The problem with my play currently isn’t finding leaks as much as knowing which of them is costing me the most. I have, not to put too fine a point on it, been playing dreadfully. I moved up to 10NL (0.05/0.10) recently after making the recommended bankroll and switched to 6Max from Full Ring for various reasons, such as more hands per hour and simply the fact that I was crushing the game, pushing my bankroll up 20% in 48 hours.
Now, unfortunately, I’m down to 75% of what I had when I moved up and I have to acknowledge what the facts are telling me – my game needs work. A lot of work. More than the videos I’ve watched and the books I’ve read. I read a forum post recently about a player who’d lost $1k – playing 5NL, which surely takes some enormous self delusion. If I was ever down even a tenth of that I’d take a break (possibly a permanent one).
Anyway, variance aside (my win graph over the past few weeks looks like a representation of a mountain range, with a very steep downwards slope towards the end) I am going to go busto if I continue losing at the current rate. It does frustrate me that I can lose a full buy in to a donkey playing 45% of hands and no concept of outs or odds, but strangely it seems to happen time and time again. I’m beginning to get discouraged by it all. I may have to join deucescracked.com or a similar site for some training videos, and if that doesn’t help I will have to play fucking canasta or something.
I am down 650bb for July because of asshats like this:
The SB and I have a bit of history – he’s been bluffing and stealing relentlessly, showing many of them and being overaggro with hands like 94o – random trash. He’s up a full buy in basically by running over the table and has already won a few 15bb pots from me with straight out bluffs, playing 63% of hands, cold calling with anything and folding to less than 20% of continuation bets on the flop. I know not to go crazy with these kinds of players because they will stack you when they finally turn up with a hand. I’ve made a note to be especially aware not to play weak-tight against him, e.g. folding pairs to a c-bet, as this guy will fire on every street with any two cards (although it’s not like I try to play weak tight at other times!).
Full Tilt Poker $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold’em – 6 players – View hand 181942
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter
Hero (MP): $13.06
CO: $20.17
BTN: $12.04
SB: $11.02
BB: $10.00
UTG: $0.84
Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is MP with 4
4
UTG calls $0.10, Hero raises to $0.40, 2 folds, SB calls $0.35, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.30
I’m in position here with one limper – perhaps best to raise pre-flop to $0.50, although immaterial given the way the hand played out. Our fishy villain calls as expected but we pick up a call from the UTG limper as well. That extra 10c on the raise might have made the difference.
Flop: ($1.30) T T 6
(3 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, Hero checks
Well, I missed the flop, and Tx is definitely within the fish’s range (what isn’t?) but there are two checks so I don’t see a reason to bet here when I can have a free card.
Turn: ($1.30) 4
(3 players)
SB bets $0.40, UTG folds, Hero raises to $1.20, SB raises to $3, Hero raises to $12.66 all in, SB calls $7.62 all in
Well, that doesn’t happen very often. I have the nuts. Little less than a pot sized bet is likely to induce fish to raise me, even better if he has a hand like KT or AT, which would be consistent with his play. I might be behind quads here but dismiss the thought as ridiculous as fish would have probably stuck it all in pre-flop. Shit, what if he has T6? Or 66? Shhh… stop it!
Fish does raise me and I’m just going to shove over the top, because I have the nuts and he has four outs assuming he has the T, which I am now pretty sure he does (although he could have air as in the previous hands he’s gleefully shown crap)
OK, we’re both all in and he shows T Q for trips, as expected. Cue 0.5 seconds of joy before the soul crushing river fuck.
River: ($22.54) Q (2 players – 2 are all in)
Final Pot: $22.54
Hero shows 4 4 (a full house, Fours full of Tens)
SB shows T Q (a full house, Tens full of Queens)
SB wins $21.04
(Rake: $1.50)
I went a bit tilty at this point and had to quit.
