Rough weekend of poker

The cards didn't quite come my way this weekend. Before I get to the ugly details, I would like to thank Dr Pauly for the link. It is a true honor. He also had a comment about updating links, something I really need to do. Go read both of his sites. Good stuff.

I played a couple of SnGs and multis with little success. Came in 3,1,8,301,9, and 6th. Also played a ring NL game that saw me losing a whole 35 cents over an hour. I received the worst cards. At one point, I had played in 4 out of 34 hands. I was ready to change my screen name to K 2 offsuit. I believe I got that hand 3 times in a row. It wouldn't have been that bad but it was over at PokerStars and 3 of the people at the table had ugly baby pictures up for the icon. Why is it babies or dogs?

So when I wanted to play on Sunday night, I went to Pokerrroom. There I ran into a table of ATC will do and then the most aggressive table I have seen in a long time.

On the soft table, I watched someone win hand after hand with crap. Any suited or connectors were being played. If a player didn't bet high enough (so many min bets) they were sucked out on the river. Though I didn't make a min bet, I was a victim of one of the suckouts. I had J 8 in the big blind. I saw the flop for free that came that came 10 8 3, all hearts. I checked and the suckout artist bet the min. Though they had played any suited frequently, I didn't buy it that they had flopped the flush. So I called. The turn was the J of diamonds. Now I have two pair and bet out just under half the pot. I figured any bet would either make them fold or get re-raised by the flush. Instead, it was just called.

I wasn't going to give this player credit for slow playing a nut flush. The river was the A of hearts. There are 4 hearts on the board and I have the J of. Crap. Two cards can beat me. I bet half the pot which is just under half of their chip stack. They went all in. At first I thought this was a tough call. There are two cards they can hold that will beat me. But wait, that means there could be 7 cards they hold that lose to me. I have a 3.5 to 1 advantage (and if that logic is incorrect, please, someone leave a comment). So I called. They showed Q 9. The Q was a heart and I was down to 390. That hurt.

But then I looked at it and believe I played it right. This player was playing a wide range of cards. I bet the turn because I was confident I was ahead-and I was.
But it also showed how people were playing, looking for that gutshot or at least a miracle flush.

So I fought back by being aggressive when necessary. I got back to 975 but overplayed my 9 9. There was a min raise under the gun and I kicked it all in. They had J J and filled their set on the flop. To rub it in, I saw a third 9 on the river.

Over on the aggressive table, there were 3 people out in the first 7 hands. People played their 9 9 and A J beyond hard. I watched as the guy on my right slow played every big hand he had. The person on my left was using the auto buttons. That told me to always take a little more time to make a decision to ensure I saw the tell. Plus it didn't hurt that he was tighter than tight. He was practically handing his blinds to me. I just had to hope no one else had picked up on it.

I stacked up nicely until I was sitting in 3rd. Though we had lost 3 right away, it took forever to lose number 6. More players were using auto buttons now too. It wasn't until blinds were 100/200 that we lost number 6. 5 went shortly there after. Smallest stack was at 1500.

It was a crappy time to get cold decked. I didn't play or steal in 10 hands and was blinded down a bit. Plus, it looked like the guy on my left found a backbone and got a little more aggressive.

I ended in fourth when I saw a flop with J 10 that came 10 8 6. I bet out 500 and was raised all in. Here is where I have many a problem Top pair, ok kicker. Many times I run into someone slow playing a huge pair. Yep, I ran into the slow playing A A here and was done. Something told me to fold because of the tight guy on my left but I just couldn't do it.

Someday I will learn.