Gone fishin'

I had some nice time away from the tables last week. Did the "unplugged" thing and went halfway across the state to go camping. While out there, I also did some fishing, something I hadn't done for about 20 years. Best thing was I really enjoyed it. Though the fishing wasn't very bountiful, I found the lake to be the perfect place to relax and soak in the peacefulness of a morning fog burning off as the sun rose.

It took me a couple days to decide to log back in to play some cards. I thought of taking some time off but I then recalled a comment Drizz had left last week about the streaks he has had in PLO8. I thought about the comment while I was camping. Someone much better at the game had been through wilder swings than I have. It has been a rough couple of weeks but the weeks prior to that were pretty damn good.

After thinking about the downswing I am on, I began to think about why it was happening. Was it bad cards or bad play? Am I the victim of a bad playing nit who got lucky or am I the nit playing bad and just not catching? I think too many times poker players want to blame another player for "getting lucky" instead of realizing they played poorly. There were a number of times where I played poorly, like last week when I thought I could kill a bottle of brandy and play PLO8 at the same time. 3 buyins later I gave up and focused on the brandy. I failed at that too and only drank just under half of it.

But beyond that I don't think I played that bad. I was changing up my game and playing a bit looser when the table got tight and tighter when it got loose. I played good hands that had 4 cards working together. I folded when I didn't have a great draw. I didn't chase too often. Yeah, I did some chasing but not much.

If anything, I wonder if I played too cautiously. This became evident over the last week and was personified tonight. With hand of A, A, 3 4, I raised from the button. There were 3 players seeing the flop. It came 2, 8, 8. I checked to me and I bet half the pot. Only the small blind called. I didn't like that. I instantly knew I was behind to trips. But the turn was an A. Sweet. I bet just under the size of the pot and was just called again. River was a 6. I bet pot and was instantly raised all in. I was shocked. First thought was the guy slow played quads. I took my time and began to think about my bad luck. I even typed in "quads?" and "I can't fold this". I knew there was no way I could, or was going to, fold this hand. Then I realized I had a very strong low and called. I scooped the pot as he had a lower boat and no low.

I was then berated by another player who wasn't involved in the hand. He said I slowrolled the guy. I thought for a bit and realized that yes, it did appear that I did inadvertently slowroll the guy. Didn't mean to but I did.

Once again I am thinking I am up against quads? I need to get that out of my mind. In the end I doubled up at one table and was up 50% at the other. Hopefully it is the start of an upswing.