times, the decisions we make in poker, and the consequences we suffer as a result, aren't much different than what football coaches go through.
We're either idiots or we're geniuses.
Pete Carroll was an idiot last night for going for it twice on 4th down and failing miserably both times, the second giving Texas and Vince Young a short field for the final score. Mack Brown was a genius for winning the game, even though he, too, made several questionable calls.
Two nights ago, I, too, made a couple questionable calls, as most of us do every night.
#1 - I have pocket 2s and hope to see a flop cheaply, so I call. A beauty comes down, 2,5,J, rainbow, and so I check, hoping to trap, as you can many times on the Internet. He checks. Rats.
The second cards comes a Q, so I bet the pot ($1 at this point, yes I play .25), thinking he might be on a draw and hoping to make him pay for it. He calls.
The third card is a K, and guy bets $5, far over the pot and a fourth of my stack. Shit.
Usually, players at my level can't control themselves, and so whenever they have a monster hand, they typically far overbet the pot. Even when they are bluffing, they don't bet as much as when they have a great hand. That's what this said to me, so it also said he made his straight. But $5, I think, is enough to pay for a set of 2s. I have to call even if my instincts tell me I'm beat.
The guy has K,5, two pair, and I win.
"Well played," another guy types in the box.
Right. I'm a genius.
#2 - I have A,K os and raise 4X to $1. I get two callers. I have $33, $8 more than my $25 buy-in. The flop comes A,3,8, all clubs.
OK, I've got top pair, and my K is a club, so I also have a nut flush draw. That's worth betting (if the guy flopped a flush, congratulations, I think), so I bet $2, letting anyone know they are going to have to pay for their draws and also thinking the pot was $5 with the called raises and I wouldn't mind snatching it right there.
Both call, but one guy raises me to $4. The other guy folds.
The guy was new, so I didn't have a read on him yet, so that raise could mean two things to me.
#1 - I have it and I'm trying to get more money from you, which is why I only raised you $2. I want you to call that.
#2 - I have a good pair and I'm trying to make you pay for your draw. I might even have two pair (or even trips, although it's my belief that he would have bet more with that).
I have top pair with the nut flush draw.
I push all in.
The guy folds.
I leave with $38, a nice $13 profit for the night.
It wasn't a great move. A guy will only call if he has the flush or two pair, and then I'm drawing. But I also have 15 outs (I think). Why not raise $2 more and see what he does? If he pushes in, you could probably call. If he calls, then you know he has a hand, too, and you'll just have to see how it plays out.
If he called with a flush, and I don't hit, I'm an idiot.
But he folded.
So I'm a genius.
Right?

Tempted on New Year's Eve

The gods were tempting me last night, on New Year's Eve, one of the most dangerous nights of the year for temptation.
But I wasn't tempted by alcohol, or drugs, or women. When you have a six-month-old, the vice you crave the most is sleep.
I was tempted by cards.
I played my usual $5 SnG first, and I was hot, hot, hot.
Hot, that is, on the turn and the river.
I had 10,8,3, with the 8,7 in my hand. Someone bet half the pot, or about an eighth of my stack. I had middle pair with no draws and a weak kicker. That's when you leave, right?
Right.
So I left.
And the 7 came down.
OK, so what, that's a dangerous draw, I thought. Still a good fold.
Then the 8 came down.
It was that kind of night. Every time I folded bad starting hands or flops that didn't hit, the next card would come.
If I were a fish, I'd fish in the morning, and in the evening, all over this poker land, only last night, I would have been rewarded. Straights, full houses, two pairs and flushes all would have come my way. I would have cashed and probably took first. As it were, my one set of 10s wasn't enough to carry me when a fish called my all-in A,J and M of 7 with his Q,7 and caught his fucking 7 on the river.
Sessions like these tempt you. They cry out to you, "see, it's OK to fish. It's OK to chase. Fish always win."
Nights like these tempt you.
But when I moved to my ring game, I played solid, consistent poker, had no opportunities to bluff, caught no cards and left with a $5 loss.
That's right. Only $5 off my bankroll.
Had I chased, it would have been a lot worse.
Resisting temptation can not only make you a better husband, or prevent you from a lifetime of AA meetings.
It can also keep your bankroll fat and happy for the next big session.