Tuesday, May 1, 2007

A God Damn Foot on my Neck

Every fucking time I start to put something together, I hit a massive wall. I was starting to make a comeback and was almost even on the year. In fact, I was -$715 as of last week. I had a few bad days in there and then tonight hits. I played a 40 minute session at Commerce. In that 40 minutes, I played 4 hands not counting posting/folding a few blinds. The first hand that I play: A semi-short stack openraises to $30 in early/middle postion. There are two callers ahead of me and I have AhQc in the BB. I just call because I don't know very many players at the table including the three in this pot. The $120 flop comes down Qh 10s 9h. I check, Original Raiser bets out $75 and both limpers call the $75. Seeing that the O. Raiser has only $175 or so left and feeling that the other two were definetly drawing I went all in for $285 more. The original raiser calls and the other two fold. I show AQ and he says "You're good for now" turn comes 6c and the river comes Ks and he turns over AJoff for Broadway.

2nd Hand I play: I am down to about $110-$115. Two hands later on the button, after two limpers I have AhQc again, I go all in trying to either get in a race or take the $35 and start rebuilding. There is no sense in raising here and getting someone into the pot when my CB would have no strength if i missed the flop. Both blinds fold and the first limper calls me and shows his AsQs after i show mine. Board comes innocuous and we chop.

3rd hand I play: About 6 hands later I am in 2nd position with the same $120-$125. I have Ah Ks. UTG limps and I want to make some money and get into a confronation, but I decide to limp as well and obviously push/call any raise. If i miss the flop and fold then I only lose $10. Well, it gets 6 limpers and the SB makes it $150. After UTG folds, I immediately call and everyone else folds. After the dealer makes the pot right, I ask if he has a pair and he responds "What does it matter?" and I say "I just wan t to know if my Aces and Kings are live" as I show my AK. He says "They're live". The flop comes down Ac 6c 3d. Turn comes 9c. He then says "you're good". The river comes Qc. He says "I have a club" and turns over his 7h 2c for the winner.

4th hand I play: After rebuying and and watching a few rounds go by without playing a hand I see some just ridiculous things. The table is just horrible. The AJ from the first hand has gotten super lucky and played his good hands badly and won, his bad hands badly and won, and everything badly and won. He had about $170 before the 1st hand listed was played and in the 25 minutes since then has made Quads, a gutshot, counterfeited someone's hand, and counterfeited another person's hand to build up to about $2000. After a setup has been called, a few people get up to smoke while the dealer checks the deck. They haven't returned yet so we take this hand 6 handed with me being UTG. I get 7c7h and usually raise it here but just limp. Our hero (AJ) limps and the button raises to $70. The two blinds fold and I call because i get the feeling just by the way he raised that he really didn't have a pair. But I still had $350+ so i didn't want to race off here for no reason. To my suprise, AJ calls the$70 as well after just flippantly limping in the first place. Well, my plan here was to lead out big if there were no cards over a 10. The board comes 7s 6c 3d. Well, no reason to play this too fast. I don't think the button has a big pair so I doubt if i lead he will raise. So i checked, AJ bets a pathetic $30 into the $220 pot and the button only calls the $30. So I know AJ has some weak draw (I assumed 89) and the button was just phising with big cards as assumed. So i wanted to keep them in and I raised to $100 (only $70 more). Big mistake. They both called. So going into the turn, there was $520 in the pot. The turn was the 8c. Not a fun card but one that almost certainly did not kill me. I went all in for $210 and AJ makes it $500 by putting in a whole rack. Button folds and I ask do you have a straight? Of course, he turns over 9s 10s for the gutshot and the 10c doesn't improve my set.

I can't count how many of these little shit session of <1hour I have had where people will not lay down a hand and my boss hand will not hold. Its just draining to see this day in and day out. I want to play in games where the stacks are deeper and people have more of a reason to fold but I just can't build a bankroll big enough for that without running through these games.

2 comments:

nmlump said...

at least you are not playing limit! you'll get the money, let them "out play you" with weak holdings.

Craig Berger said...

I also like to bluff with 72o for the psychological value. I think players steam much faster getting bluffed off a hand with 72 or worse losing with a superior hand when something like a 7 hits or a 2 high flush than they do when they lose to like, 97off, even though there's not that much difference mathematically. You can't really fault the guy's play. A bunch of people limped and he was next to last to act, so he decided to make a move. He had a reasonable expectation to win the pot and the fact is, you are really only about a 2 to 1 favorite against him even though it seems like you have him crushed.