Well, I've been reporting the good, so I gotta report the ugly. I'll do my best to not turn this in to a bad beat rant, but some of this will turn in to that.
To cut to the chase, it was a marathon session from hell. Started at around 5:30 and lasted until about 2:45. I can't even wait until tomorrow to post this cuz I gott get it out of my system.
I basically could not do anything right. I don't think I was playing poorly for the most part, but nearly every decision I made that involved a big pot was disasterous. Sometimes I was running into monsters, sometimes I was getting chopped off with suited cheese and a few times good laydowns turned into woulda, coulda, shoulda hands.
The hand that really just taunted me all night was pocket Js. I had them 8 times (never had a bigger pocket in the nearly 9 hour session) and no matter what I did, it was wrong. Raise them before the flop and the board would come with 17 overcards. Try to push a few, but get called with some cheese that called the raise with a suited K2 or unsuited A4 and pretty much got away from them, when I was pretty sure I was behind. Played them real strong once when I went all-i nover the top of a raise that turned out to be KK. Rebuy. Had TT a couple times and got the same lack of love.
About the 5th time I got JJ, I finally turned a set, but of course it was the third card to a flush. I bet them strong and was called by one fish who held the naked Ace of hearts and right on cue, the 4th heart came on the river. Much later I got them again laid them down to an Ace on the board. The players were all-in and my JJ was good and then it himproved to a set on the river. Later still, the kid that had just sat down to my right was running real hot and raised into me with the same shake that he had 2 hands earlier wiht KK, so I let them go. He was called all-in by a new fish to my left and they showed TT and AT. My JJ was good. The flop would have brought me a set and the turn a boat. They were just mocking me.
About mid-session I did lay a pretty ugly suckout on a guy when I had QT suited in late position. He had raised from early position and there were neough callers to justify seeing the flop with that relatively weak hand. The flop came Q high with one spade. The raiser checked and it checked around to me. I shoved my last $70 in and the raiser immediately called. I knew I was behind the minute he called. He had AQ. Had he bet the flop, I likely would have been gone, but the door opened and I tired to muscle my way through one hand. I hit runner-runner spades to take the hand. By hte time we were seeing the river I had picked up a bunch of outs, so it really wasn't as bad as it looked. I apologized and he said not to worry that he'd get it back. Probably, but thanks for the attitude.
About an orbit later, I was in mid. position and held A9 spades and limped, the same guy raise from the button. Only one other caller and I didn't feel that a call was a good move, so I tossed it in. Flop came A95. Turn 9. River 5. I was way ahead after the flop had I stayed in. Just that kind of night.
Got AK aboiut 5 times all from the blinds (back to back at one time) or UTG. I don't like to raise that hand from out of position very much so I just limped hoping to hookup. The first time, I actually hit a K on the flop, but failed to get anyone to open for my check-raise. Turn was an aparent blank but 2 clubs and 2 spades on the board (I had diamonds). I bet the pot and was called by a wanna-be rounder. The river was a red queen, so I bet my hand again, sure it was good. The fishy guy called and showed Q6s for 2 pair - he was chasing down one of the flush draws. Brutal. After that, I didn't hook up with anything at all with Big Slick. Nothing, nada, zilch.
Eevery time I tired anything that resembled a strong move (which wasn't often), I was faced with huge resistance and people firing over the top at me. Nearly every time I got a peice of a flop (which was very rare), there would be rediculous action and I'd have to get out of the way. The bad juju was simply relentless.
I hung around and hung around trying to be patient and get at least a little unstuck. I'd see the flop with the occasional cheesey hand form position when the family was limping, but mostly waited for at least semi-premium hands to donate chips with. I was consistlently getting absolute trash on the button so I could never get any leverage.
I was into the game for $400 - twice what I normally plan to risk in any given session, but there was just no real reason to leave the table. Nobody was really playing very well overall and I felt like giving it a chance to come back.
I had been nursing a $120 to $170 stack for several hours. One double up and I'd be near unstuck. Pocket jacks reared their ugly head one more time. There was a raise ahead of me. I had position and just called the raise as the player was somewhat new and I didn't know what he could have held. There was one other caller - this old guy who sat down and showed pretty much nothing but cheese and made a lot of very bad calls but just kept hooking up no matter how far behind he was or how truly shitty his hand was. He didn't play a lot of hands (by that I mean he only saw half the flops), but if he saw the river, he was dragging a lot of chips. He was one of the guys I was just waiting to get into a hand with if I could ever hook up with something.
The flop came KJ8 2 clubs, The preflop raiser put his last $22 in and I just wanted to shut out the old scaly fish so he wouldn't chase the flush draw on the board. So I shoved my last $107 into a $70 pot. He didn't even hesitate to peel the money off his stack. I was saying "please don't let him suck out on me" kind of under my breath. Raiser had AA and the old fish was holding T9 diamonds. So he threw $100 bucks at a $170 pot that could have easily only been a 3 outer if he had any thought behind him (AT would have wrecked his Q and the flush draw would have taken his 7c out of use.) Of course, his thought process didn't go anywhere near that level - he had a draw and a lot of chips so he called. Turn brought a second diamond so now he had a flush draw to go with his straight draw. River brought a black 7 which for a moment looked like relief until I did the math and saw it made his straight. Jeez. (I'm using all my restraint not to lace this thread with profanity.) All I could say is: "That is so wrong." and shoved my chair back and headed for home ready to kill the next person who got in front of me. Steaming, yeah I was steaming bad. I was mumbling profanities to myself about the lucky jackass all the way out to my truck and most of the way home. After hours and hours of little more than pain, agony and torture, I finally get a chance to build my stack a bit and get beat by the oldest fish in the ocean. It WAS wrong. Very wrong. I seem to have stumbled into some ugliness in this game. I hope it's very temporary. I can't say I played every hand perfectly, but I just can't point to any terrible decisions that I wouldn't make again given all the circumstances. Just a horrid session.
Can't say that I feel better yet, but thanks for listening......
To cut to the chase, it was a marathon session from hell. Started at around 5:30 and lasted until about 2:45. I can't even wait until tomorrow to post this cuz I gott get it out of my system.
I basically could not do anything right. I don't think I was playing poorly for the most part, but nearly every decision I made that involved a big pot was disasterous. Sometimes I was running into monsters, sometimes I was getting chopped off with suited cheese and a few times good laydowns turned into woulda, coulda, shoulda hands.
The hand that really just taunted me all night was pocket Js. I had them 8 times (never had a bigger pocket in the nearly 9 hour session) and no matter what I did, it was wrong. Raise them before the flop and the board would come with 17 overcards. Try to push a few, but get called with some cheese that called the raise with a suited K2 or unsuited A4 and pretty much got away from them, when I was pretty sure I was behind. Played them real strong once when I went all-i nover the top of a raise that turned out to be KK. Rebuy. Had TT a couple times and got the same lack of love.
About the 5th time I got JJ, I finally turned a set, but of course it was the third card to a flush. I bet them strong and was called by one fish who held the naked Ace of hearts and right on cue, the 4th heart came on the river. Much later I got them again laid them down to an Ace on the board. The players were all-in and my JJ was good and then it himproved to a set on the river. Later still, the kid that had just sat down to my right was running real hot and raised into me with the same shake that he had 2 hands earlier wiht KK, so I let them go. He was called all-in by a new fish to my left and they showed TT and AT. My JJ was good. The flop would have brought me a set and the turn a boat. They were just mocking me.
About mid-session I did lay a pretty ugly suckout on a guy when I had QT suited in late position. He had raised from early position and there were neough callers to justify seeing the flop with that relatively weak hand. The flop came Q high with one spade. The raiser checked and it checked around to me. I shoved my last $70 in and the raiser immediately called. I knew I was behind the minute he called. He had AQ. Had he bet the flop, I likely would have been gone, but the door opened and I tired to muscle my way through one hand. I hit runner-runner spades to take the hand. By hte time we were seeing the river I had picked up a bunch of outs, so it really wasn't as bad as it looked. I apologized and he said not to worry that he'd get it back. Probably, but thanks for the attitude.
About an orbit later, I was in mid. position and held A9 spades and limped, the same guy raise from the button. Only one other caller and I didn't feel that a call was a good move, so I tossed it in. Flop came A95. Turn 9. River 5. I was way ahead after the flop had I stayed in. Just that kind of night.
Got AK aboiut 5 times all from the blinds (back to back at one time) or UTG. I don't like to raise that hand from out of position very much so I just limped hoping to hookup. The first time, I actually hit a K on the flop, but failed to get anyone to open for my check-raise. Turn was an aparent blank but 2 clubs and 2 spades on the board (I had diamonds). I bet the pot and was called by a wanna-be rounder. The river was a red queen, so I bet my hand again, sure it was good. The fishy guy called and showed Q6s for 2 pair - he was chasing down one of the flush draws. Brutal. After that, I didn't hook up with anything at all with Big Slick. Nothing, nada, zilch.
Eevery time I tired anything that resembled a strong move (which wasn't often), I was faced with huge resistance and people firing over the top at me. Nearly every time I got a peice of a flop (which was very rare), there would be rediculous action and I'd have to get out of the way. The bad juju was simply relentless.
I hung around and hung around trying to be patient and get at least a little unstuck. I'd see the flop with the occasional cheesey hand form position when the family was limping, but mostly waited for at least semi-premium hands to donate chips with. I was consistlently getting absolute trash on the button so I could never get any leverage.
I was into the game for $400 - twice what I normally plan to risk in any given session, but there was just no real reason to leave the table. Nobody was really playing very well overall and I felt like giving it a chance to come back.
I had been nursing a $120 to $170 stack for several hours. One double up and I'd be near unstuck. Pocket jacks reared their ugly head one more time. There was a raise ahead of me. I had position and just called the raise as the player was somewhat new and I didn't know what he could have held. There was one other caller - this old guy who sat down and showed pretty much nothing but cheese and made a lot of very bad calls but just kept hooking up no matter how far behind he was or how truly shitty his hand was. He didn't play a lot of hands (by that I mean he only saw half the flops), but if he saw the river, he was dragging a lot of chips. He was one of the guys I was just waiting to get into a hand with if I could ever hook up with something.
The flop came KJ8 2 clubs, The preflop raiser put his last $22 in and I just wanted to shut out the old scaly fish so he wouldn't chase the flush draw on the board. So I shoved my last $107 into a $70 pot. He didn't even hesitate to peel the money off his stack. I was saying "please don't let him suck out on me" kind of under my breath. Raiser had AA and the old fish was holding T9 diamonds. So he threw $100 bucks at a $170 pot that could have easily only been a 3 outer if he had any thought behind him (AT would have wrecked his Q and the flush draw would have taken his 7c out of use.) Of course, his thought process didn't go anywhere near that level - he had a draw and a lot of chips so he called. Turn brought a second diamond so now he had a flush draw to go with his straight draw. River brought a black 7 which for a moment looked like relief until I did the math and saw it made his straight. Jeez. (I'm using all my restraint not to lace this thread with profanity.) All I could say is: "That is so wrong." and shoved my chair back and headed for home ready to kill the next person who got in front of me. Steaming, yeah I was steaming bad. I was mumbling profanities to myself about the lucky jackass all the way out to my truck and most of the way home. After hours and hours of little more than pain, agony and torture, I finally get a chance to build my stack a bit and get beat by the oldest fish in the ocean. It WAS wrong. Very wrong. I seem to have stumbled into some ugliness in this game. I hope it's very temporary. I can't say I played every hand perfectly, but I just can't point to any terrible decisions that I wouldn't make again given all the circumstances. Just a horrid session.
Can't say that I feel better yet, but thanks for listening......
