Too amazed to be annoyed!

Just thought I'd share this little series of hands with you all because I have'nt quite experiened anything like it in my whole playing career!

Recently I have been having the worst time of my life at online poker, seriously it's been that bad. I honestly believe I've been playing well,making the right calls and everything that could have gone wrong over the past few weeks, has!

Anyway, a few weeks ago I made a $50 deposit on pokerstars feeling really confident about my chances of converting it into a lot more so I've been playing fairly conservatively trying to build it up in $1, 45 player SNG's. In about 10 SNG's I have placed in none! I'm not a newcomer to these tournaments, in fact in my last stint at pokerstars I had managed to build from $50 to $200 in a few weeks by only playing multi table SNG's....

Anyway getting back to the point, my bankroll had dropped to about $26 yesterday and I was feeling very uncomfortable about it. I decided to give the 5c 10c 6 handed tables a go to try and give my bankroll a lift. I entered with $5 initially trying not to risk too much of my Bankroll and got it to $6 before this happened.....

These 3 hands were dealt consecutively:

I got dealt As Ks in the small blind and everyone folded around to me, I raised the pot and got flat called by the big blind. Flop came 4s Ac Kd, obviously at this point I'm thinking jackpot. My opponent was not showing any sign of strength, checking and just calling what I bet. Can't quite remeber what the turn and river were but they were insignificient, he had AA!

Ok, fair enough, nicely played I thought, I still was'nt on tilt...
Next hand came and I was dealt QQ! jackpot I'm thinking so I rasied it again, again everyone folded except the same player who was in with me last hand and he called. flop came 8 J J. Now I was a bit worried about a Jack but I thought I'd more than likely be in front... again the turn and river changed nothing, he had J8!

As horrified as I was I tried to keep my cool (just below boiling point )
and found that again everyone was folding apart from the same guy! I had KJ os so I made a small raise, he called and there were just us 2 in the hand again... I hit a king with 2 low cards on the flop, and turn and river were again uneventfull. I bet at every stage, not massive amounts just solid amounts. He called at every stage to show me AA at the end!

This is just roughly how it played out, I've net included every small detail but this is what happened.

After I'd lost my $5 I put up another $10 and after that further $10 slipped to around $7 I battled and got it up to around $20 and left. Considering what had happened in some of these hands I was fairly upbeat after the session and will probably hit the 6 handed ring games again tonight. I am however still around $20 down, got about $31....

I welcome any comments on this session I have had, the poor time at the tables I am generally having at the moment and any advice you may have on how I can get out of this bad spell.....



G-man

Bad Luck for the most part. Take a break for a while and try again. Clear your head, rethink your game plan and go back. Bad luck will eventually go away.

I have played against people like this. I tend to run into these players frequently at MTT and they tend to only play monster hands. Best thing you can do when you are up against them IMO is to not bet on top pair or top two pair. Wait until you hit a straight, flush or higher to try to attack them. Why feed their pockets? When they get into a hand I proceed with caution and if they are still there after the flop and they call a small bid, I check the rest of the way through or fold when a bet comes up. This may not be the best strateggy, but it reduces my losses.

Did you make any notes on this person??? It's good to know if someone is slowplaying pocket A's TWICE.

1st hand - just unlucky. Crazy hand, but it sounds like you played it fine.

2nd hand - again unlucky. I raise PF here %100 of the time. How much did you raise PF? Tim right be right in saying that it wasn't enough if he called with J8. With the flop bringing a high pair, i would throw out a flop bet, but be cautious if he called. At the micros, you can't pin guys on top 10 hands, so anything should be expected.

3rd hand - Now here's where i fold. An important thing to remember IMO is after a run of losing hands like that, you should really tighten up. Guys are targeting you now because its more unlikely that you have a strong hand, aswell as the fact that they think you're tilting now. After the flop, it sounds like you played it fine though.

Crazy run of hands, G-man. Better luck next time i guess... seems like sometimes sites pit two monster hands against each other just to generate rake :/

On the 2nd hand with the 2 queens I raised 65c (the game was 5c 10c) I thought that would have been enough to knock out those type of hands? maybe not... do you think that was the correct raise?

Your probably right about folding the KJ os, only reason I played was because it was a really tight table...


G-man

Well to be honest the 3 hands happened almost straight away when I joined the table so I had'nt had chance to make notes, i was just surprised what he hit against me in 3 consecutive hands


G-man

65c is plenty...maybe too much actually - he might have thought you were trying to steal or overbet a weak hand.

Even when i play the micros, i raise the same amount PF every time: 4 times the BB. This disguises my hand strength. Some think this isn't enough to bet for a big PP like QQ KK or AA, but I play very tight and very aggressive, and people (yes, most of the time even the donks :P) give me respect and i end up actually isolating to 1 or 2 people and fare well.
I think that after losing a hand, and villain seeing you raise 6.5 (very large) times the BB, he probably thought you were tilting.
Also another thing i try not to do (which goes hand in hand with my tight aggressive style) is play 3 hands in a row for a raise. The only condition i do play a third hand is if it's a VERY strong one. People will give you little to no credit for a hand if they see you take down two pots in a row because people folded to your bets. Nor will they give you credit for a hand if they see you lose two hands in a row because like i said they probably think you're tilting and will try and take advantage of that.

doesn't seem like it from your post

good luck in the future, Gman!!

-ChuckTs

G-Man that is definitely a rough couple of hands - in the second, i would think that the .65 bet would have driven out a J 8, but maybe he was on a run before you got there and felt like he couldn't lose (incidentally, it seems he was right. . .) - don't get down too much on your play, because there wasn't a whole lot more you could have done to protect yourself in those hands. chuck had some good ideas, but for the most part i think you did things the right way.

now is a good time to take a break for a day or two, and come back fresh. . .

G-man thats the bad part of poker>> the losing streak << but it will change, ive been there, but when the luck changes, TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT, you can only hope it changes fast for you>>>>>>>>>>> buck