Poker Sick

Let's start with the good news, I have finally managed to get myself a job after 3 months of interviews, 2nd interviews and dealing with Employment Agencies, who are lower on the evolutionary scale than frog spawn and Estate Agents. The one I am 'with' even tried to lose me the job I had just got, by making the most ridiculous phone call to my new employer. Fortunately, they saw through her and I shall be installed as Reservations and Operations Manager on Friday next week.

The title of this post applies to how poker is making me feel at the moment. I'm not going to go into too much detail as we all hit bad beats, and I'm sure you don't want to hear the gory details - and there are too many to publish, but I had a chat with Tan last night about the hand below, to see where I am going wrong. But I don't think I would do anything different if this happened again.

Almost every flopped hand, no matter how strong, can lose on the turn or river and the apparant strength of your hand is irrelevant if the sytem want's to throw up those unlikely cards. It's all well and good saying, 'bet the pot', 're-raise higher/more', 'check to see where your hand stands at the table' as you make the assumption that your opponent has a similar thought process to yourself. I'm sure you'll all agree that the poor players and fish we play against make no consideration to odds, probability or thought to what you may be holding. He see's the big payout if his flush hits, and there is often nothing you can bet to prevent him from calling. It's the same with pocket pairs. These guys just will not fold, despite every card on the table being an overcard, as he's hit his set on the river before, so he can do it again. It seems that the more I bet my strongest hands at the moment, the more I lose. And at the moment, I am losing to 1 or 2 outs with such alarming regularity, I have to put the brakes on.

So anyway, back to the game and this is a typical example of what I am saying:
50$ NL 6 max table, I'm on the button with pocket 7's
First player to act raises to 2$, 4 x BB. All fold but me, and I call and see a flop of Kd 7d 10s.
He bets 5$ and I raise to 15$.
Now I think this is a substantial raise for him to call. Even if he has AK here, my raise indicates that I feel I can beat a K, or at least have a strong K myself. So if it were me in his shoes, I would fold unless I had also hit a set, or had an overpair, i.e. AA. I'd seriously consider folding AK also, unless I had the added outs of a flush draw.

Anyway, he calls. Turn is a 2d. Surely he can't have a flush? He checks to me, and I bet 10$ here. Now, maybe I should bet more to represent the flush, but then if he has it, I'm throwing my money away anyway. I have a strong hand in a 2-handed game and the odds are still in my favour.
He flat calls my 10$ bet. The river is s diamond and the board is not paired. I know I'm done here and we both check. I turn over my set of 7's, he turns over Ah 10d and his 10 gives him the flush.

So, to go back to my 2nd paragraph, anyone with a brain would surely have folded to a 15$ raise when there is a) an overcard on the table b) a flush on the turn and c) YOUR OPPONENT JUST RAISED YOU DOUBLE THE POT.
He called 25$ of bets with 2nd pair - even if he was praying for the runner runner flush, he had a 10 - not even the nut flush or close to it. He didn't stop once to think 'why is this guy raising me', 'what can he have' or 'shit, my 2nd pair isn't any good here'. He kept on calling with no regard for anything, and got his huge slice of luck that regularly seems to be delivered on a plate to these morons. Well, this week anyway.

Times this by a lot more hands and you see my point. The only positive thing I can add, is that it is winnings that have gone, rather than my initial stake. Gaming and Absolute were over 200$ up each, just to give you an idea of how hard it has hit me.

Update:
USA Poker: Opening Balance: $100, Current Balance $154 - up $54
Hollywood Poker*: Opening Balance $100, Closing Balance $62 - down $38
Gaming Club: Starting Balance: $100, Current Balance $140 - up $40
Absolute Poker: Starting Balance $200, Current Balance $231 - up $31

So, looking at the positive side of this, I'm still about 80$ up for September, but enough is enough for me at the moment and I have no desire to play when my KK get's re-raised by J7 so many times, and I have to sit there and see flops of JJ7 - so incredibly against the odds, yet so regularly happening. Then to have every player at the table saying 'ul' so many times, I'm thinking of changing my name.

I know, I know, it's not really that bad, but I have to re-discover my appetite for the game and for now, I'm just not hungry.