No bad beats in this session, but this session sucked anyway...

Wanted to get this down while it's fresh in my mind...

Rule # 1 of Mule's Guide To Poker is...

If you have K-K an Ace will ALWAYS hit the board >

Anyway, here's a few hands from my last session, I know reading these can be like listening to someone go over their last golf round shot for shot, but this IS the Crying Towel so...

2/4 limit, 10 players

1) Get dealt K-K as dealer. One guy calls, he's two off the bb I think. I'll say he is Seat 4. Player just before me (Seat 9) raises. I (Seat 10) just call, I should have raised probably as later events might confirm. I usually do, but lately I am gun-shy. Anyway original caller calls the raise. Three of us.

Flop comes A(of course)-Q-J rainbow. I know I am already in trouble - that's a question for the forum - should you AUTOMATICALLY fold K-K when an Ace comes out? Anyway, I could be up against at least a pair of Aces, or a set of Q's or J's. Seat 4 bets. Seat 9 just calls. So I do to.

Turn is a 7. Seat 4 checks. Hmmm. So now Seat 9 bets. I call, again in retrospect a dumb play? Seat 4 calls.

River is an A. Board is A-Q-J-7-A. No flush possibility. Now seat 4 bets again! And seat 9 folds! What's going on? Well, I am the only player left, the size of the pot (I guess) justified a call. If you have any chance you gotta call I have read...Seat 4 has a lovely A-7 off. Grrrrr...

I'm still trying to figure what Seat 9 had. But don't you just LOVE getting beat by A-x???

Oh yeah,m he's why (now) I guess I should have raised Seat 9...maybe then Seat 4 folds. But then again, this squirrel would probably call even with A-x off. Hell, he shouldn't have played it in the first place. But if Seat 9 reraises, then I almost have to put him on A-A...or at least Q-Q or maybe A-K...any of which are beating me after the flop. Even if he would have reraised with J-J I know I am beaten. Obviously he didn't have any of these hands, as he folded later. Like I said, I am still wondering what he had...but if I had raised pre-flop, I would have had a better idea...and maybe won the pot. So hopefully lesson learned. I am thinking to not reraise with A-A is OK sometimes for deception, but maybe a reraise with K-K should be almost automatic? Just to see if you are reraised?

2) Very next hand. I am one before the button. Get dealt...K-K again! Now I can make a few bucks...NOT. Of course no one before me calls...and no one calls after me when I make it two bets. Come to Poppa...all of 3 bucks profit. Yeah baby.

3) 3 hands later I get dealt Q-Q. All folds to me, I raise, my old buddy who had A-7 is the only caller, as the dealer. OK, come on out Ace...flop is A-K-x rainbow...even WORSE. Now I'm pissed. One overcard is bad enough, here's 2 of them. I check. He bets, I fold this time. Hell with it. I figure if the guy has J-J or T-T he's gonna raise me preflop, I have to put him on an Ace, or at least a Queen. Maybe he had a small pair, but I didn't feel like finding out. Good laydown or not?

But it did get better, after a few hands I didn't get involved in...

4) I have A-9 one off the button. After all folds to me, I call. I usually NEVER play A-9 unless I am the dealer with no previous calls, but I figure why not. That's another question - is calling with A-9 not really a bad play if you are the button...or one off...or even two off?

Anyway, I'm against just the blinds. Flop comes out A-Q-7 rainbow. sb checks, bb makes a quick bet. This is where my notes helped. This guy is a very loose preflop caller/raiser, just a few hands earlier he raised - under the gun no less - with K-Q off. One of my notes says "RAISED with K-Q utg"...plus he also will play A-x. Well, I am figuring he doesn't have A-K, Q, J or T, the way he plays, I'm thinking he would have raised preflop holding those. I AM putting him on Ace-something though. Anyway, two more rags come out, he bets every time, I call every time...I am hoping he didn't pair his small card...and he didn't...he has A-8. Whew. My notes kind of helped me there. But then again, I could have easily lost to his 2 pair.

5) I have 8-7s somewhere in the middle of the table. Only one previous caller, so it's a borderline call - at best. I think I am correct saying you'd rather be against several opponents (but with no preflop raises) holding these type hands. Anyway, no one else calls except my other buddy, I'll call him K-Q off, he raises. The other guy and I call. Hand I'd rather not be playing now. Flop comes out J-7-3, all heats. I have clubs, btw. First player checks...I bet! Mr. K-Q off...folds! As does the other player. So I steal a small pot. Why did I bet? Well, for one thing I am still a little pissed - I know, a lousy reason. But I also figured if Mr. K-Q off raises, I will fold. I don't recall him as a slowplayer, so if he does just call I am guessing he has no flush. And I have paired second highest flop card, granted with no kicker though. He would raise with even one heart I am guessing. And I am hoping he regards me as a tight player, we've been on the same table a few times, so maybe my bet will indicate to him I've got something, maybe a flush. Generally I would not bet a made flush on the flop, but holding two small cards I think it's a good idea to try to win the pot right then and there. Maybe, just maybe, he thinks of me as being pretty tight and that's why he folded. I am hoping that is something I learned from watching Dan Harrington, that is a tight player can be very effective bluffing sometimes. I guess this was sort of a semi-bluff, not much of one though.

Anyway, when the bb reached me I got out. Just didn't like the feel of the table. Played 37 hands, saw 11 of 37 flops (way more than usual)...1-4 on showdowns, 2 pots won w/o showdown. Lost $30. Needed a break so I came here.

I am not exactly losing my confidence, but getting into one of those mindsets where you feel that the poker gods are not on your side. Sound familiar to anyone else?

Thanks for bearing with me, it helps me, getting this on paper...burn off some frustration...

most times when im bored during a tourney ill come here, so i read all the posts you gimme somethin to do

Oh yeah, sometimes I feel like I am being picked on by being given good hands and then getting beat by the most remote of chances possible. It astounds me sometimes. I feel your pain.

__________________
Just good enough to think I am good enough.

I know what you are saying ace.ten, but I'm not complaining these were bad beats...more just a bit of bad luck...but to be expected in this game. I guess it's just sort of "when it rains it pours"...which leads me to really suspect that...

THIS SITE IS A JINX!!! > BEWARE!!!

Nah, not really...ace.ten this is a GREAT site you've set up, I hope it gets more traffic. I appreciate your comments, halvey's, and of course the Madman's...

Again, at the risk of this sounding like someone talking bout their golf game, boy oh boy, is this a STREAKY game or what?

Here's a brief history of my PS career...

First six weeks, starting in September, nothing much to tell. A win here, a loss there...feeling pretty comfortable. Only playing 1/2 limit...

Then the next two days I had my best two days ever...easily. One was +$180 in several sessions covering about 6 hours. That much at 1/2 is sweet!

Then immediately after those two days...I lost TEN days in a row! A couple of days were only losses of a couple of bucks...but a loss is a loss. That's when I started getting disenchanted with 1/2, cause of the number of players seeing the flop with garbage.

A week or so later I made the jump to 2/4 limit. And won 7 of 8 days. Was VERY surprised. After that I still overall kept winning, not having monster days, just overall seeing my win total creep up. What was nice was on my losing days I wasn't getting crushed.

Then I found this site...arrghhh ever since. I'm not getting buried, I haven't been victimized by bad beat after bad beat, just being chipped away at. Cards just cold as ice.

I guess what this is all leading up to is this...I would suppose that when you are losing, can't seem to catch a card, etc. it's a good idea to analyze your play and see how much of it is just a run of bad cards, or how much of it is due to bad playing. I can honestly say I think lately it's just bad cards. I am not playing hands I normally would muck, going up to a higher limit to try to quickly recoup losses, etc. I am thinking (hoping?) it's just one of those downswings. The session I just finished, I lost some but not much, and could have easily lost more...just because overall you had a losing session if you can honestly say you did all you could to only lose whatever you did lose, hey, that's OK. Frankly, I think there have been more sessions when I won - but could have won more - than sessions that I lost but should have lost less. And again, I'm not getting buried, heck overall I am still ahead and doing better than I thought I would.

What I am saying is it's never a bad idea to step back and take a look at how you are doing...and more importantly how you are PLAYING.

But if I keep losing I'm gonna start thinking it's the ace.ten curse!

Seriously ace, great job you've done here, I can imagine it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Thanks for a nice place to come to regarding our poker exploits!

It's definatly a downswing, although ever since i came here i've been on a downswing also...hmmmm the Ace10 curse! all joking aside, play it out a little longer and see what happens, if you don't start winning, then take a look at your play, but I'm about 99% sure that its just bad luck, it happens to everyone and the best part is...eventually it goes away, unless your captainblood aka Paul aka Admin here, he seems to have bad luck a little too often

Still can't tell you I had a winning session halvey, lol. Just sat there and folded. Best hand I had after you left was A-Js...but two raises before me killed that.

That guy Ying Yang or whover he was was getting players steamed...I think I only played one hand to a showdown...A-Q for me, board was something like A-9-x, then Q-9...sucker played 8-9 offsuit. ARRRGGGH. And he called before the flop before I raised, than of course called me. And called me down every time. Actually he bet first on the flop, then checked to me on the turn, called my bet. Then check raised me on the river. Squirrel...

But then he beat a guy out with trip 5's...after calling preflop with 5-3s under the gun. And earlier he beat the same guy who had raised with Q-Q...the guy calls in the little blind with A-x...gets an Ace of course...so that guy was hot. Plus he tells us he just folded 5-5 on another table... a 3/6 limit too...and the river was a 5, he would have had a boat but there were too many raises prior so he (correctly) folded. Well, that's simply right play, wrong result. But you could have fried an egg on his forehead by then...

You don't have the ace10.com curse. Only Halvey is allowed to use that as an excuse! In all honesty I know exactly what I did when I lose. 9 times out of 10 it was because I wasn't patient and waited for good cards to play. And, we all have to wait for that 1 bad beat in 10 that is going to happen and to NOT challenge someone with a bigger chipstack unless you have one of the top 4 hands in holdem.

By the way, I am dead serious when I say only play the hands in the green on this page and you will see your wins improve! http://www.ace10.com/ev.htm

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Just good enough to think I am good enough.

That's a great chart Ace. I pretty much play according to that in ring games, I suppose in tourneys (i.e. no limit play) then that adds a whole nother aspect to things.