Sometimes poker sucks, but you have to take it in stride

Last night, I had the most miserable live session of poker that I can remember. Looking back on it today, I'm disappointed, but actually feel OK about it, since I think I didn't cost myself extra by bad play. Bad cards were unfortunate, but I know it's going to happen. I will say that I was pretty discouraged and made a few comments at the table. I wish that I had the attitude and demeanor then as I do now. But, I am learning. A while ago, I would have gone on tilt and done some stupid plays, making a bad situation worse. At least I had the presence of mind this time to not let my emotions affect my play (much, anyway), even if I didn't act well.

The problem is that even though my play was OK, I still detracted from my table image. I think that made people totally unafraid to push me around, which had I been in more marginal situations would have made it tougher on me. For the most part, my hands were pretty hopeless, not really marginal at all.

Playing 6/12 at an absolutely killer table -- people playing tons of hands, calling down if they have less than 2 pair (except for the guy who raised everytime, except when he had a good hand), yada yada yada. One guy who raised and capped preflop with pocket fives check/called down the preflop 3-bettor with 3 broadway cards on the flop, and a fourth one on the river! And me? I played for a touch over 5 hours on that table and I won exactly 4 hands, and one of those was on a stone bluff from the big blind.

I didn't win my first hand for an hour and a half, the fourth dealer I saw. The only good thing is that for the most part I was getting such bad cards, it only cost me the blinds or I could get out on the flop pretty easily. I couldn't usually take much advantage of a tight image because there was really not much bluffing going on -- just about every hand was shown down, a lot of times by 3 or 4 people. I only had 2 pots where I lost a lot, and only one of those was more than I should have. That one I flopped the top end of an open ended straight draw on a rainbow board, but was caught between a guy with top pair, and another guy with two overcards who wanted to make sure he got all in (he thought it was lucky to be all in -- LOL). It probably should have been clear to me on the flop that I was going to be squeezed, and the short stack was able to get the turn to a 3-bet before he was all in. Of course, the straight draw didn't come in.

The other big hand was when I had pocked kings which I got to 3 bet preflop, and had a few people go to the flop. It was a low flop, probably something like 973, 2 spades. The preflop raiser bet into me, I raised, everyone folds except a lady in the big blind, who cold calls (she also cold called the preflop 3 bet). The turn was inconsequential. It was checked to me, I bet, the lady called, and the other guy folded. The river was another 7 to pair the board, and the lady checkraised me. It may have been the first time she'd raised (and this was a few hours in), and was definitely the first time she checkraised, although she then did it to someone else just a little bit later. I figured she had just hit trips, but I couldn't find a fold. She had K7 :(. That knocked me down to a little over two racks in the hole, and I played a few more orbits and took off.

The last several times I've been out to the cardrooms or online, it's kind of gone like that. Maybe not so brutal, but certainly a lot of bad players making their bad plays, and getting there. I'm able to see all the stuff they're doing wrong, and I feel like I'm getting my money in with the best of it, and getting away with the worst of it (early), and generally playing pretty solid. But the chips aren't sliding my way. So, definitely not as fun at the table as being on a heater when I didn't really know so well what I was doing. But away from the table, I actually feel pretty good, even though I'm losing. I've still got enough that I don't have to drop a level, and I'm clearly seeing what my opponents are doing wrong, and my mistakes are not as costly as they have been in the past. I just need to get that attitude ingrained while the game is going on, instead of the next day thinking it over or writing a blog entry!

OK, off to a kid's soccer game -- second one today :). Here's hoping to better luck at the tables and getting some of the big mo back in the game!