I can now count 8 times where I went extremely deep in large tournaments (down to 3 tables) only to lose a 70/30 situation or better.
Because I've been hauling my ass back and forth between Boston and New Jersey every week I've been playing low volume. Seems like no matter what the volume is I get the same results:
Shit. Right on my face.
I played a $10 Rebuy not that long ago and we were down to 23 players. Awesome, right? Sure. First place was about $6500 I think.
I was dealt KK in the big blind. I'm not a doom and gloom person. My first instinct is never, "Great, here comes the bad beat." Screw that shit. I was thinking of a nice little double up when the chipleader raised from middle position. A double up would put me around 3rd or 4th in chips.
Blinds were 2500/5000/250 (?) - I always forget the ante amounts.
He raised to 20,000 and I'm not sure how you guys feel, but whenever I see someone raise 3X or larger when the antes kick in I immediately classify them as a bad player, or a novice. But that's only because fish make big raises when smaller ones will still earn folds. Call me a cynic ...
I can play this two ways.
1. Jam the pile in his stupid Russian face (no offense if any of you are of Russian lineage - it's just that they are still horrible at "the poker")
2. Flat and either lead out or check-jam a non-ace flop.
He's a loose player so I decide to flat instead of jamming and seeing a fold the majority of the time.
The flop is 9s 3h 2c so basically a perfect flop for me. And a perfect flop for him, so he thinks, if he has TT, JJ, or QQ. With his 4X raise preflop I think he is very likely to have a medium pair a lot of the time. Or he has something like AK/AQ but I place AK lower on the chart since I'm holding two of the kings.
I decide to check-raise all-in. Not to worry, he open jams a shit ton chips when I check to him. I of course instacall to see him turn over the monster A9 and watch as a third 9 hits on the turn.
Know what the worst part of being a good player is? You're never on the right side of that.
A good player never plays so badly that he needs a miracle card unless you get caught in a total cooler situation.
I can't remember the last time I owned myself and lucked out massively. I guess that's a good thing only I don't have the results to support it.
FML.
Maybe it's the fact I'm only playing around eight tournaments per week these days. I played four this week and cashed in three of them. Nothing substantial, though - 6 times my buy-in was the largest one, but it was a $100 MTT so I guess I have that going for me.
I'm done with the pokering for a bit. I've been home in Boston all week and spending a lot of time with my girlfriend which has been nothing short of perfect. It's also been really nice out and our apartment has two skylights and tons of windows so everywhere I look is a constant reminder to stop sitting on my ass and enjoy life.
Speaking of ...
You do the same, got it? Right now. Go on... get out of here!
4 comments:
FKCoolers -
You are so right, and well put:
"You're never on the right side of that."
Story of my poker life recently.
I've even quit for a while to get a better perspective on things. Hey, it's summer in New England - enjoy it!
Have a great Memorial day.
A good player never plays so badly that he needs a miracle card unless you get caught in a total cooler situation.
Absolutely! Anyway, I know you know this, but stuff like this will turn around.
Here's a real gem that just happened in the $5 rebuy on PStars.
Blinds 800/1600/200 (guessing antes again)
UTG+1 limps. MP limps. Button limps.
I have 39,000 in chips and make it 6,000 from the BB with KK.
UTG+1 jams 45k more and I snap call.
He has ATo and makes a boat by the river.
Granted there were 240 of us left but I'd have been top 50 in chips and could easily have made a very deep run in that field.
If the law of averages works out I should go in a hot streak and final table a bunch of tournaments down the road.
Fk,
If you are doing things right you generally aren’t going to luck out like the clowns you play against each night. You are a solid player, so you happen to get in when you have a huge equity advantage.
Not that I know anything, but I’m not sure I like the call with KK unless this dude is massively weak-tight. You have to at least put him on an ace even with a psycho open-range, and I’d feel better trying to fold out the ace before the flop (especially this late in the tourney). That being said, he may have called regardless. Also my chip stack compared to my opponent's would have influenced my decision.
Anyways hope all is well.
-bag
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