I'm Awesome, I Suck

I haven't written a post in a while and part of that probably has to do with the fact that I've been running pretty well lately. I had nothing but winning sessions at $50 NL for more than a week and cleared a few juicy bonuses. But the shit really hit the fan today so here I am to bitch and moan about it.

The story starts with this: I'm still trying to figure out my best game. I've narrowed it down to hold 'em, but that's about it. You got limit vs. NL, short handed vs. full ring. The difference between these types of poker are huge. Limit is a high card game where you just pound away with hands like AK and in the long run wear away at fish who overvalue hands like KJ and KT. NL is a game of cat and mouse where AK becomes the sucker hand and small pairs and suited connectors become the ass pounding hands. In full ring you wait around for premium hands and then go nuts. In short handed you are forced to play a lot of marginal hands since you are paying a lot more in blinds, so there are many more confrontations that give strong players a larger edge over weak players. For that reason, I've decided to give short handed a try. I figured NL might be a little too volatile for me, so I'm trying limit. As for stakes, I'm going with $1/2 until I make 150 big bets, then will move up to $2/4 and so on. I haven't been playing any $3/6 full ring lately due to the $400 spanking I took over a few sessions that left me dreading that game.

So things started off pretty well. After some 800 hands I was up like $80 and felt like I had a decent grasp of the game. I had read Matt Maroon's section on short handed in his book as well as the short handed part in "Weighing the Odds in Hold 'em Poker" by King Yao. Plus, every time I played there were at least two donkeys per table, and today was no different. But that didn't stop me from getting destroyed. In about three hours I managed to drop $155. I never went on tilt, but finally the growing losses overwhelmed me to the point where I had to get up. The most frustrating thing was that most of the people (I assume they were human though if you told me that some sort of marsupial were at the controls it wouldn't surprise me) at my two tables were just horrendous. They would do things like preflop raise from the small blind with A3s after three people had limped, or limp reraise with KQo. Sure they were hard to read, but they gave up so much EV with these plays. And the suck outs were awful. I think the following hand may be the all time worst suck out of my life. Note that Bob preflop raised from the big blind (something he did just about evertime I completed from the small blind) against three opponents, raised me on the flop, called my reraise, then folded on the turn. Hard to imagine a holding that would make such a play correct.

***** Hand History for Game 2885884614 *****
1/2 Texas Hold'em Game Table (Limit) - Sat Nov 26 17:54:29 EST 2005
Table Table 31044 (6 max) (Real Money) -- Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: bobheck28 ( $80.20)
Seat 2: Langen66 ( $45.25)
Seat 3: bonan5 ( $28.25)
Seat 4: golfnutpar ( $99.38)
Seat 5: fredster2005 ( $81.75)
Seat 6: fishboy7 ( $95)
fishboy7 posts small blind (0.50)
bobheck28 posts big blind (1)
golfnutpar posts big blind (1)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to fishboy7 [ 8c, Qc ]
Langen66 calls (1)
bonan5 folds.
golfnutpar checks.
fredster2005 calls (1)
fishboy7 calls (0.50)
bobheck28 raises (1) to 2
Langen66 calls (1)
golfnutpar folds.
fredster2005 calls (1)
fishboy7 calls (1)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Qh, 8d, 9h ]
fishboy7 bets (1)
bobheck28 raises (2) to 2
Langen66 folds.
fredster2005 calls (2)
fishboy7 raises (2) to 3
bobheck28 calls (1)
fredster2005 calls (1)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 2c ]
fishboy7 bets (2)
bobheck28 folds.
fredster2005 raises (4) to 4
fishboy7 raises (4) to 6
fredster2005 raises (4) to 8

Now right here I'm starting to think, oh shit, maybe he's actually got a JT or a set (even though he had already demonstrated himself to be a maniac), so I decided to check/call the river...

fishboy7 calls (2)
** Dealing River ** : [ 2d ]
fishboy7 checks.
fredster2005 bets (2)
fishboy7 calls (2)
** Summary **
Main Pot: $37 | Rake: $1
Board: [ Qh 8d 9h 2c 2d ]
bobheck28 balance $75.20, lost $5 (folded)
Langen66 balance $43.25, lost $2 (folded)
bonan5 balance $28.25, didn't bet (folded)
golfnutpar balance $98.38, lost $1 (folded)
fredster2005 balance $103.75, bet $15, collected $37, net +$22 [ Qs 2s ] [ a full house, Twos full of queens -- Qs,Qh,2s,2c,2d ]
fishboy7 balance $80, lost $15 [ 8c Qc ] [ two pairs, queens and eights -- Qc,Qh,9h,8c,8d ]

fishboy7: unreal

So I'm back in "what the hell is my best game?" mode. This pounding makes me want to return to NL full ring where the suck outs are much less common. Of course this was a really bad session card wise, but still it makes me wonder if I'm playing any where close to optimally. Guess I'll give it a few more thousand hands and then reevaluate.