Sapping My Will To Play
Right now I'm somewhere in the midst of a nasty losing streak (hopefully last night marked the end of it but who knows). It started when I was up $220 in my $3/6 experiment. In one night of playing my usual tight aggressive game (which is becoming more selectively aggressive as I adjust to limit), I lost about $200 in about an hour and a half. I was three tabling, and for the most part playing well but getting hijacked by river after river. Keeping me at the tables were the usual mix of maniacs and fish. I had the pleasure of sitting with Big Bien http://pokerhangover.blogspot.com/), and made an effort to stay out of his pots (VPIP 10, PFR 10, maybe that SN should be "Ineverlimp"). At one point I confused a fish with a maniac, with the following distasteful result:
***** Hand History for Game 2961204228 *****
3/6 Texas Hold'em Game Table (Limit) - Mon Oct 31 20:41:19 EST 2005
Table Table 65288 (Real Money) -- Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: BonitoKing ( $130)
Seat 2: Lazaparty ( $112.13)
Seat 3: Shepoker_ ( $173)
Seat 4: daedalus81 ( $131)
Seat 5: blocprty ( $169)
Seat 6: cuyahoga ( $167)
Seat 7: LoveOasis ( $141)
Seat 8: CptSpencer ( $98)
Seat 9: bakerydog ( $270.23)
Seat 10: Dadrocks222 ( $73.54)
Lazaparty posts small blind (1)
Shepoker_ posts big blind (3)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to BonitoKing [ Kc, As ]
daedalus81 folds.
blocprty folds.
cuyahoga calls (3)
LoveOasis calls (3)
CptSpencer folds.
bakerydog folds.
Dadrocks222 raises (6) to 6 (VPIP like 50, PFR like 2)
BonitoKing raises (9) to 9
Lazaparty folds.
Shepoker_ folds.
cuyahoga folds.
LoveOasis calls (6)
Dadrocks222 raises (6) to 12
BonitoKing calls (3)
LoveOasis calls (3)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 2c, 5d, Qs ]
LoveOasis checks.
Dadrocks222 checks.
BonitoKing bets (3)
LoveOasis calls (3)
Dadrocks222 calls (3)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Ah ]
LoveOasis checks.
Dadrocks222 bets (6)
BonitoKing raises (12) to 12
LoveOasis folds.
Dadrocks222 raises (12) to 18
BonitoKing calls (6)
** Dealing River ** : [ 2d ]
Dadrocks222 bets (6)
BonitoKing raises (12) to 12
Dadrocks222 raises (12) to 18
BonitoKing calls (6)
** Summary **
Main Pot: $121 | Rake: $3
Board: [ 2c 5d Qs Ah 2d ]
BonitoKing balance $79, lost $51 [ Kc As ] [ two pairs, aces and twos -- As,Ah,Kc,2c,2d ]
Lazaparty balance $111.13, lost $1 (folded)
Shepoker_ balance $170, lost $3 (folded)
daedalus81 balance $131, didn't bet (folded)
blocprty balance $169, didn't bet (folded)
cuyahoga balance $164, lost $3 (folded)
LoveOasis balance $126, lost $15 (folded)
CptSpencer balance $98, didn't bet (folded)
bakerydog balance $270.23, didn't bet (folded)
Dadrocks222 balance $143.54, bet $51, collected $121, net +$70 [ Ac Ad ] [ a full house, Aces full of twos -- Ac,Ad,Ah,2c,2d ]
Whoa!!! Seems like I must have been on tilt here right? No, it's just that I got confused between this guy and a guy at the same position of one of my other tables who was a complete maniac and who would have played the same way this guy did with Q8. Had I realized that this guy's PFA was around 1 (and it was right in front of me so I don't know why it didn't register), I most certainly would have played it much more passively. In fact, I might have even folded preflop. Wow. What a huge difference stats can make. But you gotta read 'em!!!
After dropping the $200 at $3/6 I decided to recover mentally and economically with some $1/2 at Bet365, which has a nice monthly bonus of $100/500 raked hands. Only problem is that the place is totally infested with bonus whores, kinda like the Crypto sites before they changed their definition of a raked hand. Here are the stats of your average $1/2 player at Bet365: VPIP = <15, PFR >5, PFA = 3. Basically these are good players. I suppose their post flop play isn't stellar, but I'll bet these games don't differ too much from your average $30/60 game at Party. So on Saturday night I'm on a miniroll. I take my JJ up against some tightass with KK and hit my J on the turn (which was about when I became sure he had QQ, KK, or AA. Then I got AK and raised under the gun. I got reraised by this dude on the button with a VPIP of 9 and a PFR of 2. Hmmm, what could that mean? I really didn't care what it meant when the flop came Q J T rainbow. He raised me on the flop but when I made it three bets (hoping he had QQ or JJ) he just called and then called me down again on both the turn and the river. He showed AA and didn't say anything, but I was feeling buzzed (off Miller High Life no less) and sassy so I couldn't resist a little trash talk. I think the conversation went something like this:
Fishboy77: wow, that's gotta hurt.
Fishboy77: you wait around all day for one of the two hands you actually play and then I suck out on you.
Unlucky tightass: no class.
Hey, it was like a $20 pot. I think he'll be OK. By the time we hit the bar, I was up a nice $50 or 25 bb.
But then Sunday it was back to bad beat bidness as usual. I must have set a Guinness book of world records for most consecutive times anyone raised preflop with KK, QQ, or JJ only to hit an A on the flop. Here's a typical hand:
Fishboy raises to $2 from MP with QQ
Jackass cold calls $2 from LP with A7s/KT
dealing flop Ac Kd 2c
Fishboy77 bets $1
Jackass calls $1
dealing turn 3h
Fishboy77 checks
Jackass thinks, then bets $2
Fishboy77 curses, pounds beer, and folds.
By the time I cleared the bonus I had lost the $50 from Saturday night plus another $35. With the $100 bonus I'm in the black, but it definitely feels like a loss. If you can't win at $1/2 where can you win?
The other day my boss was complaining about how hard it is to get grants for biological research these days. He looked at me straight in the face and said "Why would you ever want to go into this business?" My answer: "I don't know how to do anything else." Well, that's not entirely true. I am learning how to play poker. But after this run of cards I found myself asking the same thing about poker. Loosing a hundred big bets in a row is enivitably gonna happen over and over if you play on a regular basis. I guess I just gotta get used to it. This run has shown me yet again how volitile poker can be. Therefore I have decided to revise my plan. I'm not gonna move up a limit until I have won 150 big bets. That's $900 at $3/6. Right now I'm at +$17. Damn, I have a long, long way to go.
***** Hand History for Game 2961204228 *****
3/6 Texas Hold'em Game Table (Limit) - Mon Oct 31 20:41:19 EST 2005
Table Table 65288 (Real Money) -- Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: BonitoKing ( $130)
Seat 2: Lazaparty ( $112.13)
Seat 3: Shepoker_ ( $173)
Seat 4: daedalus81 ( $131)
Seat 5: blocprty ( $169)
Seat 6: cuyahoga ( $167)
Seat 7: LoveOasis ( $141)
Seat 8: CptSpencer ( $98)
Seat 9: bakerydog ( $270.23)
Seat 10: Dadrocks222 ( $73.54)
Lazaparty posts small blind (1)
Shepoker_ posts big blind (3)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to BonitoKing [ Kc, As ]
daedalus81 folds.
blocprty folds.
cuyahoga calls (3)
LoveOasis calls (3)
CptSpencer folds.
bakerydog folds.
Dadrocks222 raises (6) to 6 (VPIP like 50, PFR like 2)
BonitoKing raises (9) to 9
Lazaparty folds.
Shepoker_ folds.
cuyahoga folds.
LoveOasis calls (6)
Dadrocks222 raises (6) to 12
BonitoKing calls (3)
LoveOasis calls (3)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 2c, 5d, Qs ]
LoveOasis checks.
Dadrocks222 checks.
BonitoKing bets (3)
LoveOasis calls (3)
Dadrocks222 calls (3)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Ah ]
LoveOasis checks.
Dadrocks222 bets (6)
BonitoKing raises (12) to 12
LoveOasis folds.
Dadrocks222 raises (12) to 18
BonitoKing calls (6)
** Dealing River ** : [ 2d ]
Dadrocks222 bets (6)
BonitoKing raises (12) to 12
Dadrocks222 raises (12) to 18
BonitoKing calls (6)
** Summary **
Main Pot: $121 | Rake: $3
Board: [ 2c 5d Qs Ah 2d ]
BonitoKing balance $79, lost $51 [ Kc As ] [ two pairs, aces and twos -- As,Ah,Kc,2c,2d ]
Lazaparty balance $111.13, lost $1 (folded)
Shepoker_ balance $170, lost $3 (folded)
daedalus81 balance $131, didn't bet (folded)
blocprty balance $169, didn't bet (folded)
cuyahoga balance $164, lost $3 (folded)
LoveOasis balance $126, lost $15 (folded)
CptSpencer balance $98, didn't bet (folded)
bakerydog balance $270.23, didn't bet (folded)
Dadrocks222 balance $143.54, bet $51, collected $121, net +$70 [ Ac Ad ] [ a full house, Aces full of twos -- Ac,Ad,Ah,2c,2d ]
Whoa!!! Seems like I must have been on tilt here right? No, it's just that I got confused between this guy and a guy at the same position of one of my other tables who was a complete maniac and who would have played the same way this guy did with Q8. Had I realized that this guy's PFA was around 1 (and it was right in front of me so I don't know why it didn't register), I most certainly would have played it much more passively. In fact, I might have even folded preflop. Wow. What a huge difference stats can make. But you gotta read 'em!!!
After dropping the $200 at $3/6 I decided to recover mentally and economically with some $1/2 at Bet365, which has a nice monthly bonus of $100/500 raked hands. Only problem is that the place is totally infested with bonus whores, kinda like the Crypto sites before they changed their definition of a raked hand. Here are the stats of your average $1/2 player at Bet365: VPIP = <15, PFR >5, PFA = 3. Basically these are good players. I suppose their post flop play isn't stellar, but I'll bet these games don't differ too much from your average $30/60 game at Party. So on Saturday night I'm on a miniroll. I take my JJ up against some tightass with KK and hit my J on the turn (which was about when I became sure he had QQ, KK, or AA. Then I got AK and raised under the gun. I got reraised by this dude on the button with a VPIP of 9 and a PFR of 2. Hmmm, what could that mean? I really didn't care what it meant when the flop came Q J T rainbow. He raised me on the flop but when I made it three bets (hoping he had QQ or JJ) he just called and then called me down again on both the turn and the river. He showed AA and didn't say anything, but I was feeling buzzed (off Miller High Life no less) and sassy so I couldn't resist a little trash talk. I think the conversation went something like this:
Fishboy77: wow, that's gotta hurt.
Fishboy77: you wait around all day for one of the two hands you actually play and then I suck out on you.
Unlucky tightass: no class.
Hey, it was like a $20 pot. I think he'll be OK. By the time we hit the bar, I was up a nice $50 or 25 bb.
But then Sunday it was back to bad beat bidness as usual. I must have set a Guinness book of world records for most consecutive times anyone raised preflop with KK, QQ, or JJ only to hit an A on the flop. Here's a typical hand:
Fishboy raises to $2 from MP with QQ
Jackass cold calls $2 from LP with A7s/KT
dealing flop Ac Kd 2c
Fishboy77 bets $1
Jackass calls $1
dealing turn 3h
Fishboy77 checks
Jackass thinks, then bets $2
Fishboy77 curses, pounds beer, and folds.
By the time I cleared the bonus I had lost the $50 from Saturday night plus another $35. With the $100 bonus I'm in the black, but it definitely feels like a loss. If you can't win at $1/2 where can you win?
The other day my boss was complaining about how hard it is to get grants for biological research these days. He looked at me straight in the face and said "Why would you ever want to go into this business?" My answer: "I don't know how to do anything else." Well, that's not entirely true. I am learning how to play poker. But after this run of cards I found myself asking the same thing about poker. Loosing a hundred big bets in a row is enivitably gonna happen over and over if you play on a regular basis. I guess I just gotta get used to it. This run has shown me yet again how volitile poker can be. Therefore I have decided to revise my plan. I'm not gonna move up a limit until I have won 150 big bets. That's $900 at $3/6. Right now I'm at +$17. Damn, I have a long, long way to go.
posted by Fishboy77 | 2:49 PM
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