I have a hard time saying goodbye, and saying goodbye with a list of bad beats seems somewhat rude, but as I document each all-in hand that I go out with in my little spreadsheet, I shake my head slowly at the incredulousness of it all. And by all, I mean at just how much luck is involved and just how much patience you need to look beyond that luck that I just don’t have anymore.
These aren’t typical coinflip situations, which I understand and don’t get too angry the umpteenth time someone calls my AK all-in with 44. Yet tit-for-tat, I believe I should be winning my share when I call an all-in with 10-10 and they get their A or K (I still can’t bring myself to call all-ins with low pairs).
60/40′s are okay.
But the others…
Tonight, in the space of 10 hands at one table:
KK loses to AQ, all-in on flop of J-3-6 (13.5%)
AA loses to 55, all-in preflop (18.2%)
QQ loses to 44, all-in preflop (18.1%)
AA equals QQ, all-in preflop with straight on board (0.5%)
QQ loses to 10-J, all-in preflop (13.3%)
The last two were mine.
Action hands or what?
I saw a friend all-in with QQ against AA. The flop was A-Q-J. He rivered quads.
Even I had the good end once, with KJs and an all-in on the 10-A-x flop (against his AQ). Rivered a royal flush, my 6th ever. Still lost the SnG.
The kicker though was my bustout tonight, pushing and seeing someone call me with…10-2.
I expected to see overcards or pairs or connectors as usual, but ten-deuce… suited.
And yeah, he covered me by 5x (I was 10x blinds) and put me on overcards and 60/40 cards that I probably didn’t contain either of his cards in my hand.
And yeah, we both paired the flop of A-9-2 with him rivering the 10.
And yeah, I do want calls like that.
But man, 10-2 just seems a kick in the groin, like the evil poker gods teasing that I don’t even need to be beaten by a somewhat equal hand, a 10-2 will suffice.
And that’s where my luck’s been in the short 2008 that’s seen me win a best double finish in the Daily Double, play four of the FTOPs events including the Main Event, and a whole lot of SnGs. Coupled with other bad games I shouldn’t be playing, though, I’m already down more this year than I lost last year.
Yet I can’t seem to break away from playing (damn Iron Man).
And over and over, the beats keep coming.
While watching a few of my games where I was constantly dominated with pairs (twice against Aces — a beat I don’t mind because at least they’re holding up for someone), a friend said he didn’t believe in luck until he saw me play and doesn’t want to stand next to me in a thunderstorm.
Snowplows totaling my car notwithstanding, I don’t think I’m too unlucky. In general. But maybe narrowly avoiding death for two of my nine lives is costing me these percentage points in cards.
And maybe I need to take a long break to let all this bad luck stink on me wash away.
I just hate to go out down instead of on top.
In any event, apologies for a downer of a final post.
Now you know why I’ve been dragging my fingers to write this.
Much thanks to Linda for welcoming me and the other bloggers into her home over a year ago and for having too much patience for my laziness in wanting to post something upbeat rather than the above drivel. The Bellagio just isn’t the same without her, and whenever I’m in town I still look around the tables thinking I’ll see her seamlessly dealing the big game or 4/8 limit or high-limit coin-tosses.
Before I had a blog, I read Linda’s. She showed it was possible to talk about poker yet really talk about life.
And thanks to Tony G., who I had the pleasure of sharing blogspace with. I get such a kick out of him tilting players, and by all accounts, he’s one of the most sincerely nicest poker players off-camera. There aren’t too many of those.
And to my fellow archived PokerWorks bloggers, Iggy, Change100, Speaker, Maudie, Amy, Michael Craig, and CC — an esteemed and intimidating group of powerhouse writers who make me not know what to write.
Jeez what is this, the Oscars?
Anyway, I’ll still be watching for updates from Linda, Tony G., and Ken’s addendums.
Thanks for the indulgence. I hope to be playing poker less, other games even less than that, and maybe catch up on sleep.
You can catch my progress on all that over at pokergrub.com.