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Server Time: 5/16/2012 9:06:00 PM PACIFIC |
 Bad weekend at the tables, Snorbolus, 12. Jan 2003 23:17 | ||
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| Hello All, First things first: I have just discovered that you can turn the office assistant in Microsoft Word off by right clicking the little bastard and then unchecking the "use office assistant" box in the options menu. This discovery almost compensates for the shocking weekend that I have just endured at the tables. Now my question: How do you people set about trying to objectively decide if loosing sessions are due to bad play or just a run of bad luck? I have just promoted myself up to $4-8 Hold'em. I can consistently beat the $2-4 and $3-6 games in my local casinos for about 1 big bet per hour. The first time that I played $4-8 I won at a rate of a little over 4 big bets per hour for 3 hours (unfortunately I had to quit early that day and go to work). To be fair, the game was quite passive and I did seem to get unusually good cards that session. In contrast, this weekend has been gruesome. I lost $184 in 9 hours on Saturday and then another $216 in 9 hours today (2.8 big bets per hour). I feel as if I have been getting truly horrible cards all weekend. On Saturday I got virtually no playable starting hands. Today I feel as if I had a more normal spread of hole cards but I just couldn't seem to make a hand, or to win a showdown on the rare occasions that I did. I had aces cracked 3 times and kings cracked once. I got AK (both suited and not), several times but they did not improve for me even once. The games themselves were wild and crazy. There were no pots to be bought. This was showdown poker. The players had chips to burn. Betting was frequently caped before the flop. In one hand 7 players (not me) saw the flop for 4 bets each. I remember this hand especially well because 52o won at showdown, after making trip 5s on the turn (I had half jokingly put him on 53o). There were usually at least 3 players in the game who would bet and raise all the way to the river with bottom pair or better. They would cheerfully call raises on the flop with as little as 3 to a flush. The thing is, there were some good players in the games too. They were clearly playing their hands well and making plenty of money, but I have no real idea if they were outplaying me. I feel as if they didn't get a chance to because the flop completely missed me virtually every time. Their strategy seemed to be: bet hard when they had the best of it and to fold everything else. I also bet and raised whenever I thought that I was ahead. I tired only to draw to the nuts and only when I had the right pot odds. Before the flop I did my best to avoid playing from early position at all (nothing but paired facecards, AKs, AKo, AQs ) and to be very tight even from late. By the middle of this afternoon I was folding any starting hand that had even one card lower than 9 (suited or not). I didn't much care for unsuited facecards even on the button. I did still play pairs down to 5s (down to 2s sometimes on the button), because I figured that I had odds (astronomical implied odds) to try for a set on the flop. I did not detect any lack of action when I was in a pot. So what do you think? Based on my loss rate and the type of game is it possible that I was just unlucky, or am I kidding myself? What type of questions should I ask myself to try to decide? I know that, not having seen me play, you can't tell me for sure, but any pointers or ideas on how I can assess my play would be very much appreciated. Whatever, I do not plan to visit a casino again for at least a month. When I do, I will go back to the $3-6 tables, build up some confidence and replenish my bankroll a little before trying $4-8 again. Sorry about the long post. Snorbolus | ||
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| Re: Bad weekend at the tables, Lowlife, 13. Jan 2003 06:29 | ||
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| It sounds to me like you had bad luck in not hitting big hands. However, I think your hand selection may have been a little wrong - if this was no-foldem, and the pots were getting big, you could play a lot of drawing hands - suited gappers and connectors and so on - because you know you will get paid off handsomely if they connect. In the sort of game you describe, I would probably prefer 89 suited to AK offsuit. | ||
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| Re: Bad weekend at the tables, Ezra, 13. Jan 2003 09:31 | ||
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| Sorry to hear about the run of bad cards. In my experience 4-8 is not too different from 3-6 in terms of the quality of play (of course the variance is higher), so I would suggest you don't become too disheartened. I generally agree with lowlife's assessment. If that many people are going to see the flop then I would relax my starting hands when I could and try to see the flop cheaply with suited connectors and small pairs. If the flop misses you then fold immediately, however when it hits you, there should be plenty of people to pay you off. I have definitely been at 4-8 tables where there were people playing any two suited and/or any king. I just got used to the idea after a while that if there were 6 people seeing the flop and 3 of any suit wound up on the board that there was probably a flush out there and big pairs would be probably get cracked. Also, you may want to check out this article from Card Player by Alan Schoonmaker (from last issue) about quitting poker. I am not suggesting you quit poker, instead I just wanted to point out he has some interesting stats from Malmuth and Caro on the length of losing streaks about 9 paragraphs in. http://www.cardplayer.com/?sec=afeature&art_id=13012 Hope this helps. | ||
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| Re: Bad weekend at the tables, NiceFella, 14. Jan 2003 18:58 | ||
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| Take heart, Snorblus. Two bad sessions in a row do not make a bad player. If that we're so, I'd have given it up long ago. When a table has as much action as you describe, you have to be prepared for some big swings. It's going to be expensive to see the river, and you'll really need the best hand to drag that big pot. You can run through $200 in just a few good draws in this environment. I've done it. Lord knows, I've got some tales.... The other respondents have the right idea. In a wild game, big pairs go down in value and big draws go up in value. You're right that you're getting good implied odds to flop a set -- but then watch out for those straights and flushes. You have the right idea for what to do now -- take some time to regroup, and return to the lower tables to earn your confidence back. You sound like you have a clear, objective attitude towards this, and I'll bet you're a better player than you're feeling right now. Keep up the spirits, NiceFella. By the way I'll take AKo over 89s anytime :-) | ||
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| Re: Bad weekend at the tables, VinMan, 15. Jan 2003 05:01 | ||
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| Where are you playing? What casinos? | ||
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| Re: Bad weekend at the tables, Snorbolus, 15. Jan 2003 17:08 | ||
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| VinMan, I play at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, in CT. Why do you ask? Snorbolus on 15. Jan 2003 05:01 VinMan wrote: > Where are you playing? What casinos? | ||
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| Re: Bad weekend at the tables, VinMan, 17. Jan 2003 03:40 | ||
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| I just asked becuase your bad beat stories sound like the ones I go through in Atlantic City. Must be a northeastern thing I guess. | ||
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| Re: Bad weekend at the tables, Snorbolus, 15. Jan 2003 17:11 | ||
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| Thanks to everybody who replied. I have regained my composure now. Snorbolus | ||
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