Wow. I’m stunned. My worst online session ever this morning, by far. Just got brutalized. 3 $3-6 tables, and managed to lose on all 3. A total of 337 in a 1.5 hour session (4.89 hours combined)! I didn’t think I was capable of losing this much at the $3-6 level. I’m going to take a walk through the poker tracker database and see what happened. I seem to remember getting rivered over and over again, but let’s see if that’s true:
Table 1: -131
1. -18 when my AJd is beaten by 88, and I go to the river drawing to the wheel. Bad play.
2. +40 when my AQ hits a turn on the river
3. -21 when my JJ loses to a guy who flopped two tens with JT
4. -15 on a missed nut 4 flush
5. +54 when my pocket tens hold up
6. -21 on a missed nut 4 flush
7. -27 when my flopped pair of Aces goes down to a BB limper who flopped two 3s with T3o.
Ugh this is depressing. I guess it was a little bit of luck combined with a little bit of bad play, but losing 14 big bets per hour is just awful. Time for another beer.
Table 2: -177
1. -24 when my flopped top pair (queens) goes down to pocket aces
2. +32 flopping a set of 9s
3. -21 when my 9s get killed by Q7o when two queens flop (why didn’t I fold here??)
4. +41 when my QJ catches a Jack on the turn (why was I still in this pot with 2 overcards? Ok, the pot was pretty big, I guess this is OK)
5. -18 on a missed open ended straight
6. -18 when my flopped pair of Aces goes down to a flopped straight
7. -21 when my JJ overpair goes down to a set of nines
And the beats go on…
On the third table I managed to lose just $5. Amazing.
Ok so the river didn’t kill me after all, but it certainly didn’t help. I remember checking my statistics at one point and finding out that I’d seen 30% of flops with a 6% winning percentage. 6% Just horrible. When you are running bad, you’re running bad. I guess I have to learn to tighten up when I’m running bad. I get into trouble in those tables with no pre-flop raising and 4 or 5 players seeing the flop. By then the pots are big enough to chase nearly any draw, and I guess today I didn’t hit my fair share of draws.
Anyway this was a serious blow to the bankroll, as well as the confidence level. My wife came home early from work, which probably saved me from throwing away more money. I wasn’t on tilt, but I definitely wasn’t on my “A” game. Anyway, we took a ride down the street to see “Bad Santa” at the Beverly Center mall, a huge expensive place on the West Hollywood/Beverly Hills border. What a nightmare. We spent 15 minutes trying to find a spot in the horribly designed parking structure. This put me over the edge (I hate LA!) and I did my best to make an empty plastic coke bottle explode. I hadn’t been that angry in a while, but I think LA can do that to you…
Luckily I was saved by Billy Bob Thornton. The movie was hilarious, and features about the meanest hero I can remember seeing in a movie. The movie opens with Billy Bob puking up a fifth of Ole Grandad. There was also more drinking and smoking in this movie than in Iggy’s home games. Definitely lots of low brow humor, but it was well done.
After getting home and throwing down a couple of coors lights, my spirits were back in order. I sat at a $5-10 shorthanded table, and proceeded to quickly drop $95 in 3 consecutive hands.
Hand 1: BB, one limper, SB folds. I have T5d, and flop is Qc Ad 9d. We both check the flop, and turn is a Ten. I bet out, he raises, and I call. River is another ten. I check raise, and he calls, and turns over KJ for the straight. Ouch. -45.
Hand 2: 5 player pot, my AQ misses everything and I fold on the river.
Hand 3: I loosen up and play my K3 suited because 3 players have limped in before me. 5 player pot, and flop is T Q 3, none of my suit. I call the flop bet, hoping to catch the turn (the pot was at 9 small bets at this point). And the turn is a beautiful K, and I get a checkraise in. The river is a Q, with no flush on the board, I fear the Q, and check the river through… sure enough, some clown turns over QT. I guess it would have been a bad beat if the queen hadn’t hit the river anyway… -$30.
Ok so that’s -95 in three hands, but I’m calm, I’m calm… a few beers in my system helps. I wait out the bad hands and start turning it around. I get A8, AQ, and AK three hands in a row, and pull in $109 on those three. $48 more when I catch a jack on the turn, and my KJ beats out AQ. A huge $75 win when my AK flops a king. $38 more when my Q9s flops top pair and holds. A pair of 6s holds up for $30 more. And a big blind special, my 42 suited flops 2 pair in a multiway pot (but everyone folds), $30 more. Ended up winning $66 in 40 minutes after being way down. A nice moral victory, but not much of a dent in the ailing bankroll.
The night is young. The tables are calling. You can’t beat Saturday night on Party.
Addendum: Well, I did beat party, but only for $50 on the $3-6 tables after a 1 hour session. Hey I’ll take it. More importantly, I saw an ad for Party Poker on Saturday night live. They’ve reached network tv! Bring on the fish!!!