Lesson #5 - Don't Go In All Guns Blazing And Bullying Like A Boss From The Off.
The above scenario is absolutely standard for me when I hold KK. In short, I hardly ever win with them and I'm virtually at the point where I almost absolutely expect to lose with them. But my real lesson sunk home from what happened after. I peeled off another £200 and, as the table was fairly tight, just decided to play loose and bully the table. This worked, for a while, and I collected peanuts from the pot - but I never applied the breaks! I proceeded to make bad loose calls and blew off another £200+ in the wink of an eye. In retrospect, I think I must have been on some sort of "couldn't-care-less" tilt because I really wasn't thinking about the money. I left after I made a straight on the river and called off a guy who had made the flush. Bad play all round really - another poor showing at The Fox.
Lesson #6 - Don't Make Loose Calls To Bad Players Who Make Big Bets On The River.
This is one of those strategical lessons that I really should have learned by now. After the debacle at The Fox, I decide to go for a Chinese meal at the usual haunt and then it's onto The Empire. I buy in for £360, chug along nicely at a fairly soft table and after an hour am soon up about £70 or so. I then hit a straight on the turn against a guy who has been very quiet all night. I pump it up but I get a call. The river pairs the board so I go for a probe bet of about £20 whereupon he immediately shoves in the rest of his £150 stack. I think back through the hand and am fairly sure he's hit the full-house and even say out loud, "This is sick if you've got the full-house." The call is made but not through logic and deduction but downright hope that he hasn't got it. He then appears disappointed and beaten but flips over a 9 and a 5 for a full-house. So I play bad, make a crap call and am slow-rolled into the bargain!! I figure my night can't get worse so it's thank you, goodnight and off to HMV for some retail therapy followed by a bus home and episode 13 and 14 of Lost. Blimey, my bankroll took one hell of a beating!
Lesson #7 - Leave The Table When Playing Bad.
This is kind of related to the above and also Lesson #2. Let's face it, I've been playing god awful over the last three months or so and am deservedly losing money as a result. Last week I had a session also, where I made a preposterous laydown to an all-in on the river followed soon after by a bad call on the river after being ahead on the turn. I soon left the table after that. However, stopping playing when playing bad should also be looked at not only in terms of days and weeks but sometimes even months as well. The only good to come from all this are these lessons and it's clear that I definitely need a break from this game. At this point on the poker front then, I intend to lay off the felt (both real and virtual) for at least a month and just study the game for a while in preparation for The Experiment in 2013.
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With poker about to take a back seat then, I'm going to be looking forward to partaking in other forms of time-wasting leisure activities. Apart from the usual reading of books (Arnold Bennett is me main man at the mome - highly recommended) and a project involving working on a new book, I'll be continuing to enjoy Season #1 of Lost (which is starting to kick in nicely) and Season #2 of Sherlock - also absorbing stuff. Oh, and you've also got my revised and up-to-date list of the Top 60 (Indie) Steam Games to look forward to - so I'll be playing a few of those!
Until next time...
Keep on wobbling!!
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