because all I have are bad beat stories....

I've been busy recently, and haven't played much poker, but I did manage to get into a tourney yesterday. The usual $6/90 player kind I always play, and although I made it quite far, I ended up with nothing but a bad taste in my mouth.

Down to the final 14, top 9 pay out, and I'm dealt pocket Aces. I hadn't been playing very many hands at all, so much so that earlier in the tournament I made the minimum raise UTG with 2-3 suited, and everyone folded very quickly. As a result, I'm left wondering what to do with this hand.

I'm the BB, so really it's an ideal situation to be in. Everyone folds until it gets to the Button, who limps in. The SB folds, and I'm left with a tough decision. My concern is if I raise, the player on the Button will fold because I have created such a tight table image for myself, and I'll have lost a great opportunity to double up. On the other hand, if I let my opponent see a cheap flop, I'll be putting myself in position for yet another bad beat.

I decide to make a relatively small bet at 3x the BB. The blinds are getting pretty high, so even though it doesn't seem like much, I know there's still a decent chance my opponent folds. He makes the call, and we see a flop.

10-J-6, with no flush draw.

I'm first to act, and not really sure how I feel about this flop, but unless he has 10s or Jacks, I'm likely still ahead, so I bet out about half the pot-size. Seems again like a small bet, but at this point the pot represents about half of my entire stack, my opponent doesn't have a lot more either.

He calls, and the turn brings a K.

Now I'm feeling a little more comfortable, thinking maybe he has a hand like A-K, and he'll push all-in here. So I check, and sure enough, he immediately pushes all-in. As this is all part of my brilliant master plan, I don't even hesitate to call. He flips over K-Q for top pair with the open-ended straight draw.

I have to avoid him hitting any 9 (4), any Q (3), any K(2) or one of the 2 remaining Aces. By my calculations, I'm more than an 80% favorite to win this hand, but when the Ace hits on the river, giving me a set of Aces but giving my opponent a straight, I was understandably pissed off.

I can't really fault my opponent, although at that stage of the game calling a raise with K-Q off suite may have been a bit weak, but then my raise wasn't huge, and he did have a solid hand. 

Now my online account sits at less than $50 for the first time since winning $92 after winning the money in the first place from 2 freerolls. Still making something from nothing, but considering just 3 weeks ago I'd managed to get build my bankroll to just over $200, things have really gone downhill.

I will need to win some money soon, or I may be back to playing freerolls, and that's not an attractive thought at all. A long way from my dream of playing in the World Series of Poker without investing a single penny on my own, but as the saying goes, all you need is a chip and a chair.

Why am I so dumb?

The title is a rhetorical question, so please don't feel the need to answer it. It seems when I get into the habit of playing poker online, I eventually make the same mistake, and it costs me every time. For more than the past month I have been playing quite frequently online, in various tournament styles and buy-ins, but the one thing that had remained the same was I was only playing tournaments. You see, in the past, just like recently, I have always done well in tournaments, but cash games would destroy me.

The best example of this happened about a year ago. Much like this time around, I had made some money in a Freeroll, managed to get it up to about $75 in a cash game, then got crushed by one hand. My opponent and I were both all-in preflop, and when the cards were flipped over, we both had AA. Like anyone here, I assume a split pot, but when 5 (yes, all 5 cards) clubs hit the table, and my opponent had the Ace of Clubs. This hand is actually where I first thought of the term Double Nut Flush Draw.

Then yesterday, I'm feeling a little bored, but I know I have to leave in about an hour. I hadn't had much opportunity over the past few days to play poker, even missing out on a live game Friday night, I didn't have enough time to play in a tournament, so I decide to play in a cash game. knowing how badly, the play is at the absolute smallest levels, I decide to join a 25/50 cent table. I buy-in for $50, which puts me about average at this 6-player table. Apparently I had not fully learned my lesson.

I'd like to say I'm making a long-story short here, but what happened didn't take too long. Within my first 10 hands, I'm dealt KK in the SB. The player on the button raises the usual amount, I decide to re-raise him, not wanting to worry about him catching an Ace on the flop. He calls almost immediately, so I'm putting him on either a mid-level pocket pair or something like A-Q.

The flop brings K-J-6, and I'm pretty happy right now. I've made top set, so I check, and my opponent immediately raises all-in, having just a few dollars less than I do. No thinking here, I have the nuts, with no obvious flush draw, and barely a straight draw available.

He flips over pocket Aces. He had tried to slow play me by just calling my raise, and likely thought the flop worked out perfectly for him. the turn is, obviously, an Ace, and I'm down to $5 left. I leave the table, turn off the program, consider trashing my computer. 

I turn around and see my wii remote lightsaber for the new Forces Unleashed video game I had recently bought and muttered to myself. "Next time you're fucking bored, play your video game instead of dumping money in fucking cash games!" Luckily, my kids were upstairs.

Time to vent

As the title suggests, I am not happy. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I was playing on-line, but this was ridiculous. From my experiences in many, many freerolls, I have always played by the theory that you don't play the first few hands unless you have a monster. I don't know if there was any way to avoid this, but I just never saw this coming.

I had recently come in 2nd place in yet another $6/90 player Turbo/Doublestack/Knockout tourney. The winning had me reach the $200 barrier for the first time. Earlier today I decided I was going to try and take the next step up, and play in a larger buy-in tourney. I figure that if my only real problem in the smaller buy-in tournies was the few morons playing recklessly, playing in a $26 tourney should be easier, because the larger buy-in should eliminate most of the stupid fish.

I was wrong...

After folding the first hand, I'm dealt As/Kh, and I'm first to act. I raise it up double what a pot-sized bet would be, to make sure I only get serious callers. The bet represents approx. 1/6 of the starting stack. I get one caller from middle position, and the BB calls as well.

The flop is 10-J-Q, all spades.

I have top pair, with the nut flush draw, and a potential Royal Flush draw to boot. BB checks, as do I, believing that even if I don't have the best hand now, I'm probably still the favorite against almost any hand.

The other guy bets, this time almost 1/3 of what we have left, and the BB folds. Not wanting to mess around with my first tournament at a higher buy-in, I decide to push all-in. My opponent calls, and shows 8-3 of spades.

8 f'ing 3 of spades? Seriously? He called a preflop bet with nothing already invested in the pot with this hand? As you may have guessed, the turn and river didn't improve my hand, and that moron was rewarded for making an absolutely stupid play.

My first attempt at playing a higher buy-in level was stopped after 2 hands, and is one I will not soon forget. I expect that kind of stuff in a freeroll, but even in $3 tournies you don't see that kind of stupidity.

Flopped Quads

I have been playing a lot of poker recently, both live and online, but there was one hand I played recently that has really stuck with me. Playing in yet another $6/90 player Turbo/Doublestack/knockout tournament online, I was in tight at the final table, probably putting me 4th with just 7 players remaining, and one very dominant chip leader.

I get dealt pocket Queens UTG. I still have enough chips to make anyone, even the chip leader, fold a marginal hand. I decide to limp in, hoping that someone else raises so I can re-raise, but no luck. Everyone else folds, and the BB checks.

The flop is Q-6-Q. JACKPOT!!!!!!

Or is it?

This is an unusual situation, you don't flop quads too often, so I quickly have to figure out what to do here. My opponent checks, and every instinct is telling me to check, hoping he'll sense weakness, and make a move for the pot on the turn. Then I think (this is what always gets me in trouble)

"Hmmm, maybe if I make a minimum bet, he'll think I'm trying to steal the pot, and re-raise me"

So I click the bet button, and fire out the minimum bet. We each have about the same amount of money, and he calls my bet. Now I know I've got him right where I want him. He's likely got an ace, thinking that it might be good here. He's already proved he's willing to put some money in the pot, the next card should be my big payoff.

The turn brings a meaningless Jack, and he immediately checks again. I pause, mostly for dramatic effect, because I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to wait a while, make him sweat, then place the minimum bet again.

"This time for sure, he'll re-raise me, positive his Ace-high is good. He will think it's a continuation bet, otherwise why would I keep the betting so low? He hehehehehehe. Ha hahahahaha." (imagine evil laughter, like Dr. Evil or Jaba the Hutt laughing as his brilliant plan is about to unfold with the brazen confidence that nothing could possibly stop him now)

My opponent folds.....

"Hmm, that didn't figure in to my plans"

I take down the pot, which is still significant, because the blinds are so high at this point, but I'm still left wondering where, if anywhere, I went wrong. The it hits me.

"You idiot, you should have checked on the turn. Your flopped quads, there was no card in the deck that you were afraid of, why not let him see a free river, maybe let him think he caught a very lucky card."

Of course, there was a possibility that my opponent could have caught a card on the river to make a Royal Flush, but if you're gonna play poker worried about odds like that, you're never going to win money gambling.

It also occurs to me that a check on the turn would have shown even more weakness than a minimum bet. It would have looked like I was surrendering, hoping to just show-down the cards, and would likely fold to any bet on the river.

Frustrated by my play of a hand that should never be frustrating, I finished in 4th position, collected another $36, and my total is climbing back towards my peak of $150. Still not too shabby considering I stared off with $0 and 2700 player freerolls, but I'm starting to think winning $10,000 to pay for my buy-in at the main event of the WSOP is about as likely as flopping 4 of a kind and thinking you misplayed the hand...