Well, the title of this entry says it all. I tried a different seat (#1) this game, a lot of damn good it did. The other players were, starting from my left, Kelly, Rosie, Todd, Joe, Mike, and Johnny. So, no new faces.
I'm not sure how many players noticed, but my plan was to try a conservative, tight (well, tight for me) session. So, I start out that way, and in about the 3rd or 4th rotation I get AA in the cutoff. I re-raise to $225 pre-flop and get 4 callers (Rosie cold-calls on the button next to me). The flop is AK9, it's checked to me and I bet $400 (I actually meant to bet 80% of pot, which this isn't, this isn't even half, but it's still a strong bet with top set), and Rosie instacalls next to me, which I love because there isn't a single open-ended or flush draw on the board, so I think I have him locked in hopefully. Everyone else folds and the turn is a T. To make a long story short, of fucking course, he has QJ and nails his gutter on the turn and I don't pair the board AGAIN. This makes two big sets that have gone down huge to ridiculous gutters. So, $5,000 down immediately.
That wasn't the end to it. I continued to have a Q high flush run into Todd's straight flush, and a flopped nut straight with TJ rivered by a full house. Both those hands I have to fold on river after putting in at least $3,000 combined before the river. I had a few others coolers and big 2nd bests mixed in there.
But anyway, all-in-all, I felt like I actually played decent. I don't recall many plays that I terribly regret. Joe made a good call on me once which cost me a little, but that'll happen. I stuck to my strategy most of the session despite having the worse luck and setups at the table. There was a lot of bitching at the table this session, and I was just sitting their quietly thinking "Are you fucking kidding me? Try playing the hands I've had...". I know at least half the players at the table go busto 3 times with my hands. I didn't straddle a single time the entire session, not once! I think that is something I'm going to keep up, straddling really is a terrible idea, especially in a big game. Maybe when I'm super up or I want to promote action from a bad player, but that's it.
I made a decent comeback in the 2nd half of the session. Just little hands here and there. Johnny paid me off for about $2,500 when I bet AA on all 3 streets, which were uncharacteristically bad calls by him (guess he thought I was bluffing). It's getting hard to know when to value bet my hands because many of the tight players have taken to checking big hands to me all the time, which isn't necessarily a bad play by them because they're trying to entice me to bluff, but I can take advantage and get a lot of free cards if I adjust properly and spot their strength.
Anyway, I finished down about $1,700. So, blah, but it could have been much worse. As soon as I start getting some coolers in my freakin' favour I should be able to put together a winning session in this game again. I must admit I felt pretty demoralized after those string of setups, I was almost $10k down before I could blink, and I was playing CONSERVATIVE I thought. Geezus. Super helpless feeling, but things improved and I'm happy with how I grinded back.
However, this makes 2 winning and 3 losing sessions in this game. Still up overall because of the one huge $32k day, but it's damn time I get another winning session. If I play the same next time as this session, barring extremely bad luck again, things should turn around.
Penguin Club $10/$25 (since Nov/06): +$21,300
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2 comments:
I watched all the hands you mentioned Travis, what a joke! The whole table was shaking their heads at your luck, but after a couple short outbursts, you kept your cool and showed you're one of the classiest players at the table. I didn't hear you bitch all night, keep it up! Better luck next time. One question: that hand with KQ when you raised Rosie on the river with just a Q and got a call, great play, but why do you wait until river to raise?
Hey Mike, thanks for the comments. It's nice to know people notice that I at least attempt to take beats like a man and not whine. That KQ hand I played a little funky, but the flop was Q33, and Rosie bet right out of the blinds. I could have raised flop, but I feel like I can make more by just calling cuz Rosie never stops betting. Plus, in the back of my mind, I was worried about a 3 (it was totally possible). The turn is a J and now I'm losing to QJ too, I guess I was a little gunshy against Rosie. But his river bet was so puny that I knew he was trying to block my river bet, so I was at least 80% sure he just had a Q and that my kicker played and was probably winning, so I put in a $400 or $500 raise or whatever it was and he paid me off with Q9 or something like that. There is an off-chance I could have made an extra $1000 maybe on the hand because Rosie doesn't like to fold to me, but I didn't mind this play either.
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