Thud

Ugh...I hope that is the sound of me hitting bottom. The last week has been brutal. Suckouts galore. I keep telling myself that swings in your bankroll are normal....but this is just ugly.

I have been playing at Full Tilt mostly, due to my thoughts on their hand histories, etc as I outlined earlier. I had heard that the games at FT were tougher, as there are less players that usually know more about online poker. That hasn't been my experince for the last week.

It all started after my tilting episode. I decided to go super-tight and only play Aces, Kings and Ace King suited in any positon, and then Queens and Jacks from a late position. I would raise any hand the size of the pot or larger, or go all-in if there was a raise before me.

That worked for a few days, and I was up $15 or so at the nickle/dime NLHE tables. Then, the luck changed. It was Saturday afternoon. I got JJ on the button a few hands after sitting down at a new table with $10, no one raised, but two limpers. I raised to $0.50, and the BB and on other caller. Flop was 10 6 4, rainbow. Check, check. I bet $1.75. BB folds, limper calls and I suspect a trap. Turn is a 2, with 2 clubs. Check, I check. River is a 5 of clubs. Check again. I bet the pot again (now up to just under $6) and guy raises another $6 and puts me all-in. I know I am beat, but want some info on the player, so I call. He has 55. He called all previous bets with two overcards on the board, and a significant pre-flop raise. He re-raised with a possible straight or flush on board. Granted, he could have put me on AK (or any ace, really, with how people play on FT). He hit the set on the river to beat me. He had 6 outs (the threes would have given him a straight) to beat my Jacks, but it was a bad play for him that paid off.

So now I'm mad and ready to get even. I reload $10 and decide to play it out. Everyone has bad beats, and I'll make it back. I'll grind it out. I'm not tilting. I get a pot with AK, but it is only $1.50. I play a while more and get another AK clubs. I'm in an early position, so only raise $0.30 in case someone comes over the top I can make a decision and get some info. Only the button calls. Flop is Q 5 4 with 2 clubs. I'm feeling good, but I hate to push draws. I check, button checks. Turn is a 7. Still haven't made my flush, but decide I will push the button a bit and overbet the pot (yeah, I know, bad idea) and push in $4. He sits and thinks. And calls. River is no help, no club. So I have AKQ high. Not a good hand. But maybe he thinks I am slowplaying a Q. So I bet out another $4. He calls. And turns over the 78 clubs. His 7s beat my A-hi. Ugh. Two bad beats in a row. And two pretty questionable calls. So it can't get any worse, right?

Wrong. I reload another $10 and move to a new table. Nothing much going on, and I steal a few blinds in late positions, deciding that the super-tight strategy is not the best. I would rather win a bunch of small pots than montsters, and I know that I have been making the drawing types salivate with my bets. Although they are getting bad odds to call, they have been and have been hitting and my roll is hurting. So I switch back to small-pot mode. However, on the button I get AA. I've been outdrawn all night so I think....the probability gods have to be on my side, right? AA wins enough to gamble a bit, right? (Boy, don't you wish you could have hindsight as foresight?) I look back and know that it is a bad play, but there is one person at the table with $15, I have $12, and everyone else is under $10. The $15 has been playing aggressively, and not showing a lot of hands so I don't have a lot of info. He did limp into this pot and is 2 seats to my right, so the hell with it. I'm all-in. SB folds, BB folds. Mr. $15 calls. And turns over J 5 spades. Yeah, J frigging 5. I can't help it. I usually hate the jerks who give lessons, and I violate my rule and say something like "Jack 5? You called a $12 bet at a nickle dime table with J5?" His response is "well, it IS suited" and I want to choke him, because by this time in the converstation the flop is down and a 5 hits. Uh oh. I hear the probability gods laughing at me....

The turn is a blank

The river is a 5.

THUD

The good news is that I logged off before I could do more damage. I lost $30 in less than 30 minutes. And it was actually a bit more, as I was up a little each time that I ended up in these hands. But it was just ugly.

I sat out until last night, and it looks like that was the bottom. I came back up about $10, so the roll wasn't hit too hard. But it still smarts. I hate days like that. Anyway, if you are a FT player, stop by and say hi at the nickle/dime NLHE sometime. The screen name is IlliniFan.

See ya around.