Yes, normal service has resumed. A few bright days of 90% hands winning 90% of the time. Now it's back to the most head shaking disbelief as a combination of 'How are you still in this hand?' and 'How can a 1 or 2 outer hit so regularly?' have all but destroyed my desire and faith in online poker.
Blogger (I am there now for the craic, rather than the poker) was another 80-odd % favourite losing (10s v 4s) to the eventual winner in Dremeber (well done mate!!) and a runner-runner str8 that is becoming so regular now, I play in training shoes and Cathy stands by with a large piece of silver foil to wrap me in.
I wonder what I need to do to get back on track. I've been very close to giving up in the past, and am back to this very same crossroads again.
A night of the most unbelieveable cards ended when my pre flop raise with AJ saw a flop of AJ2. I checked and the one caller put a 3 x bb bet in. I raised to 10 x his bet and he called. The turn was an x and I pushed - he called and turned over 10 10. Guess the river? (x this 9 more times)
Holding QQ on a 10 5 2 flop, I bet 3 x pot, he calls. Turn 3 so I push - he calls and turns over AQ. No draw of any kind, but he/she is quite happy to put all their money on a 2 outer hitting the river (another opponent folded AK) - and the RNG said a big well done by giving him his A on the river.
Does online poker deliberatley reward these fools? Last night I lost with 17 hands where I was 90% or greater to win (this has become a regular occurance my poker calculator is steaming!).
17 times in 52 flops seen.15 of those, my opponent should not have been in the hand after my flop bet. WTF is going on? If this happened on your first visit to a poker den with real people, any normal, average intelligent person would wonder if he was being conned.
I now have 30$ left in a Microgaming site and this is my last money I will ever play with online. I have no faith anymore that this is 100% genuine (can any computer program ever be?) or honest - and how can you continue to play if you feel this way?
'Bad Runs' and 'Long Run' have ceased to be a factor.
Do I play perfectly. No, probably not. Do I play trash. No.
The worse (non paired) hand I paid to see a flop with last night was 9 10 sooted on the button (next was AJ). I ain't gambling on low pocket pairs anymore - used to call raises with any pocket pair, have stopped that.
Are these feelings all because of one bad night? No, try 9 months. Ever since the USA law change, I've noticed such a big change online (maybe this is in my mind, or coincidental) but I've heard other bloggers mention similar things. Recently, I accidentally caught a Poker Site lying about the testing of its RNG - and I intend to put that story on this blog in the near future - once I have checked the legalities of doing so. Why did they do this? No idea. Maybe this is playing on my mind?
So I've had enough - my local poker club is running a Monday & Wednesday night session and Sunday afternoon tournies/games and I'm sticking to this as and when I feel like playing. I can see them, touch them and watch them - and that's something I can't do online. Will these beats happen live? Of course they will. Will they happen in 40% of hands? Unlikely, in my view.
I will still keep updating, and reading other blogs, with my progress and stories, but tonight
could be my last night of online poker. Unless a run of premium hands actually start winning and somehow, in a stark reverse of current happenings, things take a massive change of direction.
I find this unlikely, but you never know.
Ciao.
