Slump

Poker is like a roller coaster. Like a sine wave. Like the ocean. That quality of rising and falling, ups and downs, ecstasy to joy, pleasure to pain pervades the game on every level. A single hand is just like a session, which is just like a year, which is just like a career. From the flop until the river, depending on how the cards are dealt and what your opponents do, you can experience the full range of emotions – from pure joy to pure anguish within a matter of minutes. You can go from the trapper to the trapped, from shark to donk, from master to student. The same can be said for a session of poker, for a week of poker, and on and on. You can be on top of the poker world one moment and in the doldrums the next.

As you can guess by the title of this little number, I’m currently experiencing one of poker’s dreaded downswings. It’s lasted a few months. Granted, I haven’t been fully rounding since January, but when I do get the time to play, for the most part it hasn’t been pretty. I’m struggling even to win heads up matches, which has been a specialty of mine for quite a while. I can’t beat Billy in a series to save my life. I can’t even cash in Connor’s game, which I used to friggin’ dominate. It’s getting alarming, in a way. Is everyone else really getting that much better? Or is my poker game simply growing stagnant? Or both?

I’m not really sure what’s going on with me. Maybe I just haven’t worked on my game enough or something. At any rate, I find this troubling, so I’m going to rededicate myself to reading literature and keeping up with the evolutions of the various games and how they’re being played. Because right now I feel like I’m on that first drop of a huge roller coaster … only the drop keeps going, and going, and going …

It’s about time that the train swings back up a little bit. I want to hear that click-click-click as the coaster gets ready for another peak. It’s time to turn this baby around.

It’s time to win again.

Underestimating Opponents

I was playing in the $1/2 NL game at the Hustler today, up $35 on my $50 buy-in. I had been in the game for 20 minutes at this point, so being either up that much or down that much was pretty much expected. The game was pretty good, a few obvious fish, some players that are more solid. I hadn’t noticed any obvious Level 3’ers yet, so was feeling pretty at ease. I like the small game at the Hustler because I can make decent money at it without worrying too much about being outplayed. Outflopped or otherwise outdrawn, sure, but very rarely outplayed. So I typically don’t worry too much about the information I give off – I feel free to bet according to hand strength, visibly react to other players’ actions and the cards that come out, audibly mutter my observations to myself. There’s no need to be Chris Ferguson in the $1/2 NL – no one’s savvy enough to spot your tells anyway.

Right?

Two hands reminded me that there are exceptions to just about every rule. The first was kind of interesting. I raised second-to-act preflop with AT off. The guppy at the table called my raise cold from middle position, as did the big blind. Now, typically when the flop is dealt I’m looking at my opponents rather than the cards. See how they react to them, whether or not they got what they were looking for. This time I was watching the player from the big blind. I couldn’t watch both players from my seat, and the big blind was the tightest guy at the table, so his overcall concerned me. Well, I turned to him to get my read, and I was flabbergasted to find him already staring right back at me. He was doing exactly what I was doing – trying to get a read and see if I had connected with the flop. We seriously locked eyes for a good seven seconds before the dealer nudged him with a quiet “Check or bet, sir?” Finally the guy looked over at the flop and checked. It contained an ace, so I bet out. The rest of the hand wasn't that spectacular, I was just blown away because it was the first time I’d seen that at this level at the Hustler.

About a round later, another guy at the table surprised me in similar fashion. I picked up J7 offsuit in the small blind and was ready to muck it before the action even came to me. There were several callers, and I half mucked before I realized I was halfway in already. I looked at my cards again to make sure I had the suits down and tossed in the extra chip. The big blind checked.

The flop was nice, Q-J-7 and two-toned giving me bottom two pair. I bet out $7, hoping someone that someone hit the queen and hoping to make players pay to hit their flush or straight draws. In a seven-handed pot, someone had to have something. One guy called from late position, everyone else folded. Oh well. The turn was an offsuit trey – beautiful card. I figured the guy wasn’t going anywhere with a queen or a strong draw, but he also didn’t seem to have a strong enough hand to bet if I checked it, so I bet out another $15.

The guy goes into the think tank, and starts to puzzle it out. “Hmmmm, you called before the flop,” he says, “but you almost folded. What could you do that with? You almost fold from the small blind, check your cards, and then come out betting strong on the flop. You must have flopped two pair … a bad-looking hand like jack-seven. Yeah, that’s what you have, jack-seven. I fold.” He mucks his AQ face up.

All I could do was smile and show him how great a read he'd just made. His analysis sounded exactly like what I would work myself through in the opposite situation. Again, I had underestimated an opponent’s poker acumen and this time is had cost me. Shot myself in the foot.

So what’s the lesson for me? Take the pros’ advice and stop giving away information. Like shooting free throws, pick a routine and stick with it.

Awesome, another hole in my game that needs pluggin'.

That’s what makes poker fun.

Thanks for the Heads Up: No Pun Intended

Match #1 in the best of 3 Tattoo Match between Jamin and Yo Soy.

7:28 Jackie draws first blood.
7:31 Jamin takes down the first showdown of the evening with his queen kicker.
7:33 Blinds are going up.
7:35 Jackie disgustedly shows pocket aces when Jamin folds preflop.
7:38 Blinds up to 75-150.

Jamin: 1250
Jackie: 1750

7:40 Jamin takes down a decent pot when Jackie folds to his reraise.
7:41 First all in of the night but no caller. Jamin claims he had Q-2 of clubs.
7:43 Blinds going up.
7:47 Lots of preflop folding going on.
7:48 Blinds up again. Chip stacks are fairly even still.
7:50 Jamin goes all in and Jackie calls.

Jamin shows Ace-four offsuit and Jackie shows 9-6 of clubs. The board is no help to Jackie and Jamin takes the first match.

Match #2 will be featured later tonight after our HORSE tourney.