The "Long Run" of Poker
If you learn anything playing this game, it's that the "long run" is extremely long indeed. For example, when I first got myself back to playing a lot of LHE on Stars in February, I was literally crushing the 3/6 and 5/10 games and have taken quite a bit off the tables in cashouts.
That's where the bubble burst. It seems as though I just can't log myself a decent session at Stars since the cashouts (tinfoil hat anyone??), so what do I do? Continue to donk off chips in games that just aren't working for me? Hell no. I discovered PokerRoom, and started playing some $50NL there. I originally took $300 with me to clear a bonus, and within 2 days, I had cashed out the $300, cleared the bonus, and was playing with other people's money by being murderously aggressive. It's almost like I'm taking out my aggravation at the Stars LHE games on the poor sots over at PokerRoom. Sometimes a change in venue is required to get your game straight.
So I'm down close to $600 at Stars since my cashouts--where's my tinfoil hat?--and I've taken a mini-break from LHE, and I'm winning at PokerRoom, and I really haven't done a whole lot with Full Tilt lately. I decide to enter a new player freeroll at PokerRoom last night.
You can tell it's a freeroll when:
You go 2+ levels without playing a hand. You get dealt AA, raise 4x BB from UTG+1, get re-raised to 500 by a LP player, push all in, and see your AA heads up with 88. Of course, the 8 flops and your night is over.
But that's okay. It was a freeroll.
Then I saw THIS hand at the $50NL at Full Tilt (no, not a BAHH, just a re-cap). I'm UTG with AKs, and raise to $2.50. MP1 re-raises me to $7, and I flat call, and we're heads-up to the flop. Flop comes K-6-2 rainbow, and I check, figuring he'll be glad to do the betting for me. He bets $6 into a $14+ pot, and I push. He insta-calls, and shows...QQ? Turn brings an A, river gives the donkey his two-outer.
I actually had to ask him what his logic was in calling that bet in that situation. He said, and I quote, "There were still two queens in the deck. I figured one would come."
I responded, "Cute, but no, seriously, how could you call that," expecting him to say something like that he thought I was bluffing or something like that.
His deathly serious response, "I've been sucked out on a lot tonight, and I knew I was beat, but figured I was due."
No shit.
But it's all just a single hand in the big session of life.
Future plans right now include getting back to the LHE tables at Stars and getting myself back to the level of dominance I've exhibited over the last year--the "longer than now" run. I think I need to stop analyzing what the hell's happening over there. So this will be it, I promise. Trying to avoid the legendary tinfoil hat issue, all I can say is that it seems like someone over at Stars is sitting there, watching me play, and suddenly, they pull out the "He Can't Win" button and lay on it for a few weeks.
Some of these things are just ridiculous. I'm not immune to tilt, and I know for sure that a good amount of the losses have been tilt-dependent, but sometimes it makes you wonder. My Tracker numbers are identical, but it's just two numbers that tell the story: W$SD and, of course, winnings.
February 1-May 1, W$SD: 58.35%
May 1-May 24, W$SD: 41.65%
Ok. When I had the meltdown last fall, it looked like so...
January 1, 2005-October 8, 2005, W$SD: 56.32%
October 8, 2005-December 31, 2005, W$SD: 40.68%
VP$IP, PFR, AF-Total, etc. are virtually statistically identical. What happens, and this is the part of poker that frustrates me so much, is that the motherphucking luck element raises its ugly head. What's the difference in the above ranges? Your AK's don't hit. That third heart hits the river, allowing the idiot to hit his flush. The BB flops a straight to take down your top set. You start running KK into AA, AQ into AK, and AK into A2 when the 2 hits the river.
Which of course, puts you on tilt, which of course, tosses your game into the crapper, and you compound the problem by adjusting your style from Ultra-Aggressive to Ultra-Shitty. And so it goes. The only way to cure this, IMHO, is to take a break from the game to help block the negative mojo from your mind. Of course, it didn't help that the PokerStars 5-Billionth Hand thingy has been going on, which of course brought every moron with a dream out to play their brand of stupid poker. Only thing is, the "He Can't Win" button overcame my ability to outplay the truly idiotic. Of course, the button is only in my mind, and players like this are exactly the ones we want to play against, since they are the players that are building my adorable daughter's college fund.
Again, just a single hand in the big session of life.
Keep telling yourself that--it's just a single hand in the big session of life.
That's where the bubble burst. It seems as though I just can't log myself a decent session at Stars since the cashouts (tinfoil hat anyone??), so what do I do? Continue to donk off chips in games that just aren't working for me? Hell no. I discovered PokerRoom, and started playing some $50NL there. I originally took $300 with me to clear a bonus, and within 2 days, I had cashed out the $300, cleared the bonus, and was playing with other people's money by being murderously aggressive. It's almost like I'm taking out my aggravation at the Stars LHE games on the poor sots over at PokerRoom. Sometimes a change in venue is required to get your game straight.
So I'm down close to $600 at Stars since my cashouts--where's my tinfoil hat?--and I've taken a mini-break from LHE, and I'm winning at PokerRoom, and I really haven't done a whole lot with Full Tilt lately. I decide to enter a new player freeroll at PokerRoom last night.
You can tell it's a freeroll when:
You go 2+ levels without playing a hand. You get dealt AA, raise 4x BB from UTG+1, get re-raised to 500 by a LP player, push all in, and see your AA heads up with 88. Of course, the 8 flops and your night is over.
But that's okay. It was a freeroll.
Then I saw THIS hand at the $50NL at Full Tilt (no, not a BAHH, just a re-cap). I'm UTG with AKs, and raise to $2.50. MP1 re-raises me to $7, and I flat call, and we're heads-up to the flop. Flop comes K-6-2 rainbow, and I check, figuring he'll be glad to do the betting for me. He bets $6 into a $14+ pot, and I push. He insta-calls, and shows...QQ? Turn brings an A, river gives the donkey his two-outer.
I actually had to ask him what his logic was in calling that bet in that situation. He said, and I quote, "There were still two queens in the deck. I figured one would come."
I responded, "Cute, but no, seriously, how could you call that," expecting him to say something like that he thought I was bluffing or something like that.
His deathly serious response, "I've been sucked out on a lot tonight, and I knew I was beat, but figured I was due."
No shit.
But it's all just a single hand in the big session of life.
Future plans right now include getting back to the LHE tables at Stars and getting myself back to the level of dominance I've exhibited over the last year--the "longer than now" run. I think I need to stop analyzing what the hell's happening over there. So this will be it, I promise. Trying to avoid the legendary tinfoil hat issue, all I can say is that it seems like someone over at Stars is sitting there, watching me play, and suddenly, they pull out the "He Can't Win" button and lay on it for a few weeks.
Some of these things are just ridiculous. I'm not immune to tilt, and I know for sure that a good amount of the losses have been tilt-dependent, but sometimes it makes you wonder. My Tracker numbers are identical, but it's just two numbers that tell the story: W$SD and, of course, winnings.
February 1-May 1, W$SD: 58.35%
May 1-May 24, W$SD: 41.65%
Ok. When I had the meltdown last fall, it looked like so...
January 1, 2005-October 8, 2005, W$SD: 56.32%
October 8, 2005-December 31, 2005, W$SD: 40.68%
VP$IP, PFR, AF-Total, etc. are virtually statistically identical. What happens, and this is the part of poker that frustrates me so much, is that the motherphucking luck element raises its ugly head. What's the difference in the above ranges? Your AK's don't hit. That third heart hits the river, allowing the idiot to hit his flush. The BB flops a straight to take down your top set. You start running KK into AA, AQ into AK, and AK into A2 when the 2 hits the river.
Which of course, puts you on tilt, which of course, tosses your game into the crapper, and you compound the problem by adjusting your style from Ultra-Aggressive to Ultra-Shitty. And so it goes. The only way to cure this, IMHO, is to take a break from the game to help block the negative mojo from your mind. Of course, it didn't help that the PokerStars 5-Billionth Hand thingy has been going on, which of course brought every moron with a dream out to play their brand of stupid poker. Only thing is, the "He Can't Win" button overcame my ability to outplay the truly idiotic. Of course, the button is only in my mind, and players like this are exactly the ones we want to play against, since they are the players that are building my adorable daughter's college fund.
Again, just a single hand in the big session of life.
Keep telling yourself that--it's just a single hand in the big session of life.
2 Comments:
i feel you..
i'm on a brutal downswing on party poker right now...but my "brutal" loss is probably maybe a buy-in or two for you haha..
motherphuckin' luck, you said it.
I tend to tilt myself, and like you try to look long term. I had a great result playing live last night, that restored confidence in my game. I "like" poker again, haha.
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