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I'd kind of forgotten that I had a 'D' game, but a last night it seemed to reappear with glee. Two hands in particular I played utterly abysmally, along the lines of almost saying to myself "what am I doing here?".
The strange thing about online poker is that these are mistakes where you only need to be a little bit lucky for them to turn out OK.
In case 1 I raised in MP1 with 88. Cut-off reraised to just over 3x, and for reasons that I can't quite fathom, I flat-called. Board them came 954 and I checked. Opponent checked behind.
Turn was a six I think, and I pondered. I already felt that calling the reraise preflop had been a mistake (it can only be right if I plan to win some of the time without a set), so I (mistakenly) decided to try to win the hand without a set. I bet the pot. Opponent called.
River brought a King. I checked, opponent checked, and turned over QQ.
My play of 88 here is basically donk city. Sure, the whole sequence can work if opponent has AK or AQs, but not many players will check behind on the flop with AK here. I don't really like his check-behind with QQ, but I can see where the guy is coming from.
However, I make my money from people playing 88 like this. I don't see why I should donate it back by playing it the same way.
It was just like an hour where I was seeing things through wool.
The second hand only cost me $80, but annoyed me just as much.
This time I had QQ OOP to a loose player. I'd raised preflop and he called. Board came T54 rainbow.
I bet half-pot. He called. Turn was a Jack. I bet 75% of pot. He called.
River was a seven. I bet $12 into a $25 to $30 pot or something -- obviously a blocking bet, but this guy wasn't good enough to spot that. He raised all in for another $47, and, in a fit of madness, I called. He turned over 63 for the straight.
One could argue that opponent just about made a big enough mistake on the turn, but against players like this there's no point in calling a raise all-in on the river for that kind of money. It's just burning money.
I think I've worked out why I was playing so bad in that session.
I'd noted that an awful lot more players (well, three or four in particular) were reraising me thin, and I was trying to play a slightly different style to compensate for this, because I was getting fed up with folding to the reraises.
This was a back-to-front attitude. When in doubt, think about what you don't like other players doing to you. If I'd taken this attitude (and it's what I did later on, regaining nearly all of the losses) then I would have carried on hammering away at these guys, showing them that their reraises didn't phase me in the slightest. Every so often I throw in a 3.5x to 4x four-bet (about $75 to $85), and that's enough to keep me in front.
I kept the loss for the day down to fifty bucks, through the simple procedure of taking a couple of hours' rest to calm down.
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To The Dickens Inn early this eveing for the International Underwriting Association's 10th birthday party. Not sure how long I will stay. Depends who is there.
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Have to mention once again the epic thread on Cyril The Frenchman on News Views & Gossip in 2+2. This thread has now been viewed for coming up to 500,000 times. There are some Photoshops of sheer genius on this thread (which has come to encompass Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey, for reasons far too complicated to explain). The highlight for me is definitely the animated sequence pasting stuff over the Iraqi shoe-throwing incident. It's tough to get me laughing out loud, but that one managed it.
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The strange thing about online poker is that these are mistakes where you only need to be a little bit lucky for them to turn out OK.
In case 1 I raised in MP1 with 88. Cut-off reraised to just over 3x, and for reasons that I can't quite fathom, I flat-called. Board them came 954 and I checked. Opponent checked behind.
Turn was a six I think, and I pondered. I already felt that calling the reraise preflop had been a mistake (it can only be right if I plan to win some of the time without a set), so I (mistakenly) decided to try to win the hand without a set. I bet the pot. Opponent called.
River brought a King. I checked, opponent checked, and turned over QQ.
My play of 88 here is basically donk city. Sure, the whole sequence can work if opponent has AK or AQs, but not many players will check behind on the flop with AK here. I don't really like his check-behind with QQ, but I can see where the guy is coming from.
However, I make my money from people playing 88 like this. I don't see why I should donate it back by playing it the same way.
It was just like an hour where I was seeing things through wool.
The second hand only cost me $80, but annoyed me just as much.
This time I had QQ OOP to a loose player. I'd raised preflop and he called. Board came T54 rainbow.
I bet half-pot. He called. Turn was a Jack. I bet 75% of pot. He called.
River was a seven. I bet $12 into a $25 to $30 pot or something -- obviously a blocking bet, but this guy wasn't good enough to spot that. He raised all in for another $47, and, in a fit of madness, I called. He turned over 63 for the straight.
One could argue that opponent just about made a big enough mistake on the turn, but against players like this there's no point in calling a raise all-in on the river for that kind of money. It's just burning money.
I think I've worked out why I was playing so bad in that session.
I'd noted that an awful lot more players (well, three or four in particular) were reraising me thin, and I was trying to play a slightly different style to compensate for this, because I was getting fed up with folding to the reraises.
This was a back-to-front attitude. When in doubt, think about what you don't like other players doing to you. If I'd taken this attitude (and it's what I did later on, regaining nearly all of the losses) then I would have carried on hammering away at these guys, showing them that their reraises didn't phase me in the slightest. Every so often I throw in a 3.5x to 4x four-bet (about $75 to $85), and that's enough to keep me in front.
I kept the loss for the day down to fifty bucks, through the simple procedure of taking a couple of hours' rest to calm down.
++++++++
To The Dickens Inn early this eveing for the International Underwriting Association's 10th birthday party. Not sure how long I will stay. Depends who is there.
++++++++
Have to mention once again the epic thread on Cyril The Frenchman on News Views & Gossip in 2+2. This thread has now been viewed for coming up to 500,000 times. There are some Photoshops of sheer genius on this thread (which has come to encompass Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey, for reasons far too complicated to explain). The highlight for me is definitely the animated sequence pasting stuff over the Iraqi shoe-throwing incident. It's tough to get me laughing out loud, but that one managed it.
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