Unlucky In Poker

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”Perfect Catch”

That movie was called “Fever Pitch” in the US, but it was called “Perfect Catch” out here because of the original British version I guess. I hate it when movies are released in different countries with different names. It makes no sense to rename them for Australia – we speaka da Engrish too!

So how have the cards been treating you? Good for you, because they have been kicking me in the ass over the past two days. I am trying to ween myself off bad beat stories, so here is a quick run down of how I went.

$5 SNG – AKc gets smacked by 86c. Both on the flush draw, but he running two pair.
$5 SNG – Crippled when flopped two pair all-in against OESD, hit on the turn. Knocked out when I made a stand with ATd and got called by QQ. No bad beat there, just bad timing.
$5 2 Table – great read on the big stack, who is responsible for 90% of my chips. Down to final 7, I’m in 4th and raised it to 5BB pre-flop with 88. I can’t scare him off KTo which hits.
$5 SNG – AKh, can’t scare off Q8s with a 6BB raise pre-flop all-in. The eight hits.
10c/20c Omaha PL – Ok, I suck at Omaha pot limit. I sat down because Skitch was there, but I lost most of my stack when my open ended straight flush draw with bottom set failed to get across the line and I had to dump it on the river.
$5 6 person SNG – Actually took 1st, but this was before all the others. I hit two straights in a row and had the chip leader pay me off on both. Heads up I won with KK and the flop was 999. Opponent called with JT.

Since online poker is rigged, how about the live home games?

First game – Finished second when I made a stand with severe chip deficit. I have KJs, he has A-litte. The ace hits.

Second game – Crippled with flush over flush, then all-in on a rag flop. I call with AA, opponent shows KK. River K. Out 5th (of 7)

Third game – chip leader has 95% of chips when we are down to the bubble. I manage to double up and finish second when the exact same situation as game 1 occurred.

By this time we started a cash game. The worst of it was KK getting hammered by the hammer. That cost me my stack. I managed to get my losses back when TT held up over 77 (both hit the flop) and then a six high straight put me back to even.

Generally, I think I am lucky I haven’t lost more money than I should in the last week or so. When I was playing the Omaha with Skitch, he said his Distraction was on the phone so he had nothing better to do. I was in a SNG at the time and doing very well – but my Distraction was watching “Perfect Catch” in the lounge room and couldn’t wait to show me this one bit of the movie. I knew this was a sign that all was about to go horribly wrong. I busted out of the Omaha game and the SNG – well, it was the one where I had an excellent read on the chip leader. He would under bet every flop if he missed, and I would push him off it with a re-raise. I did it about 4 times and then I knew next time he would call so I needed to have something. I did, and he doubled me up! I was taking chips off no other player in this game – and thankfully everyone else kept giving him more (and thus me). Then the 88 hand described above occurred, and I was gone from there two.

It’s a real shame, because I was having such a good run of things, non-poker, leading up to the last week. Sadly, my poker mistress has not treated me as well. It the usual stories – bad beats, no coin flips, running good hands into great hands, never seeing the nuts – you’ve heard it all before, and I’ve already spent too long talking about it.

So lets talk about something else, but still poker.

There was a long time when I had a dreaded fear of Queens. It all started when I managed to fold them pre-flop once with two all-ins in front of me – I figured one was probably playing aces. They had 99 and 66, and just to rub it in there was a Queen on the flop.

After that game, I was knocked out of tournament either with Queens or by them. It was uncanny how often it happened.

Then a few months ago, I managed to call pre-flop with Queens in a home game against a player who put on a bluff all-in pre-flop with 46o. It was late and he wanted to go home. Anyway, he hit a 4 on the flop but got no more help and I declared my Queen curse was over.

Now I have it back. I have a very bad feeling every time I get dealt QT suited.

Even with a massive stack, I fold this hand immediately because I am that scared of it. I know it isn’t a monster, and shouldn’t be considered one, but it has just got me into a trouble before.

Stupid thing is, I can’t even remember the hands that it got me in trouble with. I just remember that it happened.

Now the only chance I have of seeing a flop with QT suited is from the big blind. And when this happens, I usually get a small piece of the flop or a flush/straight draw. That usually gets me in trouble.

So now I have resorted myself to only playing QT post flop if it flops the Royal Flush or QQT. Anything else is a fold.

And when I do fold those cards, from whatever position, they hit the flop for the nuts and two players go all-in, who would have been drawing dead against me (if I was in the hand).

Ok, so a slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

I know this is stupid, but I can’t get myself off it. Every time those cards get dealt to me, I automatically go into a panic. It is just as stupid as having a “lucky hand”, which I also used to suffer from (63o, how tragic is that?).

Does anybody else suffer from such stupidity? I feel ashamed even admitting to it. I mean, I know poker. I know the theory behind it, I know what good starting hands are and are not.

Why have these stupid little superstitions?

It’s got to the point that I know they are stupid superstitions, and I should just play QT suited on its merits. But the “curse” has been so long that I’ve forgotten what the merits were.