Suckout City

"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion . . . . I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."

- Kurt Vonnegut


OK, so I know we've all had bad beats, and I know how much bloggers and poker players hate reading about them, for every bad beat I put up here you can tell me 10 worse. Fine. I wont put too many of the sordid details down in this post or cut-and-paste reams of hand histories, but f**k me yesterday I was on the receiving end of the shittiest day of poker I've experienced this year. Its my own fault, after concentrating and playing some of my best poker online for the last week, yesterday I figured, its Sunday I'll take it easy, play some lower limits and scoop some easy cash. I forgot how bad and frustrating lower limit tourneys can be.
Of the 12 SNG's and 3 multis I played yesterday my best finish was one 3rd in an SNG. F**k. I was only had the worst of it in 2 of those games when the money went in. Thats 13, yup 13 suckouts in a row. Pain. Frustration. I clearly still have issues with this, making correct decisions and watching others make terrible ones and win. This feeling was exascerbated by having friends sat next to me who still insist poker is all about luck and bluffing, has no skill factor, and is convinced that everyone who plays has been suckered into believing otherwise by the poker boom, and will all go broke sooner or later. I dont want to bore you too much (too late!), but possibly the worst of these was one of the mutli table tournaments I was in.

With blinds at 50/100 I was dealt pocket kings UTG+1, and the previous hand had been won by pocket aces, UTG called the BB, I raised 3x BB, UTG+2 folds, MP1 goes allin for 630, MP2 folds, LP1 folds, LP2 calls the 630.

Ok, got that - LP2 calls an UTG limp 'warning sign 1', an UTG+1 raise 'warning sign 2' and an allin from MP1 'warning sign 3'

It gets worse...
the cutoff folds, SB folds and the BB calls as well. Great ! I'm getting paid off big time.
So now UTG calls too, there are just too many people here, I need to try and narrow the field. Raise another 900, leaving me 500.
LP2 calls again, the BB folds and UTG calls it. Well at least I got one person on. sheesh these guys must have monster hands too.
Finally we see a flop.
4h5d8h
Awesome, no ace. Happy days.
UTG checks, I'm all in for my remaining 500.
Call, Call.

and we flip our cards.

UTG - AdKd
Me - KsKc
MP1 - 10c10d
LP2 - (this is the shit bit) - 6d7h

Calling all that action preflop with 67 off, nice play donkey. Flopping the nut straight, incredible luck. I was out of the tournament but couldn't acknowledge the comments or talk to anyone for about 10 minutes. My mates were proved right, its all luck and "knowing" your cards are gonna be lucky. I know, I know, I make money from people like this, they are truly a blessing and should be welcomed with open arms, but yesterday was their day. The day which keeps them coming back and reloading their bank roll time and time again.

Maybe it was just god's way of telling me not to play poker on a Sunday.

Fortunately we had some chillin tunes and drinks in the sun to relax, so I got blasted in the sunshine with my friends. Always a guaranteed immediate solution to any tiltage problems.

To complete the day at least I was able to take part in something good to lift my spirits. The first WPBT CharlieTuttle Memorial Tournament on Poker Stars. 144 Players signed up, many of them with no intention of playing, just good souls willing to donate to a very good cause. After 10 minutes or so sat with both AlCantHang and Bill Rini on my right, (not a good place to be, as Al was taking most of the early pots without challenge), I was moved to a new table and sat to the immediate right of Pauly. That was cool for me, I've been reading Pauly's blog for a couple of months now and wanted a chance to say thanks for the great job he'd done covering the WSOP. So how did I thank him ? I knocked him out of the tournament when his pocket 10's hit my pocket K's. Oops, not the best way to say thank you. Well everyone's gotta go sometime, and I busted myself about half an hour later when I was allin preflop with AQ against AJ, and a J spiked the turn. All good fun and those involved raised over $2880 for a very good cause. Nice one.

I'll leave you with this for when the bad beat strikes...

"I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy"
- Tony Robbins