21 (the hard way)

Talk about doing it wrong. After the gig last night I went down to the hotel lobby (the internet in the room was kind of sketchy). It was about 2am, and I planned on playing for an hour. The session went terribly wrong early on. Wasn’t playing that bad, I don’t think, but it wasn’t like I was getting coolered either. Just nothing was working. Made a couple moves that maybe weren’t that bad but sure bit me in the ass. One I remember most clearly was shoving after opening with AJs , getting called by the BTN, and then 3-bet by a very frequent squeezer in the BB. I thought he was full of shit, and that if I had bad timing and he did have a hand I probably had at least one live card. He had AA, so I had none. None live cards.

The key hand for the first part ofthe session I had AA UTG. Was about 200BB deep and covered by MP, who called my open (as did the button). Flop came 843 two spades. I bet, MP raised (button folded), I 3-bet and he shoved. It’s one of those spots where I pretty much know he has a set, but I just can’t find a fold. He’s 26/18/3.5, which to me means he might play Ax of spades exactly this way. Possibly even an overpair, although probably not. I can really only put him on the NFD and a set, but that probably still makes it a shove. Maybe not actually, I dunno. But I do know I don't have a fold in my repertoire at this point. It was the biggest pot I’ve lost online in the ‘modern era’ of my online poker career (back in the day I’d build it up and then play a red pro heads up at 25/50, or something similarly ill-advised; didn’t have a tracker back then, which is probably good cause it’d probably make me sick to look back).

So after less than an hour I’m down close to $1300. So much for my 20-session winning streak. I tried to stay relaxed, and I think I did. Bounced up and down over the next few hours, got to about $300 within breakeven, dropped back down to my low point, and was down about $1k and about to call it a night when the heater hit.

The turning point hand I made a spewy call preflop. I had J5s in the BB. UTG, who was seriously atrocious, opened and MP (also very bad, it was a great table) smooth called. Everybody else folded, and I decided to make the loose call. I think it’s defendable because of the particular opponents (both were not just very loose, they also seemed willing to stack with any piece, so as long as I didn’t overvalue top pair or something). Also, I was closing the preflop action and had relative position postflop, and we were all deep (UTG and I were both well over 200BB’s, and MP had about 150BB). Still, all things considered I’d rather be folding in that spot. Anyway, flop comes J54r. I check raise, UTG shoves with KK, I hold. Biggest pot I’ve won in the ‘modern era’. Then a few hands later, I flop the straight and get it in against the same villain’s AA.

Hit two set over sets in short order (including one where I had JJ, villain smooth called the 10-6-3 flop with his pocket 3’s, and then check raised me all-in on the J turn). And then at about 7am I had KQh in the CO and raised it, getting called only by the extreme agro-donk in the BB. He c/r’d me on the KJ5r board. I just called, and the turn brought me the flush draw. He shoved, and though I felt I was ahead of his range I was still kind of shocked when he tabled J2. I held, and I was about a $100 winner for the session. I almost insta-quit my tables and took the 7am walk of shame up to the hotel room for 120 minutes of sleep before we drive to Little Rock.

It was a pretty fun session, although my heart rate got a little up there from time to time. But it definitely reveals that I’m way off the mindset I’m aiming for. Not that I didn’t already know this, but being driven to ‘booking winning sessions’ is a long-term recipe for disaster, and it’s showing up in my play. I mean, towards the end of the session I was actually making loose calls specifically because I was within a stack of breakeven and wanted to hit. I take some solace that it hasn’t hurt me too bad financially yet, but obviously I don’t know what my results would be if I was in the fully proper mindset. So maybe (probably) it has been hurting me. That doesn’t really matter, tho. What matters is playing well. Until a few days ago I was playing the best poker of my life, and all of a sudden I feel like I’m just playing to hit flops. My stats aren’t that bad, surprisingly. Maybe just a point higher than I’d like on the VPIP. And the much-maligned all-in EV stat actually worked against me a lot last night, so it’s not like I’m making my money on suck outs. So I’m probably (hopefully) not that far off, I’m probably playing overall better than I feel I’m playing. I mean, last night’s session was about 4200 hands. It’s possible to remember a few really bad plays but still have played decent in general. But bottom line is, I don’t feel at all good about the direction of the last few days. We’ll see how long it takes to fix.