Mamma said there’d be days like this…

Except my Mom doesn’t play poker.  :)

Well, I could just as easily have made the title of this post “Theresa’s Tilt!”

I played for 6 hours, 44 minutes today, and just couldn’t get ahead to save my life.  Twice I flopped a full house and lost to four-of-a-kind.  Those two cost me a big portion of my bankroll, unfortunately.

So in all, I lost $396.50 today, and my (online) hourly rate is down to a profit of $3.85/hour.  Ouch.  That needs to be at least $10/hour, if not $15/hour.

So psychologically, I know of at least one thing I did wrong; I became hopeful.  This happens to me after I’ve been on a losing streak; I think to myself that I can’t possibly be this unlucky, and hope for the best outcome!  During one hand I had pocket Jacks, and the flop came Ace, 9, 3 – it was down to two of us, and my opponent checked.  I bet, and he raised me.  A check-raise!  This is a sure sign he has an Ace, and possibly a set – but at any rate I would normally have dumped that hand in a hurry.  But, I hoped to hit my set (3-of-a-kind) on either the turn or the river.  Never mind I’m drawing to only 2 outs, and it isn’t unheard of for my opponent to have pocket Aces anyway.  I certainly do not have pot odds; I didn’t play the hand mathematically; I hoped.  Hope is a terrible strategy when playing poker, and there are two circumstances that, for whatever reason, cause me to be more hopeful than analytical:  when I’m tired, and when I’m on a losing streak.

Here’s the thing, losing streaks happen to everybody – even the professionals.  Becoming hopeful (or frustrated) in response to a losing streak is, well, let’s just call it what it is:  going on tilt.

So I spent most of the 6 hours I played today, on tilt.

I knew that $35/hr was not a true reflection of my abilities; however, $3.85 is not, either.  That’s what one bad day at the tables can do to you.  I’m not back to where I started, but I did lose half my (online) bankroll.  I’ll come back when I’m refreshed and ready.

Incidentally, another side-effect of being on tilt was that I played some of my lesser hands pre-flop a little less aggressive, and I think that may have actually cost me money in the long run.  Previously I would raise pre-flop with any pair, as long as I was first into the pot (e.g. if everybody folded around to me).  This gives me a lot of ways I can win.  Let’s say I have pocket deuces (2s), and I completely miss the flop; I still have a chance to bluff, depending on the size of the pot and the number of people still involved, by betting and raising on the flop like I hit it perfectly.  I’ve won more than a few pots that way.  But today I limped in with smaller pocket pairs (22 – 77) instead of raising.  So when the flop came and I missed, I didn’t have the ability to bluff.  I had to either hit my set or dump it.  Talk about limiting myself!  Here’s the thing:  in addition to being hopeful I also had the expectation of losing.  I didn’t believe that I would hit my set; after all, even if I did, I had been dominated twice today when hitting my set, making a full-house, and losing to quads.  I was feeling a little beat up, which made it easy to play less aggressive than I normally do.  In short, I expected to lose, and well, guess what – that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.  :)

I’m still a little bit too aggressive post-flop, which I think could easily be from that hope factor again.  And, as has been the case, I’m only winning 53% of my showdowns.  I need to work on my post-flop play.  A lot.

As I expected, my stats for 3-of-a-kind and full-house hands has taken a hit.  That’s really difficult because it’s almost impossible to put somebody on a 4-of-a-kind.  More than half the time when I have a full-house I’ll win – especially if it’s the best full-house on the board, so I have to ram & jam a hand like that.  To have that happen twice in one session is a little frustrating, but I’m not sure I could have played those hands any differently.

I actually made one 4-of-a-kind today!  I hit quad 6s early in my session.  That was pretty neat, but I only made $36.50 on the hand.  Go figure; when I have quads, nobody else has made their full-house!  :)

So it’s really important to me that I learn from days like this, rather than internalize the loss and let it affect my game negatively.  It’s worth $400 to me if I can learn at least one really good lesson.

So when I try to really think about today, there are a couple of things I can really take away:

• Respect the check/raise!  If I have a medium pair and somebody check/raises, tend to believe, and for the love of God don’t hope to improve, unless pot odds are significant.  For that matter, if I don’t have at least an overpair or top pair on the board on the flop, at least slow down.  I can find many reasons to dump my hand at that point.
• Pay attention to pot odds!  Poker Office gives me the exact pot odds; usually I know roughly what my pot odds are without looking, but when I’m hopeful I don’t even pay attention.  I really need to use that as a reality check.  Especially if/when I’m on tilt.
• Probably more important than any of the math, I can save myself a lot of money by making sure I’m on my “A” game – in other words, don’t play when tired or frustrated from a losing streak.  I knew the very instant I had gone on tilt today – when I called all the way down to the river with my pocket Jacks, while there was an Ace on the board.  I was about 95% sure my opponent had an Ace, and I paid dearly to confirm that suspicion.  That’s being on tilt.  I should have quit right then and there.  I probably would have limited my losses to about $200 at that point.

So I really need to work on my post-flop game.  I’m going to spend some time this weekend with Poker Academy, setting up scenarios for myself that will help me to play a better post-flop game.

Revisiting my playground

So I went to The Caribbean today, thinking that it might be nice to play in a live/cash game again.  I only spent about 2 hours there, although I waited more than an hour before a seat became available (yet again, another reason I am becoming a firm believer in online poker).

I noticed some interesting things today about playing at the $3-$6 table today, which are in sharp contrast to playing online, at least at the $5-$10 tables.  First, the tables themselves were incredibly loose; looser, in fact, than what seemed normal.  There were consitently about 4-5 people seeing the flop per hand, and I never witnessed a chop the entire time I was there.  (A chop is when everybody folds around to the blinds, and rather than play they decide to fold, take back their blinds and move the button to deal again.  This happens in a casino primarily because once the blind money becomes a pot, a rake is taken out and it is no longer profitable to play the hand.)

As a result of the table being so loose, it was actually worth seeing hands like suited connectors and Ace-X suited.  When playing hands like this, you want to be able to get in cheap, and if you hit the flop well, you get paid off.  If you miss, it’s easy to dump (hopefully).  I’ve gotten into the habit of only playing those hands in late positions, after 2-3 people have limped in before me.  Normally there just isn’t enough money in the pot to justify even a single small bet to see the flop (online).

Another thing was how many weak/tight players there are.  Once the flop hits, people just wouldn’t protect their hands.  During one hand, I had pocket 8s (my favorite hand, BTW) and the flop came 2d, 2c, 5h.  I’m in late position, and there are 4 of us in the pot.  Rick, in early position, bets and two people fold; I raise with an overpair and Rick just calls.  I figured he either has a deuce or an overpair like myself or he couldn’t call my raise.  The turn, the 3 of hearts, presented a straight possibility, so I checked after Rick (I probably could have bet here, but I have played with Rick before, and he’s sneaky enough to bet with a straight draw and then check/raise me.)  The river was a miracle eight, giving me a full house with 8s full of deuces.  Rick bets, and I raise.  The only hand that can beat me at this point is if he had pocket deuces, which I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have.  He thinks and thinks about it, and come to the conclusion, as he announced verbally, the only hand that could beat him was wired 5s.  I remember smiling a little inside when I heard him say that.  He hadn’t considered the eight.

He called, and I showed him my hand.  It turns out he had 5-2 offsuit, and had flopped a full house.  I asked him, why in the world didn’t he protect his hand and reraise me on the flop?  The truth is, had he reraised me, I might have called, but would have been ready to dump the hand on the turn in a heartbeat.  I simply wouldn’t have had enough outs to call another bet on the turn after he represented at the very least 3 of a kind, or even scarier, the full house he actually had.  My miracle eight on the river was certainly a suck-out; however, as I stated at the table, “I can’t be held responsible if you can’t protect your hand.”  I told Rick that had he been as aggressive as a full-house would dictate, I would have dumped my overpair in a heartbeat.  Rick just smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

Anyway, I ended up making $96 today for about 2 hours of work.  Even if I include my wait time into the $/hour calculation, I still did really well.  With an expectation of $6-$12/hour at a $3-$6 game, I ended up at $32/hour (almost $50/hr for actual game time).

In another blog by another poker professional, I read an interesting quote:  “$100/day keeps the jobs away.”  I’m not exactly comfortable with only $100/day, but the saying definitely makes sense – I’m very happy with only making $96.

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