Poker is Mean

Man is Poker crazy or at least drives you crazy. I ended the night up $50 or so. It is like one minute every move you make sucks and is making you bend over and take it up the arse and the next your the Golden Child.

The funniest thing about last night was three hands I had one two seperate tables basically in a row. I am on table one, and I have a gutshot draw, four people in, so I am getting roughly 8:1 on my buck call. So I say wtf and go for it. I hit the gutshot. I end up betting four bucks and nobody bites so I do not make what I need to for that call to have been good.

I then get the same situation on my second table. Except I need a Q. Almost exactly the same. Four people in. A gutshot draw. So I say to myself "Well, I just made one at the other table so wtf!" and I toss my two bucks in. Whammo! The lovely lady falls! Now this is when it gets funny. I am sick to death of getting drawn out. So when the first guy bets a fiver into the pot I raise him to ten thinking he is going to fold. I mean there is a straight on the board, right? Instead he cold calls me. The river is an A giving me the NUT straight with no flush in sight. So he bets another fiver into into a thirty dollar pot. I raise him my entire stack of $16.15 and he calls. I expect a split here. I assume the A helped him complete the straight. Except I am wrong and he flips two pair! Booyah! I guess my big raise disguised my hand, besides the fact that I did not have 12:1 there either.

So now I am riding high. I got like $100 profit going and I get Presto Chango! The flop is, you guessed it, A,4,2. What do we have? Another GUTSHOT! Booyah! So I am getting horrible odds here. I am getting 6:1. Almost half of what I need. However my pair *might* be good, and I get an extra two possible outs with my five. Not clean mind you because it might make someones straight. The bet is a buck so I go for it. The turn is a fiver! Set, game, match? Ohh yeah, we bet a buck down to the river and he flips AJ for the looooooosahhhh! heh.

Just so you do not think I only made money on fishy calls I will show you my win of the night. I limp in with pocket 6's. The flop is a lovely 7K6. Now here I slow play it. I know, I am a tool, but I just call the dollar bet. The turn is a lovely 3 of spades keeping the most risk on that straight still but I am not too concerned. I call another dollar bet. The river is a seven! So the possible hands that beat me are KK, 77 and K7. I do not put my opponent on either of those. So when he bets six bucks on the river I decide I am good with my BOAT and go all in for $32.85. I expect a fold here but get a call with two pair. Booyah! K3o No Good! Sir rakes in $66 bucks to turn his frown upside down.

So my good tight play is finally rewarded with a few good hands. A few fishy calls end up paying off. The world is right once again. I am starting to come to the conclusion I am slow playing strong but vulnerable hands too much. I think when the turn comes I need to be more aggressive with my trips. Although in my last example if I was too aggressive he might have sniffed something out. I doubt it, but you never know. The other option is to keep making smallish bets with them until the river falls with no danger cards, and then be careful. If there is a danger card then do not call that $20 bet at the river. It is so hard to figure out which way is right. You end up losing some good hands when you slow play, but when you play too quick you do not give people a chance to develop that second best monster. I guess I will have to figure it out as I go.