Poker Plays with PokerPeaker – Playing Frustrated
I'm playing $.25/.50 NL on Ultimate Bet. I'm in the middle of a frustrating losing streak, when I've been sucked out on several times and lost to coolers as well.I'm dealt K♣-A♦. I raise to $1.75. I get three callers. I don't like to see that but oh well. Here comes the flop.
Hmm, it's actually a pretty good one; it's 6♠-2♠-K♦.
I bet the minimum, 50c, which really isn't that good of a bet, but I wasn't playing very well at this point and should have quit a long time ago, as I'll explain below.
I am raised to $4. I call and the raise runs everyone else out of the hand.
The 6♥ comes down.
I check. I have to admit, the raise makes me nervous and I want to see what he'll do. This is mistake #1. If I'm willing to call a raise out of position with top pair, I need to continue to fire away at the flop or fold from the start. A check here signals weakness.
He bets $9.
Wow. That's a pretty strong bet. But I call anyway. After all, my check told me nothing about his hand, and he could just be attacking my weakness. This is why the check was such a mistake.
On the river the 4♥ comes down. That doesn't change the hand, and when he bets $12, I call, and he shows A♣-6♣.
A tough hand, to be sure, and a hand that shows how my week was going in a nutshell.
But I made several mistakes on this hand, and I attribute it to the fact that I was frustrated and refused to believe I was getting sucked out on, yet again, when evidence showed to the contrary.
This hand is a perfect example of why losing streaks start and can continue for months. Losing clouds your thinking. It's too easy to get into several modes of thinking, all of which are damaging:
• There's no WAY he has a X because I've already lost to several suckouts already.
• I'm going to play really tight and leave the aggression to the other players.
• Screw it, I'm gonna keep calling until I hit my card. If people can suck out against me, than I can as well.
• I have to see what these donkeys are playing against me.
• Oh, they think they can push me around because I'm losing, eh? Nobody pushes me around.
If any of these thoughts go through your head, log off and go play a video game.
Losing streaks are tough to go through. But the idea is to keep them as short and as painless as possible, and the way you do that is you approach every hand with a clear head. After all, playing like you're on a winning streak is the only way to get back to one.
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