Big Score

Had my biggest one night win Saturday night at the $1/$3 Tulalip casino game. At one point I was up to $1800, but ended up cashing out at $1625, for a profit of $1425. Brilliant poker playing?

Not at all. I was watching one of the Live at the Bike episodes late Friday, and one of the announcers called it out just right: he said NL hold 'em is a game of mistakes. The object is to make as few mistakes as you can, and capitalize on the mistakes of your opponents. That's pretty much what I was doing. I'd catch players over-playing medium-strength hands, and just take their money. Here's a great example:

I'm in middle position with 7h 8h, and I limp in. Player on the button pops it to $20. It folds around to me, and I call. At this point, we're both pretty deep for these levels: I've got about $600, and he's got about $400. As a general rule, I use the 10-times rule to decide whether to call with hands like small pocket pairs and low-mid suited connectors: if the player has 10 times the amount of his raise (and, of course, I do too), and I think he'll pay me off if I hit, then I'll call. If not, then it's not worth it.

I also know, too, that this is quite a large raise for this player, and the last time he made this large preflop overbet he showed jacks, so I have an idea right off the bat where he's at.

2 players, pot is $44.

FLOP:
Kd 8c 8s

I lead out for $30. He pops it to $100. I smooth-call, and plan on leading any turn. He says something like "Great, I've been trying all night to avoid you, and here we are." Whatever; unless he has K8 or KK I'm good..

TURN:
[Kd 8c 8s] 2c

Pot is $244, he's got about $300 left. I bet $100, he goes all-in. Of course, I call.

RIVER:
[Kd 8c 8s 2c] a meaningless river card

I show 7h 8h for trip 8's. He shows Tc Td for 2 pair. And for some reason he goes off for about 5 minutes on how I can call with that garbage. I ask him if he plays suited connectors and he says, "not like that." I say something to the effect of him obviously being a limit player, which he didn't take too kindly to.

Thing is -- I'd probably play AK just as fast, and I'd expect him to as well. I can't tell you how shocked I was when he didn't have a king there. Insanity.

------------------

So for the next hour this guy is steam-raising and playing super-aggro. I don't mind; if I don't have a hand I get out of the way, all the while he's building up a nice stack from the rest of the table.

Then, round two:

After a couple limpers, I raise to $15 from middle-late position with 3c 4c. I'm raising often, but not excessively, and I'm mixing up what I'm raising and limping with, so this fits in to the script perfectly (see this post). Same dude calls me from the button. Blinds fold.

Pot is $40.

FLOP:
[Td 4h 3s]

Not a bad flop, eh?

I bet $30. He calls, and gives a little speech: "You'd better have something this time." I don't know what this means, except that he must've hit part of that flop or has a pocket pair. TT he'd for certain raise here.

TURN:
[Td 4h 3s] 3d

Well, I've got a likely lock on the hand. I don't get fancy: I want to build a pot, so I stick some money in there. He already told me on the flop he liked his hand, so the 3 is likely not going to affect his hand quality, so he should be able to call here too. I bet out $50. He comes over the top and goes all in for another $250 or so. Massive bet. Massive.

I, of course, call.

RIVER:
[Td 4h 3s 3d] 9h

I show 3c 4c for a full house. He shows 3h 5h for trip 3's. He then gets an attitude again, saying "You raised with 3c 4c?" I remind him that not only did he call preflop with 35o, but that he called a flop bet with bottom pair. He then goes on like a doofus saying "I can't beat you, I just can't beat you can I?" He says a few other rude things as he's standing up to leave. I ask him if he's going to the ATM, because we'll save his seat for him.

That may have been a little over-the top, but the table got a laugh from it.

poker & emotions

One thing I'm realizing is that I do not emotionally deal well with big swings. Oh sure, the up swings are wonderful, but the down swings -- I'm not good with them.

I start to question my abilities. I start to wonder whether I really am any good at this game, or if I just get lucky during winning sessions. Knowing that the majority of poker players are losing players, I wondered whether this fit me too, and if my stats for the past 9-10 months or so (only began tracking live NL play, leaving limit out right now) are just an anomaly.

About a month ago, I had an incredible poker weekend - 2 marathon poker sessions that netted me over $1K. At $1/$2. I kid you not.

But then the next 3 weekends were horrid. Awful. I ended up below where I was before memorial day.

This weekend, though, I did 2 back to back sessions Sat-Sun morning, and had to buy in 3 times to the $1/$2 game to end with a $24 profit. And the $2-$40 spread game I went to I crushed: started with $100, walked out with $460.

I hated that I spent 14 hours playing to only show a $24 profit. That almost feels like a loss...

The fact of the matter is that when I start losing, I start to feel bad about myself, and start questioning my play and my abilities. And when I'm winning, I start to wonder how this game can be so easy, and whether I should step up to $3/$5 even though I'm not properly bankrolled for that level.

I know neither of these two thoughts is correct. Yet my brain still goes there. So I guess part of me believes these thoughts. The brain lying to itself is a scary thing.

Logically, I understand 100% that you can't have winning sessions every time: nobody does except the UP and AP Super User accounts. But psychologically I get way too down on myself after losing sessions.

First step in any problem is to acknowledge the problem, so I'm part way there at least :)