Saturday, June 28, 2008

Running bad

Played a short session the other night and made a quick 100+ but became very frustrated by my opponent. I mainly play heads up cash games. That means 1 on 1 for those who don't know. The blinds are 25cent 50 cent and you start out with a maximum buy in of 50. However after a short period of time there can be 500 dollars on the table easily. I run my stack from 50 to 200, 300, even 500 all the time, got close to 700 once and saw a guy with 1200 yesterday. Anyway I stopped playing and went to sleep cause I literally had steam coming out of my ears, I have never been so upset to make a C note. Weak No Limit Holdem players often lack the aggression necessary to really win big. Guys who play to many hands and limp on the button and have to make a small bet everytime you check, they drive me crazy. They don't have a very sharp understanding of the game and their approach does nothing for them except put everyone on tilt. Which obviously is a good thing because you want your opponents off thier game, but these weak players don't even know there doing this, it's not like it's their plan all along. They keep making these small probe bets that don't build the pot at all, and can't help them win big with thier good hands, which is what ur suppossed to do. So even though they may tilt their opponents their still not accomplishing their main goal for being there, like winning some money. I have no respect for weak non aggressive players, if you play like that and you wanna explain to me why your strategy works I'd love to hear it. This one guy who kept making these stupid little bets had me so angry I literally would have physically attacked him if I saw him in person. This is bad, I don't want to be like this, I want to never go on tilt, I want to always feel calm, cool, and collected thats what a true poker professional can do. I am still working on this and 90% of the time I can do it, but some players just really get to me. These weak probe betters I've been talking about are also call stations of course. If you bet with nothing they call it, if you check they make a small bet, if you have something good they tend to go broke, and when they have something good they bet real small or try to checkraise you, it's really pathetic. I'd rather play a super aggressive maniac type who threatens my entire stack every pot than deal with these numsculs.
Anyway I'm running bad my last few sessions and am on like a 700 dollar downswing, sucks. Yesterday I was putting a good session together and getting back to winning form but the dude I won that 100+ off the night before was still on my mind. The ridiculous amount of steam coming off me really made me sick, and I was still upset that I really got that mad. Poker in general was discouraging me and I made a few bad plays and started losing for the day. I fought through it and did well again until this one opponent but was sucked out on on two monster pots. After over an hour of play we are both deepstacked with like 400 dollars on the table between the two of us. He was all in with A9 suited against my AK and caught a lucky 9. There he was a 70-30 underdog, in the long run I will win this pot 70% of the time, but this time it didn't work out. So he had alot of the money on the table after this hand, I fought back again and had him all in again with my JJ against his 88 after the flop came 246, he caught a miracle 8 on the river to save his ass again. I am an 80-20 favorite here, meaning I will win this pot 80% of the time, so this was an even tougher beat than the other. If the best hand held up there I would have profited for the day but instead I lost money and wound up down hundreds, winning or losing those 2 huge pots pretty much determined the outcome of the entire session. However bad luck like this can usually be overcome when your really on your game, but since I'm in a mini slump right now Murphy's law seems to be in effect. It's actually like this is many sports, you just can't get the ball to bounce your way on some days. I did receive some horrible beats but throughout the session there was obviously some hands that went my way (not crucially huge pots but still) so I am not going to blame luck, I know I'm off my game right now and thats why I am on a downswing. It's jsut the downward spiral I talked about in the first blog, good luck or bad luck is not going to stop it, it's my mindset..... I'm not saying I wouldn't have gotten sucked out on so badly if was on the upswing, I'm saying everything would of just been different and it wouldn't of mattered. This will all pass like it always does. But I'm definately going to report it here, so if I lose money everyone is going to know about it. This way there is more incentive not to fuck up. I cashed out a G from pokerstars and most likely will be taking a short trip to Atlantic City soon, probly July 1st and 2nd. A break from online poker and these extremely swingy Heads up cash games in in dire need right now. I can't wait to go to Atlantic City and school these fish who play 1,2 No limit there. I still got about 6k to my name so I have the 20 buyins to play 300 max no limit, which is the general bankroll management cliche for cash games. "Don't play any stakes you don't have 20 buyins to your name for" I still think 12k is a better bankroll for these 300 max 1,2 NL cash games because then you can bring 600 bucks, have 1 full rebuy, and still be adhering to the 5% rule. So i may be using 5-10% of my bankroll which is cutting it close but not to big of a deal. What else can I do, not play live? Yeah right. So the journey to save up 12k continues after this recent set back........ I really should just shell out the 216 dollars and play the sunday million tomorrow, I've only played it twice and came in 1300th and 14ooth place out of 7000. Top 1000 make money. I've gotten pretty deep both times, I feel I am very capable of going big money deep. First place is 200grand........................................................

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