Live hand and dealing with bad beats

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Edwin Neal

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Hello all,

A little background, I’ve played for 10+ years but recently have started to focus on my game and am working to build up my skills. I’ve come here to mostly vent about a hand last night and ask how do you deal with it when you have countless bad runs. The run of the mill answers are take a break, BRM, you want the fish to call, etc... but it seems almost psychological at this point. I’m not playing scared, but am definitely to the point where I won’t even watch the river card peel off once the money is in good. I’ve been playing 2-3 times a week for the past 3 months (working on my game) and something of this nature has literally happened every other time to every 3rd time (1-5 outted) Whew, onto the hand.

It’s late night and the chips are flying. 1-3NL

Villian UTG (LAG) $600+ :kh4::jd4:
Hero UTG +1 (TAG) $266:ah4::as4:
MP 1 (Solid player) $600+
Button (LAG) $900+

Preflop

Villian open raises to $16, hero calls, MP calls, button calls, blinds fold. Pot $68.

Flop :jh4::4h4::3s4:

Villian bets $35, hero calls, MP folds, button calls. Pot $173.

Turn :2c4:

Villian checks, hero checks, button bets $35, villian calls $35, hero goes All In $35 + $180 more. Pot $458. Villian tanks for about 5 mins, talking out hands hero could have and how this would be such a terrible call. Villian decides to call $180. Pot $638.

River :js4:

Villian takes down the pot. FML. I was so pissed I could’ve flipped the table. I turned around, gathered my things, and went to the house without saying a word.

How do you get back on the horse after this repeatedly?


P.S. Day before guy called my $60 3bet preflop with 23 suited. Hero all in on the flop. Villian took it down when he hit trips on the flop. I don’t get married to my aces, I can lay them down...

Thanks for the future insight!
 
Matt Vaughan

Matt Vaughan

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Hey Edwin, first off welcome to CC!

Second, if you post hands for analysis here you'll get more feedback.

Ok so a few things about dealing with bad beats: we all deal with them and it's a part of poker. So while it's always gonna suck to a point, a big part of how you enjoy poker will come from handling bad beats better. They are just a reality in the game, so if you choose to play this game where these things happen, you need to also accept that you're choosing bad beats (both giving and receiving them - even if it doesn't always feel that way!).

As far as the hand itself goes, I really don't like how you chose to play it. Now, maybe you're getting a little gun shy from how you've been running, but this has to be a 3bet every single time. There's just no compelling reason to "slowplay" this hand pre.

That does NOT mean that you would have won the hand if you 3bet instead, and that's NOT why I suggest 3betting. You will just make substantially more money by 3betting in the long run.

Now on the flop I think you should put in a raise. If we're going to slowplay pre we kind of have to make up for it here on the flop, though tbh like I said I'm never getting to this flop with aces in the first place.

On the turn I hate checking. The third player in the hand is NOT guaranteed to bet for us, and there are a ton of disaster cards that can come on the river for us that either give someone a better hand, kill action, or both. Just bet. After it goes tiny bet and call, I like your jam.

Then we lose a 12ish %er. If you plan to play poker a long time, you will lose MANY of these. Say this to yourself. No, really, say it out loud. "If I want to play poker for many years as a profitable player, I will lose countless hands like this where I put the money in ahead and end up losing. Bad players need this to happen sometimes to choose to continue playing the game long term."

Coming to peace with this is a tough part of the game. But you can also always improve how you choose to play your hands too. They go hand in hand (no pun intended), so try to work on both - your strategy and your mental game - simultaneously.
 
E

Edwin Neal

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Scourrge said:
Hey Edwin, first off welcome to CC!

Second, if you post hands for analysis here you'll get more feedback.

Ok so a few things about dealing with bad beats: we all deal with them and it's a part of poker. So while it's always gonna suck to a point, a big part of how you enjoy poker will come from handling bad beats better. They are just a reality in the game, so if you choose to play this game where these things happen, you need to also accept that you're choosing bad beats (both giving and receiving them - even if it doesn't always feel that way!).

As far as the hand itself goes, I really don't like how you chose to play it. Now, maybe you're getting a little gun shy from how you've been running, but this has to be a 3bet every single time. There's just no compelling reason to "slowplay" this hand pre.

That does NOT mean that you would have won the hand if you 3bet instead, and that's NOT why I suggest 3betting. You will just make substantially more money by 3betting in the long run.

Now on the flop I think you should put in a raise. If we're going to slowplay pre we kind of have to make up for it here on the flop, though tbh like I said I'm never getting to this flop with aces in the first place.

On the turn I hate checking. The third player in the hand is NOT guaranteed to bet for us, and there are a ton of disaster cards that can come on the river for us that either give someone a better hand, kill action, or both. Just bet. After it goes tiny bet and call, I like your jam.

Then we lose a 12ish %er. If you plan to play poker a long time, you will lose MANY of these. Say this to yourself. No, really, say it out loud. "If I want to play poker for many years as a profitable player, I will lose countless hands like this where I put the money in ahead and end up losing. Bad players need this to happen sometimes to choose to continue playing the game long term."

Coming to peace with this is a tough part of the game. But you can also always improve how you choose to play your hands too. They go hand in hand (no pun intended), so try to work on both - your strategy and your mental game - simultaneously.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the in depth analysis and your thoughts! I appreciate you taking the time to be so detailed. I agree on 3 betting “most of the time” and I most likely do win that pot with a strong 3 bet pre and then another strong bet on flop if needed. My strategy backfired on trying to trap the LAG guys. I should’ve stayed it in the first post, these guys were borderline maniacs, they for the most part bet every time, every street, no matter what they have. My play does increase variance, I could’ve taken down the $20 pot preflop, but isn’t the point of the game to coax your opponents to put in all their chips when you have the best of it? With slow playing in this particular hand, I have the option to lay it down on flop/turn if I don’t like the situation, whilst only losing $16, if I lay it down on the flop. But I also have the option of possibly doubling up off these two dodo’s if the flop/turn is good for me. I will admit my thought process here was results oriented and maybe not the best long term play. Thanks again for your insight.
 
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NutsForPLO

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Hello there! I have to agree with Scourrge’s response. When I first started playing poker and for a long time after that, I would say omgosh what a bad beat. Instead of considering it a losing hand and spending time analyzing my play, I would just call it a bad beat and that’s it.

In your scenario, think of how much it could have changed if you raised villain pre-flop and made a bet on the flop and turn.

Good luck!
 
Dusan

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Why just call and not 3bet preflop with AA :confused:

If villain with KJo 2bets and you come over the top with a 3bet that is 3x his bet, he would probably have folded if he's any kind of player. I don't understand your mentality of slowplaying AA preflop when the pot has been 2bet in front of you.
 
Aaron Soto

Aaron Soto

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1. You played your Aces wrong. That is always a 3-bet from that position and you wanna isolate your opponent. As well as show that you are in control of the pot.

2. Bad run outs do happen and quite a bit at times. Nothing you can do there. The best information i can tell you on this is when running bad, the moment you see yourself going on TILT, Leave the casino. Do not play on tilt or when frustrated or angry. You will only end up losing more money and playing bad poker.

3. I play 1/3 quite a bit, running bad happens, I've learned only bring a certain amount to the casino. Also, I think learning to win a little is better then trying to win a whole lot. As long as you go home with more money or the money you walked in with from the casino, Poker will always be a fun game.

Trust me on that information. Plus your bankroll won't get to affected by only bringing 1 buy-in.

1/3 sessions
3/26/2018 = -280$ 80/120, 4 hours, Bike
4/11/2018 = -255$ 80/120 game, 2 hours, Bike
4/26/2018= +170$, 8 hours, Morongo
4/27/2018 = +557, 8 hours, Morongo
4/29/2018 = -800, 24 hours, Morongo
5/14/2018 = -200$, Morongo, 8 hours
5/15/2018 = -450$, Morongo, 10 hours
7/3/18 = + 515, 8 hours, Morongo
7/4/18 = +275, 4 hours, Commerce
7/4/18 = -160, 4 hours, Commerce
7/6/18 = -750, 30 hours, Morongo
7/12/18 = -56, 4 hours, Bike
7/13/18 = +702, 12 hours, Morongo
7/14/18 = -1450, 12 hours, Morongo
UPDATE: Sessions = 14, Wins: 5, Losses: 9, Amount Won: $2,219 Amount Lost: $4,401 Profit = $-2,182
Hours: 138, Average Hourly: $-15.81
7/15/18 = +343, 4 hours, Bicycle
7/16/18 = +276, 6 hours, Bicycle
7/18/18 = -240, 3 ½ hours, Bicycle
7/19/18 = -350, 7 hours, Bicycle
7/20/18 = -300, 15 hours, Bicycle
7/29/18 = +272, 15 minutes, Bicycle
7/30/18 = +108, 2.5 hours, Bicycle
 
D

droozy

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you slowplayed AA in the bad position and he got lucky - thats it. Trust me, you will never ever do it again. AA is too valuable hand to be slowplayed that way. When I get bad beat, I go to smoke or start to play black jack (not advised to do that :D )
 
T

thackro

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If I have that hand in that situation, I 3 bet preflop You probably get it heads up and then you get position. All in on the flop would have to give your opponent real pause even with top pair. The river coming Jack is just bad luck. As far as not wanting to watch the river card cause you know that 3 outer is coming, I whole heartily agree with you. In tournaments, when my opponent has more chips that I do, the runner runner bad beats are brutal. pokerstars is killing me.
 
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