Oh poker gods, what have I done to offend thee?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

The last two weekends have been a pretty bad patch for me online poker-wise speaking. Lost a big chunk of my accumulated profits on horrendous beats. Offline I’ve been kicking ass (moneyed in seven of the last ten single-tables I’ve played, including four firsts) and online single-tables I’ve been doing well, but the ring games were beating the piss out of me.

This week, though, things seemed to be turning around. The Sit ‘n’ Gos were going well for me still, was picking up a little at the ring games.

Then tonight.

First hand I sit down, in the BB with A3 os. I would never play this if I weren’t in the blind, but I get to see the flop for free so super. Flop is A64 rainbow. SB checks, I put out a small bet to see if there are any more Aces out there, one caller. I figure no Ace. Turn is A. I bet the pot. Guy raises me 2.5x my bet. I know he’s not playing an A, I figure him for pocket pair and being sort of stupid. I call. River is 9. I put out a small value bet, he raises, I reraise all in, he calls and flips up 99 for a full house 9s full of aces to beat my trips. What the hell? Raising with pocket 9s with two Aces on the board? What do I have to do, email him a screen shot of my hand to get him to lay it down? In retrospect I should have reraised on the turn but seriously I don’t think I could have moved him off his hand with dynamite. So first hand and I lose the stack I sat down with to a moron playing a two-outer that hits.

Reloaded, played some more hands, can’t call very many hands and not hitting anything on the flops when I do, my chips are dwindling, finally get a decent hand, KQ suited. I raise it up before the flop, two callers. Flop comes K8x. First player bets, I raise all-in (very aggressive but it seemed like a good idea at the time), one fold, better calls. Turn and river are rags and he turns up K8 os to beat my pair of Kings with two pair. Again, what the hell? Calling a pre-flop raise with K8 os?

That was enough for that table. Sat out a bit, played with the cats, regained some composure, sat back in at a new table and loaded back up. I was running the table a bit, being aggressive and running over some players, up about 30%, until…

I get J10 of diamonds in the blind. Five players in, everyone calls, I check. Flop comes AdKcQs. Nut straight for me. SB checks, I bet the pot, fold, fold, button doubles the bet, fold, I go all in, button calls. Turn is Kd and I’m salivating because if the Qd hits the river I get 100xBB bonus plus the pot, river is 9h. I flip up the straight, button turns up pocket AA for the full house and I’m broke for the third time tonight. Obviously I can’t fault the guy for calling with trip AAA (although I hope it at least crossed his mind for a second that I might be playing J10), but dammit, that should have been his bad beat story for the night, not the second one for me!

2

Some days it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed. The best thing to do is recognize when you are having one of those days, and go back to bed.

Good luck next time. :slight_smile:

3

What the hell language is this?

4

Your karma must have transferred to me. I placed 3rd out of 11 my first time playing no limit. Then later that night, 2nd out of 6. I was one of two people there who hadn’t played no limit.

(However, it evidently didn’t transfer in the case of Ax vs pocket yy, as my losing hand was an all-in losing to trips holding a pocket pair. (Okay, I was bluffing, so sue me.))

5

What, you don’t speak the English?

Beats=hands of poker when one is way out in front but a player making bad calls ends up with a better hand. For example, getting three of a kind on the flop only to have someone else come from behind to get a straight.

Sit ‘n’ Gos=a poker tournament consisting of one table full of players. Contrasted with a “multi,” a tournament involving players at more than one table.

BB=big blind, the larger of two forced bets in a hand of Texas hold 'em.

A3 os=hole cards of an Ace and a three of different suits.

Flop=the first three cards that all players in a hand of hold 'em share.

A64 rainbow=an Ace, six and four all of different suits. This means that it is unlikely that anyone will make a flush.

SB=small blind, the smaller of two forced bets in a hand of hold 'em.

Turn=the fourth card that all players share in a hand of hold 'em.

I bet the pot=I place a bet equal to the amount currently in the pot.

Pocket pair=a pair in the hole.

River=the fifth and final card that all players share in a hand of hold 'em.

Value bet=a small bet that a player who believes he has the best hand makes to try to extract more chips from another player.

All in=betting all the chips one has.

Reloaded=getting more chips.

Nut straight=the best possible straight. “The nuts” is the best possible hand at the time.

6

Ok, today I lost 3 hands on a river 6.

The first I was BB with A6 os. 2 players, I check. Flop comes A57 rainbow. I put out a smallish bet, two calls. Turn comes 3. I put out another smallish bet, one fold, one call. River is a 6 so I have 2 pair. I put out a bet, he raises and I call. He had 4s to make a straight.

Second hand I have pocket 2 in BB again. Flop comes K26. I’m slow playing so check, guy bets, I call. 6 on the turn, he bets I reraise and he calls. River is a 6. I had him on the K so I don’t know why I called, but that sucked.

These last 2 hand were in a tournament so I was fairly short stacked after the other hand. next hand I have J10 suited. 4 players. I had raised pre-flop. Flop is 810Q rainbow. I figure I should make a move with a decent pair and an inside straight draw. I get one call who has 10 6. Turn is nothing special and the river gives him his 6 for 2 pair to beat my pair.

I think I’m taking off for a while.

7

None of you have anything on me. I started playing online poker about six weeks ago and made close to $100 (not including the $50 bonus I got from the site) in the first five days, playing a couple of hours a day at limits of 0.25/0.50 and 0.50/1. I figured I’d got myself a nice little hobby. I withdraw all of my original deposit and start playing with only the profit.

Enter the downward spiral. I sit down at a heads up table with $50 and start robbing the people who bring $5 to 0.50/1. Then, this guy with $7 sits down. I figure he’s another easy mark… and he was, except that he’s the biggest lucksack in the known universe. I have him all-in three times, and all three times he hits the jack or whatever he needs on the river. A little while later, I’m down $40. I may have tilted slightly. It’s even probable.

And from there it goes. A couple of days later, I get airlines twice in a row (at odds of 1 to 48841) and am outdrawn on the river both times (at odds of 1 to whatever extremely high number you wish to state). My opponents keep 47o and get the straight on the river, over and over again.

Then, I have AKs and raise preflop. I’m reraised and I reraise back. He calls. The flop is xKx, so I bet. He calls. The turn is x, so I bet. He calls. The river is x, so I bet. He calls. What did he have? KK.

Another time, I have KK on the button and the flop is 323. Everyone checks to me and I bet. Everyone folds except one. The turn is another 3. I bet, he calls. The river is an ace. What did he have? AJo. He had nothing but kept calling, and lo and behold, an ace fell on the river. How do you play against people like that?

So, from a profit of nearly $150 including the bonus I’m down to somewhere around $40. Maybe I suck, maybe I’ve had a five week statistical fluctuation. Or maybe the poker gods just fucking hate me.

8

Mine weren’t the worst beats (although losing because of running 6s is pretty bad), I just thought it was strange that I lost on 6, then 6, then 6. If I was superstitious I would be worried.

9

Well, see, there’s your problem right there. The Cashout Curse. It’s well known in online poker circles that if you pull money off the site you will lose horribly for an indertimate time.

Combine that with the fact that at the micro-limits there will be a certain percentage of idiots who call with almost literally any two cards because it’s cheap to see the flop and you’re going to get outdrawn more often than at a higher limit game.

As for your guy playing AJ os with trip 3s on the board, I can tell you exactly what he was thinking. He was thinking that his A was the best kicker to go with trip 3s. I keep telling myself that in the long run it’s idiots like him and the guy who sucked out on me with the pocket 9s that pay me off but in the short term when you take a big hit on a single hand to a dumbass it’s hard to keep that in mind.

Personally I’m taking a break from online poker for a week. I played a couple more hands last night and increased the stack I sat down with by 60% (which sounds impressive until I reveal that I sat down with $5 and got up with $8) so I’m going out on that slight upturn. Just needed to take down one pot before I took off.

10

Really? I think he was thinking something along the lines of “I’ve got an ace! It’s the best card in the game! I can’t lose! Must bet… oh, look, shiny.”.

11

You play with shiny cards? What poker site is this exactly?

12

www.pokerwhoosh.com

13

www.notreallywhooshed,justmakingajoke.com?

14

www.iwasntreallysurebuteitherwayoneofuswaswhooshedsoiposteditanyway.org

15

Hey, just so you guys know, none of those links work.

16

I’m sure most of you poker nuts know about this site, but you can always check out http://www.riveredagain.com for some fantastic stories of bad beats.

17

don’t want to sound like an ass, but you played your hands wrong.
First hand you should have folded when he reraised you 2.5 times your bet. Yes you have him fiqured out correctly, but he very well could have been playing the ace with a higher kicker, or like he had a highish pocket pair. If you bet preflop rep. the A, you might have had more luck.

Preflop raise on the KQ suited is a good play in my book, but reraising all in after the flop was not that smart. Most likely the dude was not on KK, or AK, but flopping two pair he will defenitly call your all in.

you j 10(s) you should have raised preflop as in the KQ, with that flop you would have of course bet into it, which you did, but the reraise would/should throw up a warning that your opp. is jamming the pot with either two pair or trips on the flop.i could see going all in with the rainbow, the trip aces would most likely call, and rightfully so, but he got lucky making the full house. That hand was played well just got unlucky

18

Well…that too.

19

I don’t like playing A-rag just because of the possibility of the outdraw. Especially online, people tend to play A-any. Most players raise with an A pre-flop on the site where I play; with this being the first hand I was in I was limited in what I could figure but with no pre-flop raise I didn’t think there was an A out there, which the bet on the flop confirmed for me. I really wish now I’d pushed him on the turn; I still feel pretty strongly that if he’s willing to raise with the 99 against two Aces on the board he wouldn’t have folded but it was my best chance at that point.

That was more aggressive than I usually play. I felt like top pair with Q kicker was enough to justify trying to push him out. I figured he either hit one pair on the flop or was betting a naked A. I didn’t think someone would call a pre-flop raise with K8 os, but I underestimated the stupidity of my opponent yet again.

This is the one that really hurt. I don’t like putting a lot of money in a pot with mid-level suited connectors because I don’t find they hit for me very often. There was no way I was getting away from that hand. Hell, I wanted him to have trips so he’d call the all in. I don’t fault his play at all.

20

thats the problem with playing online, people play the worst junk, you need to either play higher limits, or make them pay to play crappy hands, its tough, but i find being more aggresive online usually works out