Fish Game No More or This is Getting Old

This is the last time I will call The Fish Game by that name. I’m down $51 dollars as of yet this year. We played 5 times already. I walked away a winner the first two games and all seemed normal and just in the universe. But in the last 3 games I have walked away with my hands in my empty pockets. Good thing I have that fist sized hole in one pocket or I wouldn’t find any satisfaction. (Damn, fist sounded gay – finger then. That sounded slightly less gay, but gay nonetheless. Ok, enough with all the innuendo; my man-nuggets are near the hole in my jeans.) I lost $20 Friday at the “Home” game. That’s what I’ll call it for now on. I think I let my ego get the best of me recently by calling it the fish game. I should be a little more humble. Out of last year’s 17 games I was 14/3, so I just took for granted that I couldn’t lose against them. I have already lost as many games this year as all of last year. Don’t get me wrong here, I am still rational about the softness of the game; it’s just that I was getting a little cocky it think. I needed a reality check it seems. But truly I should be making consistent money at this game.

I played fairly well for the most part, but just wasn’t hitting the cards to beat the calling-stations. We played for 6 hrs and I got barely any premium hole cards and absolutely no big PP’s. The best I did was AK twice, 99 once, and AQ, KQ, AJ, and AT multiple times. I would have been slightly up for the night, though card dead, if I hadn’t made one mistake. An embarrassing mistake to say the least. Next game I will not drink. Twice now I have misread a hand and lost a big pot due to getting too tipsy; twice now it has cost me to go home on the losing end of butt-kickin’. I don’t drink at home so why do I when I go out? Social drinking I guess. Truly it shouldn’t be all about financial gain when playing with friends. It should be about camaraderie and hanging with friends in an easygoing setting. Shit, I can do all those things without getting drunk. Actually my big problem is that I’m competitive, maybe overly so; I honestly just hate to lose. It’s about being better and more knowledgeable at something and the money is just a by-product of that never-ending quest. And in the case of the “Home” game it’s more like being unsatisfied with not meeting my potential against inferior opponents. Not intellectually inferior or anything to do with cognitive reasoning, just overall substantially deeper knowledge of Holdem and poker in general. I’m done cleaning out the gray matter while typing, sorry. Rant over.

God, they still all over-value most hands most of the time. Kickers don’t even go into their decision-making processes. In the 6 hr session I watched nearly countless big fights with marginal holdings. The money at the table just moved from pile to pile. (Except mine that is. LOL.) They play with the Dealer’s-choice mentality, where they think luck is the key and you need to have your money in all the time because you never know when you will hit. “If it’s your night, it’s your night.” As we students of poker all know, skill and knowledge are ultimately how we win. Not trying to sound cheesy, but as Kenny once sang, “You have to ‘know’ when to holdem and ‘know’ when to foldem. Anyone can win on any given day but only skilled knowledgeable players will win in the long-run. OK, back to the lesson at hand, I watched 3 trip fights where no one even considered kickers. They just kept betting and raising each other on every street, making the pot huge, even though it was pretty obvious what both had and they showed down 3’s-7’s as kickers. Only once in those 3 hands did someone have over a T as a kicker. Don’t get me wrong, I would most definitely have to see the showdown with trips, but with a low board and a baby-kicker, and someone showing that they likely have the same trips also, I am going to slow down the betting to C/C mode. (Check/Call.) Also when the board 4-flushes like it did quite a few times in the 6 hr session, the betting gets crazier than the accumulated kickers condone. I watched 4 people go allin when the river brought the 4th suited card to the party. 1st guy shows down 2pr, 2nd player a straight, and the last 2 players show a 4 and a 7 on the low board. The 7 wins, but all including the winner said, “damn, had to see it,” none thinking that maybe their call or bet or reraise wasn’t the best play. This all just leaves me at the table lamenting Crom, the God of poker among other things, for not giving me a high card of that suit.

Hell sometimes it’s hard to lay down a marginal hand when they bet hard. I actually lost 3 hands to Phil last night because of him over-valuing his hand, thus causing me to fold early on in the hand due to his junky bets. Maybe I’m simply weak. But I think in the long-term against calling-stations the optimum strategy is to play foldem and when you hit hard bet, bet, bet. Trying to play at their drawing luck game isn’t that strong, you can’t really out-play them with moves, because they don’t know what you’re telling them. They just say hell I have a pair, lets call this bet and see what happens. I do play a little loose, trying to hit hard. The way they call bets you just never really know if you’re ahead or totally crushed. The one nice thing about their bad play is that they rarely value-bet. I watched Phil’s wife just call with the nuts when another player before her bet the river. He was willing to go allin with a semi-strong hand. See could have taken it all, but instead she left him with $15. You guys have to see why I am so pissed at my losing streak. I mean I’m not talking $50NL player’s skill against my skills. Where some players are close, parallel, over better than me. No I’m talking the equivalent of Freemoney players or worse at my game. I am just running bad. It is not really variance in the usual since, because I’m not really getting out-drawn, it’s more of just being card dead. When you have a minimum of 4 CS’s per hand you have to occasionally have the best hand to win.

Oh yea, let me not forget to humiliate myself before I leave you to ridicule my misfortune, err I mean, utter debacle. Let me start by saying that I was buzzing strongly. (Right to the excuses, I know. Hey I have some pride to uphold you know.) I have QJ. Lots of limpers to the flop. Phil doubles a BB and makes it $1 to go on a board of KT6. Maki and Gregg call. I normally F/C (fold/call) 75/25% here, but with 3 already in the hand, I get my price I want to call. Pat goes allin for his last $3.5 limpers Fold back to Phil and Mac, Gregg, and him all call. I squeeze my miserly sphincter tight and put in another $2.50 also. Turn comes the Ace. Phil bets $5 into the side-pot and all 3 of us call, me with my mighty gut-shot-possible. (We call all draws possibles. It is just a running joke that originated a Chris statement. Months ago at a game when asked what he had mucked, he said, “…a possible,” like it was a noun. Like someone would say I folded a flush-draw. So now we all just say that we had a possible.) The river comes a J. But being buzzed-up I remembered my hole cards as QT. And I didn’t check my cards again. Phil leads out for $5 again; Maki calls; and I say,“ Lets make it $10,” thinking wrongly that I had the nut straight after hitting my possible. Pat shows his straight; Qx that wasn’t even a possible when he went allin on the flop. I say that I also have the straight as I am turning over my cards on the table. I see my error and say oops and show down 2pr. Phil has K6 and takes down the pot and I am red in the face and look like a total jackass. Real nice feeling I tell ya. At least it was among friends; yea friends that will make sure that they remind me at work and every game from here on out. But I wouldn’t let them live it down either, so I deserve what I get. Did I mention that I’m not drinking at the next game. Later, Donkass out.