The minute that you learn that bad beats will never end in poker is the minute you are one step closer to having the mindset you need to be a long term, successful poker. Not only do I understand that bad beats will happen, I do sick, masochistic things to myself like calculate that I will have AA cracked between 500 and 1000 times more the rest of my life.
I simply estimated the number of hours and hands I will play the rest of my life, figured out how many times I will be dealt AA based on the average, and then took 15-20% of that number to estimate how often I will lose with them. Depending on some variance and how many hands I actually play I could actually lose 1000 times, I could lose as little as 500 times. But I will lose with AA hundreds and hundreds of more times. Same with KK and QQ. It is simply going to happen. What we as poker players need to learn is how to cope with those losses. Being prepared never hurts in life. I am not meaning to come across as pessimistic, just realistic. The next time I lose with AA to 67 I will, hopefully, remain calm and understand it is a part of the game. It is a neccessary part of the game. I will look forward to the thousands of times that I will win with the hand and keep my focus on the fact that poker is a long term propositon. I don't care if I make money tonight. I don't even care if I make money this week. What I care about is making money over the year.
So, when my AA lost to 10 5 on Sunday when the guy thought he had lost and did not realize he had two pair, I just took a breath, and moved on to the next hand. I have a lot more to play.
Disciplined Degenerate
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
My set was no good...or was it?
If you play enough poker you get to a point where you think you have seen it all. Between 2003 and 2007 I played hundreds of thousands of hands if not a million hands online. Since 2009 I have played more days in card rooms than days I didn't play. In nine years I have played a whole lot of poker and yet I saw something the other day I have never seen. That is one of the things that makes the game still fun and exciting after all of these years. On any given day anything can happen at the poker table.
The other day I was playing in a pretty loose $1/2 No Limit game with big chip stacks. There was one man in the game who only had about $150 (the shortest stack in the game other than him was probably $450) in front of him. He had not won a pot in a long time and couldn't seem to get anything going. Somebody raised it preflop to $10 and this player, we will call Alan, called as did I. I had 33 and the flop came 3 5 7 rainbow (suits are not relevant in this hand). Pretty darn good board for my hand. The original raiser checked, Alan checked, and I made a bet of $25. The original raiser folded and Alan called. The turn was an 8. Alan checked and I bet $40. After long deliberation he called. The rivers was a King and he checked. He had about $80-90 left and I really didn't think he would call an all in bet and I wanted to get paid off so I bet $40 again. Alan folded his cards face up without even thinking about it. He showed KK. Yes, pocket Kings for top set. Alan called $40 on the turn with KK on a 3 5 7 8 board and then folded on the river for $40 on a 3 5 7 8 K board! And he showed his hand, folding face up like he was proud of his laydown! He didn't speak about the hand even though the table was in shock and discussing the bizzare play. He is an old fella, and hardly ever speaks at the table. He is a war veteran and pretty well liked so nobody really probed him on it. I still have no idea what he was thinking. Maybe he thought that I had a straight and the fact that I just bet once more on the river confirmed his suspicions? That seems pretty wacky but I have no idea what else it could be. I don't think he misread his hand either. I truly, truly don't know what happened in that hand. I don't think I have ever seen someone call a bet on the turn with a strong hand and then fold his hand when it received maximum improvement without any other danger on the board such as a flush card on the river. And the bet on the river was very small compared to the pot. And he was losing in the game and had not won a pot in hours! I have never seen anything like it but I was happy to take the money and the pot. It is my greatest bluff to this date! :)
Disciplined Degenerate
The other day I was playing in a pretty loose $1/2 No Limit game with big chip stacks. There was one man in the game who only had about $150 (the shortest stack in the game other than him was probably $450) in front of him. He had not won a pot in a long time and couldn't seem to get anything going. Somebody raised it preflop to $10 and this player, we will call Alan, called as did I. I had 33 and the flop came 3 5 7 rainbow (suits are not relevant in this hand). Pretty darn good board for my hand. The original raiser checked, Alan checked, and I made a bet of $25. The original raiser folded and Alan called. The turn was an 8. Alan checked and I bet $40. After long deliberation he called. The rivers was a King and he checked. He had about $80-90 left and I really didn't think he would call an all in bet and I wanted to get paid off so I bet $40 again. Alan folded his cards face up without even thinking about it. He showed KK. Yes, pocket Kings for top set. Alan called $40 on the turn with KK on a 3 5 7 8 board and then folded on the river for $40 on a 3 5 7 8 K board! And he showed his hand, folding face up like he was proud of his laydown! He didn't speak about the hand even though the table was in shock and discussing the bizzare play. He is an old fella, and hardly ever speaks at the table. He is a war veteran and pretty well liked so nobody really probed him on it. I still have no idea what he was thinking. Maybe he thought that I had a straight and the fact that I just bet once more on the river confirmed his suspicions? That seems pretty wacky but I have no idea what else it could be. I don't think he misread his hand either. I truly, truly don't know what happened in that hand. I don't think I have ever seen someone call a bet on the turn with a strong hand and then fold his hand when it received maximum improvement without any other danger on the board such as a flush card on the river. And the bet on the river was very small compared to the pot. And he was losing in the game and had not won a pot in hours! I have never seen anything like it but I was happy to take the money and the pot. It is my greatest bluff to this date! :)
Disciplined Degenerate
Monday, July 2, 2012
Poker, poker, and more poker
That was my weekend. Poker, poker, and more poker. On Thursday night I played until almost 2:00 in the morning despite the fact that I had to be at work at 8:00 am. On Friday night I played until 2:00 am again and I played from 1:00 pm until about 8:00 pm on both Saturday and Sunday. I have been in true grind mode lately and it certainly doesn't hurt that I have been winning. I won all four of these weekend sessions and have won six out of seven sessions overall.
My best night was Friday night in that I played mistake free for over six hours. That is not something that is easy to do and not something I claim often--to not make any mistakes over a six hour session. But it was one of the best sessions that I played in a long time. I did lose two big pots--one to start the night and one to finish--but even those hands I played perfectly and just got unlucky.
One of the first hands of the night I had 10 10 and called a raise from a pretty bad player. The flop came 10 K Q. He bet $30 and I made it $100 on the flop. After some deliberation he called. The turn came a 4 and he checked. I bet the rest of my stack which was about $100 and he thought even longer but decided to call and when the 9 hit the river his JJ beat my set.
Towards the end of the night there was a pretty aggressive and impatient player who was losing who made it $135 to go (all in) preflop after a $5 straddle and a couple of calls. I looked down at two black nines. I studied for a while and came to the conclusion that I was probably 90% or better to have the best hand. Having played with him many times I was almost 100% certain that if he had 10 10 or better he would not try blow everybody out like this. He would definitely raise but he would want more action. It was also late in the evening, he was ready to go and wanted to double up or lose his money. I was certain that I had him and made the call. Everyone folded and sure enough he turned over 67 and my read was "dead on balls accurate." Unfortunately there is a lot of luck in poker and when 4 hearts hit the board his 6 of hearts made a flush and beat my pair of nines.
So in that session I had two hands that I played perfect, got it in as a big favorite and happened to lose both. However the good news is that I was getting the best of it when I got in the middle. Throughout the rest of the night I played flawlessly and did not get really unlucky other than those two hands. Despite those two brutal beats I managed to win a couple hundred dollars on the night.
When you can have two bad beats for decent size pots and still win hundreds of dollars it is very satisfying. I will be taking a break tonight after playing 25 hours of poker over four days and will be back at it on Tuesday night. Hopefully I will play just as well as I did over the weekend and fade the bad beats!
Disciplined Degenerate
My best night was Friday night in that I played mistake free for over six hours. That is not something that is easy to do and not something I claim often--to not make any mistakes over a six hour session. But it was one of the best sessions that I played in a long time. I did lose two big pots--one to start the night and one to finish--but even those hands I played perfectly and just got unlucky.
One of the first hands of the night I had 10 10 and called a raise from a pretty bad player. The flop came 10 K Q. He bet $30 and I made it $100 on the flop. After some deliberation he called. The turn came a 4 and he checked. I bet the rest of my stack which was about $100 and he thought even longer but decided to call and when the 9 hit the river his JJ beat my set.
Towards the end of the night there was a pretty aggressive and impatient player who was losing who made it $135 to go (all in) preflop after a $5 straddle and a couple of calls. I looked down at two black nines. I studied for a while and came to the conclusion that I was probably 90% or better to have the best hand. Having played with him many times I was almost 100% certain that if he had 10 10 or better he would not try blow everybody out like this. He would definitely raise but he would want more action. It was also late in the evening, he was ready to go and wanted to double up or lose his money. I was certain that I had him and made the call. Everyone folded and sure enough he turned over 67 and my read was "dead on balls accurate." Unfortunately there is a lot of luck in poker and when 4 hearts hit the board his 6 of hearts made a flush and beat my pair of nines.
So in that session I had two hands that I played perfect, got it in as a big favorite and happened to lose both. However the good news is that I was getting the best of it when I got in the middle. Throughout the rest of the night I played flawlessly and did not get really unlucky other than those two hands. Despite those two brutal beats I managed to win a couple hundred dollars on the night.
When you can have two bad beats for decent size pots and still win hundreds of dollars it is very satisfying. I will be taking a break tonight after playing 25 hours of poker over four days and will be back at it on Tuesday night. Hopefully I will play just as well as I did over the weekend and fade the bad beats!
Disciplined Degenerate
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)