Thursday, February 24, 2011

One of those nights...

I hate when you have one of those nights where your reads and plays are constantly off.  Last night was such a night for me.  I've been finding that those types of nights, which I'd classify as playing poorly, are usually preceded by a massive EV downswing night, which is exactly the type of night I had the prior night.

As I've referred to before, I've been moving my primary play over to Bodog & PokerStars.  I honestly feel as though the average donk on Full Tilt has become a lot smarter, and though I can still win, the winnings are not as great as what could be realized elsewhere.  I've built up a roll on Bodog and I'm continuing to build on Stars - to the point where I can comfortably 6-8 table 25NL without fear of being able to auto top-off.  Regardless, I log into Bodog and expect to win; if I don't walk away with at least a buy in, it's a disappointment, or I got smacked by the variance tree.  (I guess the prior sentence sounds somewhat stupid; I should expect to win anywhere I log in and play...)

Last night, though, I played and didn't listen to my opponent's face-up styles of play and fold when I was behind.  I had to rely on the good 'ole "suckout when the money is in the center" method, where I hit a river set on a turn all in vs. a PF 3bet AA.  Against the same opponent, I ran into a situation which I'm not really sure how to interpret, but I consider poor play on my part again: I raise A7s in the HJ and am 3bet (again, same opponent some 30-40 hands later) from the BTN.  I flat and see a 2 5 7-high flop.  I check and he bets $6 into the $8 pot (i.e. he 3bet my $1.50 raise to $~4).  I flat and we go to the turn which is a blank.  We check through the turn (fail on him for giving me a free card - I plan to fold to a 2 barrel) and see an Ace on the river.  From his checked turn, I immediately assume that he has AK and lead for $20 into $20 - most Bodog players won't lay down a rivered TPTK or TPGK in this type of situation - dry board, etc.  He insta calls and shows KK and I take down a $60 pot on a nice 5 outter.  Needless to say, there was a TON of chatter in the chatbox.

My poor play continued into the Mookie / Dank where I knocked out Hoyazo on running deuces, with A2s on a 3 5 9 board (he had T9o), but started to finally get cards and play solid until my final blowup with 22 on a 5 6 7 board vs. 99.  (That hand was at least excusable in my mind, because my oldest got out of bed, and sleep walked downstairs - I had to get him back in bed while dealing with my crying middle child whose "back was hurting".  She's friggin 6.  What does she know about back aches?  I felt bad that she was having growing pains.  I didn't want to wake the wife up who is sick herself.)  At least I got a knockout / bounty from Alcanthang (thanks, Al!), for the knockout of Hoy.  All in all, I want to bury last night in the back of my mind and not revisit it.

I don't even know why I'm writing this; I feel like this is life as usual in the ups & downs of a poker player.  I guess that's what I'm trying to convince myself.  I think I need to be more self-aware and shutdown when I feel like I'm not playing my "A" game.

6 comments:

  1. don't like calling the 3bet with A7s unless you're planning on shoving flush draws and a bunch more.

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  2. Likewise. It's always fun and the table we started with was a very good table as far as bloggers / players are concerned. There wasn't any "easy money," with the exception of me.

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  3. @Matt - Agreed, particularly when I'm OOP. However, this guy was already tilted from my earlier set suckout that I figured him to be 3betting me wide. In addition, the 3bet was on the small side: from $1.5 he raised to $3.50 or $4.00. He was jawing like CRAZY after this; I think I busted his entire bankroll down to something like $20 in the 2 hands.

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  4. I don't hate A7s play - mainly because you shouldn't make a habit of raise/folding preflop for image reason - but villain plays it worse but checking the turn through, so there. All you have to do is make less mistakes than the other guy...

    But yes, when it's obviously not going well and your play is bleh, best to just shut it down and rack it up for another day. Tables aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

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  5. I don't like flatting A7 at all.

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