Just My Luck: Three Straight Flushes in One Week

I played live 3 different times live last week and once each day I saw a straight flush. That has to be some staggeringly enormous odds. Plus, if you add in the fact that I was the one that got beat each time by the straight flush it has to be completely nuts. 2 were one-outers and the other was a 2-outer.

First one the flop came 7c5c4c. I had 75o. I bet and got raised. 3 go to the turn and it is a non-spade 7 giving me a flush. I figured one had the flush already and the other had the A or K of clubs. I check, as does the guy to my left. Flop aggressor bets and I reraise. All call. River comes an 8c. I bet pot. My left calls and aggressor pushes for my last $25. I figured that I was beat. My friends are super loose and reckless so I called. There was 90 in the pot at this point and I figured my friend to the left would also call making it a $140 pot. Guy to my left shows As. Aggressor shows Xc6c for the open-ender SF draw that spiked my ass. What a cooler. I still won $60 this session, but I still lament that hand and all that I could have pocketed.

Second time was at my Mom’s house, where we always play $5 buy-in tourneys when the Fam gets together. I trap 2 players on the turn with a Q-high flush. My Sis just had a pair, but my Bro had a lower flush and was drawing dead to 1 card 1 time. 6s3s was on the board and he has 7s4s. I call the card coming and the 5s rivers and IGH on the bubble.

Lastly, the next day we continue with our Christmas drinking and tournaments. I go all-in on the flop with Mom. I had 2pr. She had a gutshot straight-flush draw. She turns another 5s if I remember the card right. Of course I call this one also before it falls after my previous luck during the week.

That is some bad bad luck my friends. I hate the holidays.

The Creeper

I have been slowly creeping my way up this week. I couldn’t play much because I was working. I played around an hr to 1 ½ hrs a night, just enough to get my 200 points. Out of the last 5 sessions I have profited 4 times. Once was for $45 and the others were in the teens and 20’s. But I am getting my confidence back and that is always good. I didn’t play well overall, thus bringing in small wins.

I have a friend at work that I have been talking poker with and he has started playing online. He is very green (he had only played twice live a home games,) but it is nice to have someone competent to talk poker and online poker hands with. He is a smart kid and wants to learn and has the drive and intelligence to become a good player once he gets some hands under his belt. Plus, it is cool to help him on his way. He is playing every day like I do, so we talk hands and scenarios daily.

Last night was a roller coaster ride of bad play and coolers. I jotted some big hands down so I could remember them for discussion with him and to show how a few bad plays can effect your night’s profits and bankroll growth overall. I wrote them down, so I mind as well post them here so you can relive my crappy plays and lucky coolers, which turned me a meager profit for the night.

1st hand – I limp in from the Small or Big with K6ss. Flop comes T87 with 2 spades. I don’t remember how many limped but it ended with just 2 of us after our action. I bet-out and the guy raises real big. I push with my pair and 2nd-nut FD. He only had $50 to start the hand and asked for time before he finally called his last $27 with ATo. I whiff and lose $50 soon after sitting down. I normally wouldn’t play the hand that aggressively, but I figured if I did call I would be pot committed anyways with my FD on the turn. It was fold or push IMO, so I decided to do it while I had some fold equity. I probably played it badly by calling or pushing. But I ended up having the better odds of winning the hand with 2 cards to come. But obviously I had to hit a K or spade. I honestly didn’t know this at the time. I’m not saying that is why I did it; I’m just trying to figure it all out now. Weird thing is I actually had better odds if he would have flopped the nuts. Down $50 or so at this time.

2nd hand – A guy had raised PF 3 times in a row. This time he does it UTG. I am the BB. I call the other $2 with K6s. Flop – 987 rainbow. I check; he bets; and I raise. He pushes. I call. He had around $50 or so at the start of the hand. He has pocket Q’s and takes it down. I know that this was horrible on my part. I have been getting stupid like this since the tilt session. It’s like I have some residual after tilt virus invading my play. This is a play that I can honestly say that I never do. OK, almost never. Not only did he show strength PF, he showed uber flop power also. To top this off I was drawing to the dumb-end of a straight. Pathetic. Plus, there was no fold equity whatsoever to make this play; I called his all-in. I’m embarrassed to even show this tripe. These are the kinds of plays that donks pay ME off with. Another $50 dropped. Down $100.

I call a PF raise and a call with 44. Two 4’s hit the flop. I am in position. Aggressor bets $8 and other dude folds. I just call obviously. No legitimate need to worry about him drawing out. Turn X. He bets $20 for me and I smooth-call again. River X. He bets out $30. I only have $64 so I push. He calls. Hand ends and he mucks face down. I’m guessing that at some point in the hand he made a boat. Aces or Kings would have to slow down to my calls at some point in the hand with a pair on the board. I wish I had more at the table because he had $200 in his stack. Well, I can’t play that hand wrong so I can’t sit here and say how I out played this dork. The hand played itself. Position was great in that hand. No guessing. Oh yea, this was one of the coolers I was talking about. Poor bastard. Usually when you hit quads or a boat on the flop you have the board crushed and don’t get much action. I was lucky here. +$100 or so and I’m back to even.

4th hand – Raise from EP and I call from the BB with J-small-suited. Flop delivers 2 beautiful Jacks. I check and he bets and I call again. Turn X. I check-raise him this time, putting in a goodly sized raise. He folds and I scoop a $60 pot. I’m up $30 or so at this point.

I then play a lot of small pots and steal tons of blinds. I get up around $75.

5th hand – Raise from EP again and I call with 99. Flop - Q9x. Check/check. He bets the turn; I raise; he RR’s; and I push. He calls and shows QQ. My 1-outer doesn’t come and I lose a $200 pot. Kick-ass, I’m down $25 again.

6th hand - I get off the computer to sneak a smoke. As the tables are timing out because I didn’t hit the sit-out buttons because I was aggravated with me play. (I know, you hate players that hold up the game.) I am walking back by from the kitchen and see an Ace on the popped-up screen. I also notice that there are like 6 Lemurs limpers. I see that I have A9dd. I call just as it is about to time-out. Flop comes 3 diamonds and I am last to act. Everyone checks to me and I decide to give a free card and hope that someone gets a piece of the turn and also pray that the board doesn’t pair. Turn is a blank. Checks to me again. I bet $3 this time. (Around ½ pot, wanting to look like a position steal.) Folds around and a guy min-raises me to $6. Anyways, we reraise back and forth until both stack arrive in the middle. He shows the best hand possible. (For me obviously.) I didn’t have to worry about a suck-out because he was drawing dead with Kxdd. Hmm…up $75 again.

I mess around for a little while longer and end my session only up $26. It really just goes to show how a few bad or iffy plays can turn good day’s profits into mere change. I am going to get my points tonight and try to play with smart aggression and not just blow all my profits throughout the session.

As an aside: Full Tilt is being very magnanimous this month and is matching your year’s whole accrued Iron Man Points at the end of this month. (Just regular accrual though, not bonus points or anything like that.) So starting January I will have 1496 IMP. I always buy $100 bonuses. They cost 600 IMP’s apiece. But for 300 in one shot you can save 200 and get them for 1600. I really want to buy them as soon as Jan gets here, but I don’t want to just buy $200 and miss out on a 200 savings. Well, last month they started giving bonus IM Points that compound every 500FTP’s that you accumulate daily. Ex: 500 = 2 IMP’s - 1000/5 - 1500/10 - 2000/20 - etc. Today is the 14th so I have half the month left to get 104 points. I will need to put in a few long sessions to accomplish this, but hopefully I can. Damn I love free money for my bankroll to eat. I should have close to $300 currently coming from rake back also.

Wish me luck. Later, Ash out…

Quick Update and a Casino Trip

Ok, I revised the post. God was it horrid. I was writing at work and got busy, so I just hurried up and posted. I’m sorry for anyone that read it.

I played at the casino for the first time in over a year. After the Christmas party I got put on the waiting list. There was only one table going at that time. It was $1/$2. I was told that 5 dudes were on the list ahead of me, but they had called in ahead of time so I was essentially next up. After 20 mins of throwing quarters in hungry unproductive slots I checked back. He said that I was now 6th on the list again because they were in. I was chatting with the pitboss when someone left the table. He said fuck-it go ahead and jump in there.

I sat down in the 5th seat with a full table of regulars that I had seen before in my multiple visits to a different casino last year. Luckily a guy left and a huge chip-spewing fish took his seat in the 2 spot. I started mixing it up with him right off the bat. I won a few smallish pots from him. I then hook horns again with him. I reaise him with AA. He pushes and I call, making it a $120 pot. He shows AKo. He hits a flush on the turn. I reload $60, putting me back at the max buy-in of $100.

I get in with him again soon after and push for $35 more on the river, because he checks after being the aggressor on every prior street. It was a river bluff with AQs. He folded and I showed.

I later called $10 more from the BB with 43s to isolate against him again. I hit an open-ender and called a flop bet without the odds but hoping to hit. Turn brings me a pr of 3’s to add to my SD. I call another bet. River is a beautiful 3. He bets me on the river and I shove like the time before trying to portray the bluff again. He throws away his hand and says that he was trying to buy it with overs.

I also got lucky once. A guy to my left was short-stacked after losing a few hands. He pushes for $25 from UTG. Folds back to me in the BB. I have KJs. I decide to call. He shows AQo. I hit trip-jacks.

I also lost some nice bets when I got reraised preflop and had to laydown. I also had to drop a few hands when the turn got ugly. I only got to play 2 hrs because we rode with the in-laws and they along with my wife were ready to jet. I ended the session up $22. Ghey, but at least I didn’t lose. I wish I would have driven a separate car because my table got real juicy just before I had to go. 2 drunk guys sat down and it was obvious to most at the table that they were dead money.

Whine and Cheese

Your comment was spot-on Sub; I tilted my ass off. I had been averaging $75 a day for the last 2 ½ weeks. (See last post for stats.) I moved up to the $100NL tables a week and half ago. I was in a zone, a little weak on some hands maybe, but playing well. And then 12/17 came. It was a long session. I lost some big hands early and spazzed the fuck out after that and tilted off more and more. I actually quit twice (once I played WoW for awhile and then to watch Poker After Dark,) but kept coming back for more. I started chasing my money. I started calling hands and bets that I normally wouldn’t. I began chasing until the river against pot-sized bets. It was horrible. I started bluffing poorly. I was making bad calls all around and kept spiraling deeper. It was a sick sight. I totally forgot my new “big hands for big pots,” strategy. GOD. That is the biggest 1-day loss of my career.

I’m not normally a tilty player. I have been playing long enough to see just about anything. But I think the $100 a hand losses put me over the edge. 2 cracked Aces hands in a row. It all started with a 1-outer. AA vs TT. I reraise PF and he calls. He hits a set and smooth-calls my flop bet. Turn brings my Ace-nuts. We get all-in with one card to come and bang, mister Ten. It aggravated me but I was OK, sort of. Then I get AA again. I reraise PF. He RR back. I push and he calls $60 more. Guess with what? KTs. K-fucking-Ten-suited for a hundo. 2 Tens hit the board by the river and Tilty-Mcdonk is in full affect. I start playing bad and pair that with a cold deck and I see 3 more stacks leave to SOS (set over set), FOF (flush over flush), and KK vs AA. Combine that with some horrible play on my part and you have a negative 7-buy-in night. I even did something that I never do, because I was out of my flipping mind. I flopped the nut-flush and had a guy check-call me all the way to the river. The board paired and he checked again. I always just check behind after the board pairs the river. But not this time, I push and get called buy a river-boat. My night summed-up. I will give it another shot in the morning. If I hit $1000 I will drop back down to $50NL again until I hit $1200 or so.

The only positive is that I already have more rake this month on the 6th than I did all of last my total. $300 coming back so far. 8 $100 tables add up quick I tellz ya.

Later, Donkass Out…

OUCH