Web traffic drops dramatically on the weekends as most people surf at work rather than work diligently at their jobs. So I’m posting my ill-timed stupid play today, hoping no one will read it.
I headed down to the basement after supper, my Stars bankroll sitting comfortably above $1000 ($1027) from my new HORSE prowess. I flipped open a new HORSE game, only to see me sneak below the $1k mark after a few hands of stud and Omaha. I got away from my just fold mentality long enough to lose to everything.
So the best way to get back above the $1k mark? Open up my new friend, NLHE. As I’m now an expert in the game from reading NLHE High Stakes on 2+2 plus playing three or four times, I figured I was ready to sneak back above the $1k mark. $0.50/$1 $100max was the game of choice, and after losing a buy-in I decided multi-tabling was an even better choice. Four tables going, how neat is that? One table in each quarter of my monitor, really cool stuff. Of course, you can barely see how much money people have or what they’ve bet, but man, that was just great. Final tally for the night: -$375. I’m not much of a hand history person, but please let me post a few of the most memorably moves of the night. I’ve rated them on a 10-1 scale with 10 being a typically brilliant play capable only by the best players in the world and 1 being the most donkorific play imaginable. I’ll add my own analysis after each rating, and if anyone actually reads this (I hope not) please feel free to give your own analysis and/or rating.
- Richard Lee’s JJ (4): The initial bustout hand, a fairly standard idiotic play in my opinion. I raise it to $4 UTG and the bb calls. Flop comes 4s-3s-10s, and bb checks to my $9 bet. He then raises to $20, and I think (do I, not sure there) and call another $11. What am I supposed to be calling for? What am I hoping for? Unknown. 6h on turn, bb bets $20 and I call again, then 7d hits the river and bb moves in covering my $41 and change. The only thing I can beat is TPTK, but I call to see his flopped set of 10′s. You may want to argue this should be rated lower than a 4, and I could agree with that in a vacuum, but once you see the next hands, it will be harder to argue that a 4 should be lowered (unless the scale can be lowered to negative numbers).
- The over-raise (7): I get dealt Ad-Kd in sb, middle position limps, short stack raises to $4, so I bet $22.90 (accidentally leaving the raiser fitty cent). Limper folds, and the raiser calls. Flop comes 9s-10c-Jd, I bet $1 and he calls me. Jc-7s completes the board, and of course he flips over Kc-Jh. Does he lay down to any bet pre-flop, do I just want to call? I don’t like calling with big slick there, rather take it down preflop if possible. I’ll let anyone else chime in here on this one.
- The draw (6): I limp UTG with 9s-8s. Why? I dunno, maybe watching too much High Stakes Poker, who knows. A middle position guy and the blinds see the limped flop of 4s-6d-5s, so I have a gutshot straight flush draw. I probably understand this isn’t video poker, that you don’t get a bonus for straight flushes, and this wasn’t an OESFD, but I’m in on this one. Short stack bb ($15) bets $2, I raise it to $7, he bets another $8 all-in and I instacall. 6c-9d gives me two-pair with a still missed everything to his flopped straight with 8c-7h. Rating of 6 is probably too high, but you decide.
- Hmmm (x): I get dealt Ah-10h in the sb, CO raises to $4, and I call heads-up. Flop comes 10d-5h-9h, could it get much better than this? Maybe, but this is pretty good for sure. He bets $6, I raise to $15, and he calls. Bigger raise here? Question 1 (should I have lead out? Maybe Question 1A). 6c, the benign rag, hits the turn. I bet $35, and he moves all-in covering my last $80. Now, I didn’t do any of this thinking, but let’s put the math out there. The pot is $8+30+35+80=$153 and I need to call $80, which is slightly less than 2:1 on my money. I have to assume I’m up against a set here and need a heart (20% to win), but can I lay this down here? Should I? I call, 4s hits the river, and he flips over 7c-8h for the straight. I don’t know how to rate myself on this hand, you decide the number.
- Idiot savant hold the savant (1): I get As-Kc in middle position and raise to $4. The sb, who has been at the table, moves all-in covering my re-buy. I think for maybe five seconds, squint ant the small numbers on the screen, then call my $96. The board Qh-2s-5d-4h-Tc, giving me a gutshot straight draw and two overcards but for some reason only five cards are dealt on the board this hand. He flips over K-K, I close all of my windows on the computer.
I run upstairs to watch the end of Emma, a Gwyneth Paltrow movie of the Jane Austen book with Sweetie. I thought tilt was something you got when you were upset, but it may be simply being moronic. I think that is a comfortable level of idiocy, maybe it’s a 2 instead of a 1, I’m not sure. Hopefully, no one will read this idiotic play recap, but if you do feel free to rate these hands and provide your own commentary.
Jamie Gold’s response here and here. Have a good weekend.
Clearly some days some self abuse is required. Though donating nearly 40% of your bankroll just makes it seem worse than it is. Actually, it is what it is, and it’s bad. Some thoughts about that hands you talked about.
First, the over-raise. Are you kidding me, you bet out 22.90? Clearly you were trying to be too cute. Round even numbers are your buddy and if you’re trying to buy the pot go big, or go home. I’ve found that more often than not, when you try to bet someones stack that screams bluff or in your case, a draw I’d rather not play. More importantly, this isn’t a tournament so what do you actually hope to achieve by ‘busting’ him? Best case is he reloads and donks away more chips. Worst case is he leaves and doesn’t stick around to take chips off the other players to feed to you when you do actually have a hand that holds up.
Next, the draw. Clearly you forgot the cardinal rule of draws. The BB bet out, and you raised your draw. *crickets chirp during stuned silence* Maybe you meant to put a decimal point in front of that rating.
Finally, hmmm. First of all, you called. If the CO is first in the pot you have to concider that this is a likely steal which demands a re-raise. If on the other hand, you think they’re likely to have a hand, you fold your $.50 blind to a 4xBB raise and move on. You know, its plays like this why they call it gambling.
I haven’t said anything you haven’t already thought of so let me try to point out something else. These are the hands that you lost with, aside from the stellar play it does bring into stark relief something else. Your aggressive monkey is running away with your game. If you played these hands that you probably shouldn’t have been involved with this aggressively, it makes me wonder how aggressively you’re playing the hands you do hit solidly with. Overplaying your hands is either way too much confidence in your abilities or too little respect for your opponents and you’re thinking you can run them over with your bets. In either case, the outcome is usually the same.
Just to be clear, this is 40% of my Stars account, not bankroll. No better, but to clarify. “Overplaying your hands is either way too much confidence in your abilities or too little respect for your opponents and you’re thinking you can run them over with your bets.” I think the operative word here is thinking, which seemed to be lacking throughout.
He he. I read it. I work Sundays.
OK, just one comment. We’ve all made the plays you made before. I’ve had my own fucking times when I’ve donked off a buy-in because I had an overpair (and QQ ran into KK how many times in a row recently?).
So don’t kill yourself, dude. You also had some bad luck.
Having said that, I think you called way too much. Remember the golden (Skalansky) rule: To call a hand, you must have a much better hand than you need to bet. You called off far too much money instead of betting it off. Next time try to put a guy on a hand when he bets at you and figure out if you’re beaten rather than simply hitting the call button.
We all make plays we probably wouldn’t make if online poker didn’t rush you.
Regardless, keep up the good work.