Slump

Bob Sweeney : There was a moment... when I used to blame everything and everyone... for all the pain and suffering and vile things that happened to me, that I saw happen to my people. Used to blame everybody. Blamed white people, blamed society, blamed God. I didn't get no answers 'cause I was asking the wrong questions. You have to ask the right questions.
Derek Vinyard: Like what?
Bob Sweeney: Has anything you've done made your life better?

"American History X"

The weekend started off terribly with Friday night poker, and then very gradually upgraded itself to crappy. It went from very shit to just shit.

Friday night poker started off in a blaze, despite getting kings cracked yet again on the second hand of the night – it would be the only big pair for the night but that's not where I went wrong. I managed to hit quads early but couldn't get paid off, had a gut shot fill on the turn against two players with aces-up but didn't get paid off again. All of this was within the first 20 minutes, and I knew I had blown what would be my best chances on the night already.

I continued my pay off ways, but wanted to trust my reads anyway. Against one player, I put him on a flush draw and when AK hit two pair on the turn, I decided to make him pay a little more for it. The river came for the flush, and he bet out a little too strong. I have seen this player do this a few times before when he was bluffing, so I called to see if he was. Wouldn't you know it, he had a 7 high flush. I was not happy. I guess I had one read each way, and I chose the wrong one – which really means I had no read at all.

Earlier in the night he caught me with set over set, as well as another set of fives versus my Queens-up. It was that kind of night for me.

By the time I had my fourth buy in on the table, I got my third one back and was content with that.

Online wise, things were not much better. Just when I thought I was getting out of trouble, I managed to find another way to get back in.

I finished deep in a 180 person SNG for a very small buy in, which I managed to double with a 16th finish. That wasn't too bad and I was happy with the finish as I went out with 44 vs AK, typical coin flip situation.

On the cash game side of things, I lost a big pot with KK again, this time against AK and JTo. The JTo was a short stack, but AK didn't want to lay his hand down pre-flop. I know that I would have to a re-re-raise, but I can see why some people won't. Anyway, his ace came on the flop, which of course leaves me with one out that won't come.

My luck did start to turn slightly in other SNG's and tournys. I even managed a few lucky hands – like AJo winning over AJo with w four flush to diamonds. But that guy thought it best to tell me why I should not have called for the last 20% of my stack with AJo when he went over the top of my initial raise. Mind you, my initial raise of 80% of my stack was about 3.5BB, so you can see where we were at in this tournament.

In the cash games though, I had one of the worst pieces of luck I can remember, and it could have been a lot worse. After working so hard to get myself out of a slump, I saw a flop with J9c. Flop comes 3cAdQc, checked all round. Turn brings Ac, so I have a flush but if anyone has an ace then I could get into trouble later on. The pot was $4, so I just bet out $3 to see what happens. At least, I meant to bet out $3, instead I bet out $97 in to a $4 pot. It seems the button on the mouse was stuck down a little, so when I used the scroll bar to get to $3, it kept going when I pressed the "raise" button and managed to put me all in. I guess I was lucky the only player who called had $35 in front of him – he had me drawing dead too. I was just shocked on that hand.

Later, some maniac managed to sooth my wounds when I tempted fate once more with KK and called his re-raise all in with a flop of J68. Since you don't get to see the cards until after the turn and river, I figured he probably had a Jack, maybe AJ. The river was another Jack and I figured I was beat, but it turned out he had 57 for an open ended straight draw. Tag and release on this one I guess.

I really had to stop myself and think – why did he bet that much in that position? With what hands does that bet make sense? I think my major fault over the last month has been short-sightedness. I couldn't see past the cards in my hand. That is a terrible habit to get into. I also started to just hope that a monster hand came along, instead of playing the current one on it's merits.

At the moment, I have only a few frequent player points to clear before a bonus materialises at Poker Stars. I was planing on getting close enough and then going on a free roll $100 SNG again, but thought better of it. Now I am close enough to play a $20 SNG and book a $100 profit even if I loose out on the first hand. It's not a big win, nor will it put me anywhere near even for the month, but it is a start.

I have another big sports bet coming out tonight, interesting to see what happens with that. It seemed on obvious one when I made it, and then have regretted it everyday since. Oh well, only in the fullness of time will we know if it was worth it.