kurto
01-05-2006, 12:25 PM
Sometimes certain hands get under your skin more then others. I played 5 PLO8 tournys last night.. finished once in 2nd, once in 3rd, twice in 4th and once in 5th. Net loss- $15. Not a big deal. But its the psychological bashing (as this is how I've been running lately, that is the last 3 months or so... hours and hours of poker to end up or down $20...) What drives me beserk is that I'm really looking at my game and I see that I'm reading my opponents accurately and making the correct decisions. More importantly, no such thought processes appears to go through their minds... and yet, I'm constantly screaming, " it pays to be an idiot ." Here's my example and the hand that sent me to bed fuming. Fuming, because I get to see the boneheaded play (from the flop on) that knocks me out... knowing every step of the way that my opponent is an idiot (the good) yet on the river I will see once again that it makes no difference (the bad).
So, I'm playing the last tourny of the night for me, the one that if placed in the money, would have made the night profitable. I want to narrate both sides so I will give my thoughts and guess what must go on in my opponents.
There are 5 players left. I have the third largest stack with about 1800. I have played TAG throughout and, as usual in the early stages, I am patient. I haven't shown a weak hand yet. I have found that occasionally my opponents in a tourny note my style... that is, I am patient but then I spring alive. I don't bluff until late in the tourny. This patience often gives me some respect later in the tourny (If I make it far)
The blinds are $100/$200. I'm UTG and find A /images/graemlins/club.gifA /images/graemlins/diamond.gifK /images/graemlins/club.gif2 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif. I pot it to $700. Folds around to the smallblind...
SB has $100 invested in the pot. He has me covered by about $100... he thinks; "hmmm... a raise from UTG. Usually means a strong hand. This guy has been pretty patient. I'm only going to play if I have a monster." Since he has AJ55 (the ace is NOT suited) he smiles gleefully. Its the hand he's been waiting for. How can he let this go? He calls.
At this point... I only have 60+% Equity.. with a %70 for high, %30 for low and a %57 to scoop. The flop can bring anything.
FLOP Q /images/graemlins/club.gif 9 /images/graemlins/club.gif 6 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif
My opponent looks at his hand and... has a pair of 5s. He has no flush draw, no real low draw... at best he could improve to a runner straight. "Perfect. I've got him right where I want him." He pushes.
First off... I didn't believe him. Unless he called with pocket queens, it didn't seem this hand was likely to hit him. If I was wrong, I still had a flush draw, a backdoor flush draw, runner runner straight, 2 outs for top set and a backdoor nut low draw. I called.
The hands are flipped over and I'm puzzled... it takes longer at Omaha to read the hands and match it to the board. I realize... he has nothing. I'm puzzled by his play. "Can he really be that stupid?" and I'm (INCORRECTLY) excited... wow... this guy is practically drawing dead. But I haven't yet figured out exactly what his outs are.... before the turn comes-
Turn Q /images/graemlins/spade.gif
At this point I breath a sigh of relief. I reach for my soda and look away from the monitor. When I look back to the screen, the window pops up that says "You've finished 5th... blah blah blah". I'm confused and look at the summary... my opponent had trip 5s.
I'm dumbstruck and angry. As I've posted in my other omaha beat thread earlier this weak... if I'm outplayed, I get angry at myself but can appreciate my opponent (one of the earlier tournys my opponent trapped me and I was irked at myself but got over that quickly... I appreciated that my opponent played me-- that was the one he got first and I went out second. He DESERVED the win.)
But in this case, its 'idiocy rewarded.' I can't help but think that the guy has no idea that on the flop he had about 10% equity in the hand. On the river, he's drawing dead to 2 outs.
I think the tourny bad beats are harder.. you play good for 40 minutes.. the boneheads do their thing and go out or become chip leaders with no regard to the hands they choose to play, what raises they choose to call... pot odds; meaningless. When you can't get ahead night after night because of hands like this... I was fuming.
(just to put this into context of my building irritation... I have a friend who I play NLTHE SNGs with... or we chat on the phone and watch each other's SNGs while laughing at the play we see. Anyhoo... In one night he watched me play in and go out, out of the money, 6 SNGs in a row. I was so happy to have him watching so someone could verify that I wasn't exxagerating my horrific luck and could verify that I was, indeed, making the correct plays; In every case I went in as a favorite; perhaps as weak as 60/40... in many cases, going all in on the river with my opponents drawing dead to 4 outs (I lost to 2 inside straight draws that night... inside straight draws are the 'death draw' against me. They will hit.. especially with just one card to come. /images/graemlins/smile.gif ) This is how I've been running for the last 3 months or so. And its slowly driving me nuts. I say again... if I was losing because my opponents were making good calls, I could handle it. Its the constant, and I do mean constant, losing to hands like the above. grrrrrrr
If anyone made it this far... I like this forum. Even if its 'strategy free'... sometimes you gotta bitch and moan. I'm sure anyone who's read this has experienced this and hopefully got a chuckle.
So, I'm playing the last tourny of the night for me, the one that if placed in the money, would have made the night profitable. I want to narrate both sides so I will give my thoughts and guess what must go on in my opponents.
There are 5 players left. I have the third largest stack with about 1800. I have played TAG throughout and, as usual in the early stages, I am patient. I haven't shown a weak hand yet. I have found that occasionally my opponents in a tourny note my style... that is, I am patient but then I spring alive. I don't bluff until late in the tourny. This patience often gives me some respect later in the tourny (If I make it far)
The blinds are $100/$200. I'm UTG and find A /images/graemlins/club.gifA /images/graemlins/diamond.gifK /images/graemlins/club.gif2 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif. I pot it to $700. Folds around to the smallblind...
SB has $100 invested in the pot. He has me covered by about $100... he thinks; "hmmm... a raise from UTG. Usually means a strong hand. This guy has been pretty patient. I'm only going to play if I have a monster." Since he has AJ55 (the ace is NOT suited) he smiles gleefully. Its the hand he's been waiting for. How can he let this go? He calls.
At this point... I only have 60+% Equity.. with a %70 for high, %30 for low and a %57 to scoop. The flop can bring anything.
FLOP Q /images/graemlins/club.gif 9 /images/graemlins/club.gif 6 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif
My opponent looks at his hand and... has a pair of 5s. He has no flush draw, no real low draw... at best he could improve to a runner straight. "Perfect. I've got him right where I want him." He pushes.
First off... I didn't believe him. Unless he called with pocket queens, it didn't seem this hand was likely to hit him. If I was wrong, I still had a flush draw, a backdoor flush draw, runner runner straight, 2 outs for top set and a backdoor nut low draw. I called.
The hands are flipped over and I'm puzzled... it takes longer at Omaha to read the hands and match it to the board. I realize... he has nothing. I'm puzzled by his play. "Can he really be that stupid?" and I'm (INCORRECTLY) excited... wow... this guy is practically drawing dead. But I haven't yet figured out exactly what his outs are.... before the turn comes-
Turn Q /images/graemlins/spade.gif
At this point I breath a sigh of relief. I reach for my soda and look away from the monitor. When I look back to the screen, the window pops up that says "You've finished 5th... blah blah blah". I'm confused and look at the summary... my opponent had trip 5s.
I'm dumbstruck and angry. As I've posted in my other omaha beat thread earlier this weak... if I'm outplayed, I get angry at myself but can appreciate my opponent (one of the earlier tournys my opponent trapped me and I was irked at myself but got over that quickly... I appreciated that my opponent played me-- that was the one he got first and I went out second. He DESERVED the win.)
But in this case, its 'idiocy rewarded.' I can't help but think that the guy has no idea that on the flop he had about 10% equity in the hand. On the river, he's drawing dead to 2 outs.
I think the tourny bad beats are harder.. you play good for 40 minutes.. the boneheads do their thing and go out or become chip leaders with no regard to the hands they choose to play, what raises they choose to call... pot odds; meaningless. When you can't get ahead night after night because of hands like this... I was fuming.
(just to put this into context of my building irritation... I have a friend who I play NLTHE SNGs with... or we chat on the phone and watch each other's SNGs while laughing at the play we see. Anyhoo... In one night he watched me play in and go out, out of the money, 6 SNGs in a row. I was so happy to have him watching so someone could verify that I wasn't exxagerating my horrific luck and could verify that I was, indeed, making the correct plays; In every case I went in as a favorite; perhaps as weak as 60/40... in many cases, going all in on the river with my opponents drawing dead to 4 outs (I lost to 2 inside straight draws that night... inside straight draws are the 'death draw' against me. They will hit.. especially with just one card to come. /images/graemlins/smile.gif ) This is how I've been running for the last 3 months or so. And its slowly driving me nuts. I say again... if I was losing because my opponents were making good calls, I could handle it. Its the constant, and I do mean constant, losing to hands like the above. grrrrrrr
If anyone made it this far... I like this forum. Even if its 'strategy free'... sometimes you gotta bitch and moan. I'm sure anyone who's read this has experienced this and hopefully got a chuckle.