Frustration

I usually am pretty even keel in my play. I get the beats and occasionally give em. I try to recognize all the aspects of play.

I made the Friday brag about being back to break even. Hey, that ain’t much but its all I had. So, would you believe every session after the brag has been a loser – an’ nasty ones at that.

I just played a .50-1 table on Full Tilt. The table was juicy. Juicy translates to chasers and today they were chasers that hit. I basically lost a double buyin on two hands. I had a set of kings and a set of Aces on 4^th street with both and lost both to folks using all their down cards to win. The last one even came from the one guy that seemed as tight-aggressive as one should play. I limped UTG on the door with AA3 and he raised with a low ranking but connected drawing hand. I reraised and bet every street. He caught the river. At least he had to grace to apologize as I left the table with zero to return to the bankroll.

I do realize that I’m barely above adequate to be generous. But, it is frustrating to watch people raise with 6’s up and win when my strong hands have been going down in flames.

I’m also struggling with the concept of raising with solid hands. I started off doing it. Then, I became a slow play maven. Now I’m pretty much back to pushing them with a bit of mix like the AA3 I just mentioned, That was even two suited for a bit extra pop. I did manage to isolate the play – not that it did any good. Usually, my raising falls on deaf ears. I can raise late with 4-5 already in the pot and there isn’t a single fold. Does it make sense to bet to isolate when it almost never happens? I continue to struggle with that.

I think I understand the odds fairly well. It isn’t the same understanding as at Holdem. Keeping track of the cards still in the deck isn’t quite as simple. So, I rely more on the canned tables that tell you things like a 3-flush is 4.5 to 1 and that first brick changes that to 8:1. The thing is the tables are so loose that you often have the pot odds to continue on 4^th street. But, even when that isn’t there the people in these cheap seat evidently never read a stud article or table. They’ll keep chasing, even when the next brick should have got their attention.

The guy that won that last hand was, I thought, the best other player at the table. Although, he was talking his game a bit and trashing the guy next to me. But, he could fold and he wasn’t in every hand like some. I try to understand the pot odds being almost there but there is no way our heads up play gave him a good chase. Although, to be fair, I didn’t really review the hand thoroughly. I was too PO’d to hang around and look. I do know that his door raise was a very weak move and foldable to the reraise.

At times I can fall asleep at the switch and do some dumb things. But this cycle from Friday to now doesn’t have that feature. I’ve been alert and thought I watch what was out well. My reads have been fairly solid along the way. But, I can’t seem to catch a break. When I get a hand there always seems to be better. There are a lot of big hands at the stud tables. It isn’t a terrible shock when a good set goes belly up. But, almost every time? That’s been the game of late.

ADDENDUM:

I see that Guitar Hero was one of the must-have items this year. I saw a demo unit set up an one of the local electronics outlets. I expect testosterone riddled 13 year olds to be playing it but there were a few of the balding suburban-hip in the line too. I even saw Otis has fallen under the allure after shipping a super nice guitar off to Chako. Seems the guy should be able to tell the difference between a nice acoustic or a Rik and an undersized runt of a plastic imitation sans strings. Standing in public and moving your hand in a manner that should be reserved for the privacy of the john with a magazine in the other hand is not that classy.

I know we guys can do some dumb things at times — especially at 2 AM in a bar nestled near a sports book. But, in the middle of Best Buy or Circuit City? And sober? Hey, I know its a cute thingy and your six-year old is even cuter doing it. But give me a break with those of voting age here…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Journal, Other poker. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.