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.

Fultons Point

Having seen Acorn's success at using his Blog to promote his sister's worthwhile activities in raising money for her charity, I'm gonna try a slightly different bit of shameless promotion.

Basically, a friend of mine is in a band called Fultons Point and they are trying to get themsleves under the eye of someone who might recognise their talent and give them a record deal.
Not just trying to promote a friend, I actually think they are pretty good. They have a really distinctive sound, write their own songs and are currently having some minor success on the small club circuit in Manchester - with a couple of very positive reviews.
They have just recorded a 7 track CD and put together a video to try and launch their track 'Roll, Roll, Roll', which you can watch and listen to by clicking here.

My brother is a good friend of a well known pop band member and he has very kindly agreed to listen to the CD, so we have sent him a handful of the Fultons' CD to see if he can get them some exposure. If any bloggers out there have any connections, however loose, in the music business, I would be really grateful if you could get in touch and see if we can give the lads a break.

Anyway, back to more pokery topics, and another night on the tables saw a mixed night. My good run at Absolute seems to have come to an abrupt end, and I found myself 60$ down at NL tables. Before I get to the reasons for this loss, I decided to head to $1 Limit tables to see if I could arrest my slide, and 30 minutes later 50$ was back in my account, so I guess I have to be pleased with that. I actually wanted to stay on, despite it being 1.30am on a school night, as the players at the table were being very generous, and I was hitting my outs. I was glad in a financial sense, but when I got to work this morning, it was a struggle to get through the afternoon without nodding off at my desk.

My thoughts on the 60$ loss - what a difference to your nights poker if you hit your draws eh? Possibly the biggest drain on a poker players BR is a flopped open ended str8 or 4-to-a-flush draws. If the odds are there for a call, I call - but you still gotta hit. It can be very lucrative if your opponent isn't trying to guess at your hand when he hits 2 pair and you hit your str8. But, if you miss a good handful of these in a row - there is a massive leak and I think this is what has made the difference at Absolute. Hit 20-30% and you can be comfortably up, miss 20 on the run (or into the 30's as I got last night) and the effect can be horrendous. I put my 60$ loss down to missing such a long run of draws, where I was mathmatically correct to call, but didn't hit.
It is hard to get away from them, and a call of up 4 x BB (at 25c and/or 50c NL anyway) I think is acceptable if there are no scary cards to make you think your str8 or flush may not be good enough, if it hits.
Some players bet an open str8 or flush draw as if they've already hit - it's that horrible position where if you bet when you hit, everyone folds and you make very little (but lose nothing), but bet the flop and run the risk of a raise from someone with a made hand, or keep betting and not hit, therefore losing more.
Maybe I need to read up a bit more on how to play these properly, as I don't appear to have a definite strategy.

A conundrum of Carol Vorderman proportions for sure.

And The Beats Go On

Another tough night on the tables, and had it not been for this hand, I would be crying right now.
For the record, my biggest single hand win:

50$ NL Table
On the BB, dealt A 10 suited.
Player 1 raises to 4 x BB, Player 2 calls, rest fold to me.
Good or bad call here? Suited and reasonable kicker and no further raise possible after me, so I call.

Flop is Ks 2s 7s.

I make a $1.50 bet to encourage a raise. Player 1 calls, Player 2 raises to 5$.
I raise to 10$. Player 1 calls, Player 2 moves all in with his remaining $60 (I have about 70$ left at this point and call, as does Player 1.
Turn is a 10d
I move all in with last 10$ or so - Player 1 calls.

Player 1 turns over KK
Player 2 turns over Js 10s
I turn over my nut flush and pray that the board doesn't pair on the river.

It doesn't and I take a 220$ pot and a nice 140$ or so profit.

The rest of the night was a blur.