Last Week:
I had 9-A. The flop was 9-4-2. I raised, he went all-in. I figured him for pocket Js, called for some reason. He had pocket 4s. But I caught a 9 on the river to knock him out. That was a lucky draw.
An hour later I had about 2,800 with the blinds at 200-400. The blind was raised to 800. I went all in with A-Q. I was not expecting to be called, but he had pocket Ks and knocked me out. I think the all-in was the right play, and I certainly can’t complain about luck after that river 9 before.
This Week:
Man, that sucked. I went in determined to be (1) aggressive early, (2) play the players not the cards, (3) get an early big stack and use it. It started off great. The very first hand I had K-A and added a few hundred to my stack. Two hands later I had Jack high but pushed around someone who was radiating weakness. Things looked good. Until..
Blinds at 50-100. Everyone folds to me in the small blind. I have K-J. With only the big blind left I raise it up to 400. He calls. The flop is Q-x-x. I don’t think he has the queen. I bet another 400. He thinks about it and calls. The turn is a Jack giving me a pair. I bet 800. He quickly raises me another 800. There are 3 diamonds on the board. He’s caught the flush. I know he’s caught the flush. I have to fold and I do. He had K-3, and yes, they were diamonds. Son of a. I’m surprised he called the preflop 4x raise in the first place. After that he was just lucky.
Now I was short-stacked and everything went wrong. I was quickly knocked out and rebought. Ha ha, I thought, a new stack of chips, look out here comes Muttrox! It was not to be. I didn’t get good cards. Everytime I made a move someone came over the top. When I had good cards they didn’t connect on the flop. Nothing worked. It’s not even worth relating the final hand, it was anti-climatic and preordained.
That was a couple of the most frustrating hours of poker I’ve played.
Tonight and last week: -$60
And yet more poker…: That flush hand is really sticking with me. I am still annoyed because I think I may have been Helmuth’d. I raised the blind 4x and he called with K-3. That was a defensible, but bad call. In my opinion. The only part I may have done wrong was only betting another 400 on the flop. He was calling 400 to get 1600, and he had about a 35% draw chance so it was an ok call on his part. I suppose I could have bet 1,000 or something, but I didn’t even have a made pair. I just had a read, an absolutely perfect one, that I had him beat. It would have been hard to commit 25-50% of my stack on that read. Nyargh. I’m not sure why this one hand is bothering me so much, but it is.