Blow Up

So I didn't do a good job at not playing for a couple days. I played this morning and continued my drastic down swing. I'm trying to figure out if it was bad play, or just a really cold deck.

I did have a bit of a blow-up. I do know that. Which I am going to try to real in. But I know that not all of it can be attributed to bad play. Here are the major hands I can remember from my 3 hour session, on four tables this morning.

1) QQ versus KK. So I was doing ok, not losing too much yet. I think the most I was down on any table was $3. I'm in the sb with QQ, and I get raised. I 3-bet it to see if I can chase away any A rag, or KQ to avoid them hitting their over card. The original raiser smooth calls. I hit a Q on the flop, and begin thinking about how to get money from him. I make a small raise, and he instantly shoves for the rest of his $25 into a $4 pot. there are no straight draws, no flush draws. At best he could have two pair (or Aces), maybe a lower set. I had to call. He showed his KK... turn is a blank, but the river is another K.

I'm  not devastated at this point, but really frustrated. I get up and go get a coffee, and I sit down to try an win it back.

I take in a few small pots, but the overall results are mostly based on these hands.

1) AK versus A5. I was already pretty short-stacked. He three-bet me, but I decided I would much rather take it down now, and I four-bet shoved. He called and hit his 5.

2) AKs versus A9o: This one was a bit of a blow-up. I was a little steamy about the AK a few hands ago, and got 3-bet again, so I shoved. Again somehow the person called, this time I hit AK... but they pulled off a flush with their 9.

3) I have 67c. My opponent min-raises, and I call from the SB. Flop is 6Q7. So long as they don't have a set, I'm golden. My opponent bets, and I make a 2.5 re-raise. He hesitantly calls, and I put him on a Q. he only has $15 left, and there is $10 in the pot, and I am positive I am ahead. he checks on the turn, which is a blank deuce, and so I bet $7. If he has AQ, he may shove, and if he has a straight draw, he can't chase.

He shoves, I call. He has KQo. No straight draw, not flush draw, all I need to dodge is a K or another Q was the thought going through my head. But just to get a good laugh... the poker gods throw out another deuce. Counterfieting my two pair, he rakes in the $40 pot.

I'm steaming. Just losing it. I was so annoyed, and this is where I have my mini blow-up. I'm with those 3 hands (plus a few that I'm not remembering) I'm down $80. I throw in a few all-ins that were probably unwarrented, I run into AA versus my KK (and I lose), and then I check to the river with 33, to catch my set, just to find out that my opponent was checking a bigger set to me hoping I would catch.

I lose one more AK verses A rag, and decided... I can't do it. Something is just plain wrong with my game today. Pokerstars has my number, and I need to relax. I'm down almost $150, which isn't a disaster. I can make that back easily; but not today. Right now I'm sitting at $866.83 from my $1000.

I'm forcing myself to take a break. I locked away my laptop with pstars on it, and can't access it on my desktop. I need to regroup, and see if I can get back some of my loses next week. I might take some time to see if I can follow what's going on with the Fallsview poker classic coming up next week.

I'll let you know any good poker news I hear or catch up on while I take my break, but for now, I'm down. Next week I'll try to recover.

Break-time

Ok, so I'm still up, but I've had two really really bad sessions. I'm going to spend some time taking a break. Relaxing a bit, and coming back to poker in a couple days. right now I'm sitting at $1032.68. I was up to $1120ish, but as a result of my two really bad sessions am down.

It's going to be REALLY hard to not play for the next three days. Really hard. But I think it would be good to step back as I have been playing very consistently, and a lot over the past week.

I will hopefully be able to take some time, analyse, and look at my play for holes. I know I chase way too much, but hopefully I can look and see 'how much am I chasing too much?' or 'is there times when I'm losing big pots by chasing, but getting the right odds to call?'

I want to look at these questions and see if I can figure some of these out. I also want to be able to discuss the best kind of table that I play on. Whether I want a loose table, with really high average pots, or tighter tables with low average pots. I was playing at a really high average pot table, the other players were betting REALLY big, and always taking stabs, etc. Perhaps the answer is, when I'm on these tables, be more patient. If I know I'm over aggressive sometimes, these might be good spots to be more patient for big hands, because I know very well that I will probably get paid off.

I might try to read Dave Sklansky's Theory of Poker on this little three day break. I will hopefully be able to learn something, and I will let you all know. Anyways, that's all for now. See you guys later.

Day 3 Roller Coaster

So I'm probably not going to always number my days, but the other day I had a awesome day; but stressful. It seemed I was going all over the place. I was hoping to recover my loses from day 2, and I started off quite well.

Two hours into the session, I didn't really seem to get anywhere except up maybe 2 or 3 dollars. I was multi-tabling, so I would of thought that after 2 hours I would have been more than that, but I seemed to be at a stand still.

Then I hit it; with Ax suited, I make a small pre-flop raise, two callers and I flop a flush draw. Check, check, I put in a mid-size bet, and get one caller. I make my flush on the turn. I make another bet, half the pot this time to make it look like I was nervous that he called my c-bet. He shoves instantly for his entire stack. I assume he has a lower flush, or possibly 2 pair and for some reason didn't care that a flush draw was just completed.

I insta-call, and he turns over a set. I was excited to rake in the pot and make up for all those lost chips the other day... but the river pairs the board and I lose to a full boat. I was so frustrated. I re-buy hoping to win my money back... but can't seem to get anywhere. It was probably mostly tilt, but it just seemed like I missed every flop, every bluff seemed to not be believed.

I lost another $15, and now instead of being up $35 on my grand, I was down more than $10.

I re-bought. I was going to fight for my money back. But then I had another idea. I was wired, steaming and frustrated, and wanted to play to win my money back. I needed a break.

So I got up, I sat in my apartment for a bit, I relaxed and listened to some music. I took my dog on a walk and went to get a coffee at Tim Horton's to just not worry about it. I was only down $10. I just needed to let it go, and not worry about my game. I actually came back, but decided to wait even more, and I sat down to watch a movie.

This post is actually being posted a couple days, so I can't really think of any remarkable hands (ironic that I can remember the one I lost so brutally like I just played the hand...). But when I eventually returned, I can't really explain it. I thought through EVERY hand, focused on watching players so intensely, and within 2 hours, I recovered my $50ish that I had lost.

I thought about quitting. I was back up, I didn't really need any more. I could of just let it go and fight another day.

In the end I stayed, which for me for some reason is usually a bad thing. The last thing I wanted was for me to loosen up because I was "up" now. I honed in even more, turning off any distractions around me. I left with an additional $50!

I really don't have much to say as this post is a few days later from me being away, but I was ecstatic. I think the best thing I could of done for myself, is my few hour break.