Live Session #57: A Crippling Bad Beat

9:30PM was the start of play today at The Empire. I was happy to see that it was not nearly as busy as yesterday and there was an available seat straight away. I bought £400 in chips but after seeing that the players had relatively low stacks I placed just £250 worth of chips on the table.

Things started off very well when I decided to go all-in with a set of threes after a guy had raised £20 on the flop in early position. There was a flush draw out there so an all-in was a good choice of move in my opinion. He called for about £100 and, as I thought might be the case, showed the flush draw. He missed and I collected a good profit.

For about a two and a half hour stretch, I then proceeded to earn my stripes as the Table Captain. I raised the right amounts, folded at the right times, bluffed against the right players and was earning huge respect. With just over £400 of chips in front of me, the crash then happened.

Key Hand

I've just told me neighbour that I'll be playing one more orbit and then heading for home. Two hands later I look down at KK. A few hands earlier, the villain in this hand had told the table that he had laid down 10 10 which had proved to be a bad fold and I sensed that this annoyed him somewhat. In this hand, in question, I felt he was tilting. I raised pre to about £8 and got the call which put me in position against Mr Tilt. The flop came a fairly dry 7 9 2. The villain, from early position then put in about £45 which I just elected to call.

The turn was a harmless looking card and the villain put in a pink chip (£100). I felt the fella either had a set, which would have been just plain bad luck for me, or my KKs were good. I shoved the rest of my £400 into the middle and when he insta-called I thought he just might show the set. He didn't, when he flipped over 10 10  I did indeed have him beaten - until the river that is; when his 22-1 (two-outer) shot rescued him to give him the set of tens.

Of my £400 stack, £90 came back to me meaning that £310 - and all my hard work - was wiped out in an instant. I don't know about the pros but I can never put my A-game in after playing so well in a cash game and then losing such a large part of a stack to a bad beat, so I said my farewells, tapped the table and left the arena right there. Had my KK held to the end I would be writing about a £450 winning session; as it is I have to report that it was a £160 losing session on the night.

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As I mentioned in my "Attitude To Money" post, in the past this type of bad beat would have driven me insane; as it was, the fact that I had played great poker, had made all the right reads and made all the right moves - even during that last hand - stayed with me very strongly and the relative calm I felt as I left the casino and took the bus ride home actually brought to me a strong sense of hope. I really think I have the tools to do well at this game when I'm going to start with my fresh regime in 2012.