THE POKER GODS MUST BE CRAZY

I don't know what's going on. I came out of the gate strong this year, winning $10k on my first day of play. Since then, it has been nothing but losses piling on losses. I sunk into a bad zone in which I began pressing and playing poorly, but I've gotten that worked out and I'm playing fine once again, at least up to my usual standard, yet now I am still losing as every imaginable bad beat conspires to drive me closer towards bankruptcy. There was a shakeup in my wife's workplace which I believe served as the genesis of my destructive play, but things have stablized both in her workplace and mine since then.

Here's today's horror story. I've been running so bad that I had thoughts of not even playing today and just waiting out January, taking my loss, and working towards a better February. But here I am at home alone and what else am I gonna do, so I fire up a six-handed $5/10 game at Full Tilt, sit down with $500 and go to work. I was going to bring my A-game, wait for good spots, and steadily chip up, then call it a day when I felt I was done.

After about an hour, my $500 had become $1200 and I was playing very well, getting my money in only as a favorite, trapping here and there, and using position to pick up some orphan pots. I was playing rock solid poker and I was chipping up steadily as expected. I raised with KK under the gun and it folded around. That's when I realized I was playing just a little bit too tight. You really can't play in such a way that you don't get action with big hands, so I decided to open up just a little bit. The next time I was utg, I put in a standard raise with 64d and found two callers. Now this is where I have to be careful. I'm not going to even put out a continuation bet unless I get a helpful flop. The last thing I want is to raise with Daniel Negreanu cards and then get sucked in by catching a piece of the flop. I have lost plenty over the years thinking I was a better postflop player than I actually am. If I lose only my initial raise of $30, then I will have accomplished my goal of opening up my game and hopefully the $30 will come back to me later when I get some action on a big hand.

Well, the flop came 532 rainbow. It was my dream flop. Absolutely nothing in poker beats the feeling of raising with garbage and then flopping a monster. I was first to act and I was looking to build a pot, so I fired out $50 into the $95 pot. It was a bet designed to look like a standard continuation bet which would be expected from me on such a garbage flop, whether I had an overpair or two random high cards. The player to my left bumped it to $240 and the third player folded. There was no doubt in my mind that my opponent had a set so I was willing to represent a big pair by reraising him. I bumped to $680, leaving less than half that behind, but sure it was going into the middle sometime soon.

Now, if he held any pair 66-KK, I imagine he would lay it down at this point. I really didn't think he had AA since his preflop smooth call invited action behind him. There was a small possibility of 44 but I really doubt he would have raised me on that juicy flop. If I thought he had a high pair, I likely would have simply called his raise to ensure he couldn't lay it down, but like I said, I was sure enough that he had trips that I was willing to get it all in now and take my 2:1 odds for winning a monster pot. I guess he was sure I had AA and not 55 because he instantly went all in with a set of deuces. Believe me, I would have much rather had 55 than 64 because now the sweating began. I did not want to see that board pair - but that is exactly what happened on the turn. A 5 rolled off to fill him up, and it was even the 5d to give me the glimmer of a 4% chance that I could still make a straight flush on the river, which of course didn't happen. So, my $500 which had become $1200 and should have become $2325 instead became zero and here I am bitching to the poker gods and you my faithful readers.

The only way I could have played that hand to lose fewer chips would be if I had only smooth called his flop raise to guard against the board pairing. When the five came, I could have folded to his certain all-in, but that is some weak-ass poker right there. I had the nuts on the flop no matter what he held and that is when the money went in, when I was a 2:1 favorite. I think the goal of poker is to get as much money into the middle whenever the odds are favorable, so I have no inner quarrel with how I played it, I just wish the odds would have complied once my money was bet. As it is, an ugly month got $500 uglier and I'll be back plugging away soon enough to try to get it back.