Another week in the red...

I think one of the main problems with this week was the Sunday 27th – it was the end of week 2 and I blew the weeks profits in 1 hour of semi-questionable play whilst rather hung-over…

Monday and Tuesday I scarcely racked up 1 and a half buy-ins. I got sucked out a couple of times when I got some short stack all-in with middle-pair no kicker etc – but nothing to rant about. Then Wednesday saw a 2 buy-in swing. I dropped a buy-in and a half before I settled into my game, the tables kept breaking up and it was really pissing me off, kept getting my C-bets check-min-raised etc which put me in a bad frame of mind. Really, I only have myself to blame for this loss. However, I was coming back well and narrowed the margin to 1 buy-in by relying on my stats and making some tough calls against some rather agro players. Then my chance to break-even for the night: this guy has raised every hand, is massively aggressive etc, he raises from the SB and I call with 78, flop is 4,7,8 two hearts, he raises, I re-raise and he raises back - I think there's a chance he got lucky and flopped a set - but I don't think he's good enough to bet out with it, I know he could be doing this with an OP or even a flush draw - so I push and he insta-calls with AA - turn and river are 2, 2 – great….

So I decided to rectify the Wednesday session and Thursday was…well probably some of the worst poker I have ever played, mixed with some nasty luck. 1­) $50 pot - I have JJ on the button, MP with half a buy-in opens by min-raising, and gets two callers – I pop it up to $5 and MP calls me. Flop is 2,5,6 – he checks it to me and I bet ¾ pot – he pushes – I call, he shows 5s6s…. need I say more - . 2) $40 pot. I have 76o and raise from the button, two callers - flop Js, 5c,3c - I bet 3/4 pot and get one caller, turn is another J - it's checked to me so I decide that the opp has a flush or str8 draw so I bet 3/4 pot again - he min raises - I fold. Not sure what he had here - maybe AJ, maybe a set - Think I was correct to take a stab at it - and I just got unlucky. 3) $80 pot - I had JJ in the SB – button raises to me, and I (for some stupid reason) decide to just flat call. The flop is 3s 5s 2s and I check to, he mashes the pot button which makes me think – more than anything he wants the pot right now, so I call. Turn 6c, again I check and again he bets out – now it doesn’t make much sense, if he had flopped a big flush – why bet so strong, the turn brings the str8 into play – and again he plays strong, the river is 5d and he bets $24 into $30 – at the time I just thought, nothing he has done makes any sense – I’ve been calling (most likely drawing) and his strong hand, which he apparently made on the flop, is “clearly” better than mine so why bet so much – in the end I call, he has 5,5, for quads. Overall, I think I played this hand like a moron – should have raised pre, check-raised the flop and then folded to his action. Finally 4) $40 loss, I have AA on the button and raise it to $2, 1 caller - flop - Q,x,x, - he bets pot - I raise pot, he calls, and pushes the turn - X- I call river Q - he wins with KQ - nice little suck out. 5) $65 pot – my only decent winning pot of the night: I have JJ in MP and make it $1.75, button calls, flop is 4d 8d 7d, I check, he bets $3.50, I decide that there’s a good chance he has nothing, I have the diamond draw and an over pair, I decided to assess the turn, Qs, not likely to help either of us – I check and he makes it $7.50 – I still have a draw, and I’m unsure as to his holdings other than a flopped flush or possibly a set – both fairly unlikely, River 3h – again I check, he makes it $19.50 – it’s to be a hard call, but I just can’t think why he’d bet so much. If he flopped the flush, he’s played it like it’s very dangerous, If he flopped a set, why the big river bet, If he got lucky and turned the Q – well betting $20 is only gonna get a call from a better hand, finally, my likely holding – a AdXx – Why try to get such a big bet out of me? – I call, he shows 5s 5c. – ended the session $80 down…

Only bit of luck on Thursday was when I played Party Poker for the first time in ages. I picked up AK in MP and raised to $2 – SB then pushed for $20 – I decide I’m way ahead of his range, and at worst 50/50 – I call – hit nothing and expect to lose – but nope – he has KQ… I then got very lucky in a $130 pot, I flopped middle set against top set – all-in on the flop, turn and river make 4 diamonds on the board and my 6d is good enough to scoop the pot… guess I can’t moan about bad beats…

I decided on Saturday to stay in and play because I was on $0 for the week. Saturday action was irritating to say the least; I took down a few pots early on and made about $30 quickly. Then it all went a bit wrong. 1) $65 pot - I raise with T8o on the button and get called by the BB who has AA - flop ATT and he insta-bets pot - I slowly call, I put him on a good ace or a bad T - he bets the turn so I push - he almost times out before making the call with 2nd nuts - lmao. After that there’s about two hours of not hitting anything and repeatedly getting raised of what I thought were fairly safe C-bets, this was punctuated with picking up big PPs, raising it up – flopping the nuts set and then getting no action. I made a couple of stupid plays, calling a guy out of pos with an up-down draw and a pp on a flushing board – then betting ¾ pot when the turn brought the flush card – he called me down with 88. The a bit of weekend fish frying: I made $50 playing AJ in a $40 pot against q2 - he was all-in with no pair and no draw, hmmm. I also played KK aganst some guy - we got it all-in on a j-high board and he had ace-high no draw- and thank-god didn't hit.

Only one hand was a bit of a mystery, $20 pot, SB raises I call in the BB with QKo, flop T,Q,Xx - he bets pot - I raise to $10 he calls, turn 5c (a second c) he bet's $15 - he either had AK, he may have had a set, but why not re-raise on the flop) he may have had KJ (possibly KcJc) and decided to bet his draw. Perhaps a good call here - however I would be playing for my stack… any comments?

Sunday – I only managed to play a bit of poker. I got no real hands but I managed to make about $25 – almost making it the most profitable day of the week. Anyways, feel free to comment on any of the hands.

I ended the week down $38 – not terrible, but could and should have been better – I have to stop playing hours of loosing poker when I’ll only play 1-2 hours when I’m winning. Anyways, still loads of work to do to get my roll ready for the summer.