So yeah, I still suck at poker. It's funny though, some days I'm able to make big laydowns and prevent myself from double barreling in the wrong spots, and other days I just can't seem to wrap my mind around the game right. I never tilted till my very last hand, where I blew a stack off with an overpair of Jacks, trying to tell myself the guy had something like AK or TT.
I always seem to have a downswing after playing good for a day or two, and a lot of the time it's not from coolers or suckouts (which are often just a part of it), but simply from bad decision making. After being on top of my game for one or two days, I suck the next. I really have to make sure I'm in the right frame of mind whenever I play, because I think if it weren't for these brain fart days, my BR would be a lot bigger now than it is. I mean I dropped 3 buy-ins today, which is my stop-loss for a session and easy enough to get back, but it hurts when I know much of it could easily be avoided if I simply was playing my game the way I usually play it.
I have myself some rules that I play by, which are in a previous post, and I'm adding another one now: Only play when I am 100% focused
Now the trick is to put it into play. I think sometimes I think I am, but when I catch myself making a stupid call, I really gotta question what I'm doing.
I'll give you the best example of shitty play from today. I'm in the CO with 77 and UTG+1 raises to 4x and I call, as does the SB, who has about 60bb. The flop comes down K-7-4 with two diamonds and it's checked around to me, where I bet 2.25 into 2.6. I'm betting for value here obviously, but also to protect my hand. I'm 100% sure my hand is best right now, unless the initial raiser is slow playing a set of kings. The SB calls and the initial raiser folds. I figure he has a drawing hand, or maybe a weak king. I don't really have a read on the guy, but he obviously isn't great if he's sitting at the table without a full buy-in. The turn comes another diamond, a 10 I think, and the SB checks it to me again. At this point I'm thinking as I should be and I check behind. If he's the type of player I think he is, he'd call with a flush draw even when I'm not giving him the odds to do so, and at this point a bet isn't so much for value as a lot of his hands that are calling are now ahead. Yeah, he might tag along with Kx, but how am I going to know if I'm ahead on the river if he calls, and can I fold to a raise? I'll be getting really good odds if he pushes, but then again his range would be completely polarized to flushes. I'd hate my spot. And then the river comes a blank and he checks. I end up putting in a value bet, which he shoves. I'm getting something like 4-1, but really what am I beating? Not many two pair hands out there, and while it wa a horrible slowplay on his part, I shouldn't have even been in this spot. Any bet here is going to fold out most hands I beat, with the exception of some stronger Kx hands since he's a donkey, and I think any raise from him is purely a big hand here. I call and get shown the QJ of diamonds and let out a grown, since I knew it was coming and should have folded after making the value bet.
Not too long after this I get A2s on the B and it gets folded around, so I raise to 4x and the SB calls (different table though). Again, no real reads except that he's only sitting on just over 50bb. The flop comes Q7x rainbow. Check, Check. K on the turn. Check, Check. A on the river. I bet 1.1 into 1.8 for value and he shoves for a massive overbet. I sit there going what the fuck can he have? If I thought about it, this is clearly a fold, but I talked myself into him making a bluff there, maybe because of the bluffs I caught the other day that I wrote about. This spot is a bit different though, and I should have put him on something like A7. I'm not sure if he's smart enough, but I'm pretty sure he knew I hit the ace and that I might be willing to call down light since his moved looked so much like a bluff, which I did. Of course he ends up showing down Q7 and I think I'm going to vomit. He played that in the worst way possible, and got paid off. Making me the real donk in the end.
I had another couple horrible plays, but I won't bother with them now. I just needed to write this down to remind myself not to out-donk the donks.
One more hand (the first one that I stacked off with), needs to be posted though.
Blind vs. blind, I 3bet the SBs open. I flop a flush draw and take a stab when it's checked to me, he calls. I turned an open ended straight draw and make a big bet on the turn, then shoved the river (big mistake, no FE) when I missed and was called by third fucking pair. This guy was playing at least four other tables, which is why I thought I had FE for the first two streets (and why my shove at the end was horrible), and when I saw his hand I simply couldn't understand how he called me all the way down, but it was just one of those days, especially after playing so well last night.
