Bad play? Or bad luck?
 

The last 3 days I have lost everything I won the past few weeks and then some on 5 big hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1493410
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1493412
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1493413
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1493416
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1493418

I feel shell shocked, and am in disbelief... I understand bad beats happen, but they have been so frequent, and with so few winning hands in between. The big problem I am having is that I did not get my money in good on 3 out of the 5, but I seriously don't know how I can avoid it. Maybe someone can walk me through the hands and point out my mistakes.

-Jared

Re: Bad play? Or bad luck?
 

happens
keep grinding and trying to play better

Re: Bad play? Or bad luck?
 

[ QUOTE ]
happens
keep grinding and trying to play better

[/ QUOTE ]

I understand it happens, but how can I avoid not being felted on hands like these... or is it simply variance and in the long run my play is fine?

Re: Bad play? Or bad luck?
 

1. I would bet flop, but I dont think checking here is horrible.
2. bet more on flop
3. bet more on flop and turn
4. that sucks
5. that sucks

Dont worry too much about it. I dont see anything horrible (maybe someone else can).

Re: Bad play? Or bad luck?
 

grunch:

1) bet flop. slowplaying a set is tempting, especially on a bone dry board. But if you cbet as much as you should, checking behind here is bad. This isn't even remotely as bad as your opponent's play.

2) bet more flop. I'd bet $4 on the dry flop, so I guess that's not too different. Don't get too greedy with AA: taking the preflop raises at this point is a nice result.

Knowing you got stacked makes it easy to say I'd check this river. It only takes one card to beat you. That said, I'd probably say I was inducing a bluff and call a bet, so no big difference.

3) ha ha. repeat after me: "this guy is my friend. I like playing this guy. I'm laughing, not crying..."

4) ick. nothing you could do.

5) again, not much you could do. I might find a fold to the reraise with the 3-straight on the board, but what, he's got 8T? nah, I stack off too. 2pr is the bigger part of his range.

The only thing I see, it doesn't look like your bets are large enough. This format doesn't show the pot size, and I'm too lazy to calculate it. If they're calling you this much with 2nd or 3rd pair, your normal value bets can creep up in size to 3/4 pot or more.

make notes about the slowplayers.

Re: Bad play? Or bad luck?
 

[ QUOTE ]
grunch:

1) bet flop. slowplaying a set is tempting, especially on a bone dry board. But if you cbet as much as you should, checking behind here is bad. This isn't even remotely as bad as your opponent's play.

2) bet more flop. I'd bet $4 on the dry flop, so I guess that's not too different. Don't get too greedy with AA: taking the preflop raises at this point is a nice result.

Knowing you got stacked makes it easy to say I'd check this river. It only takes one card to beat you. That said, I'd probably say I was inducing a bluff and call a bet, so no big difference.

3) ha ha. repeat after me: "this guy is my friend. I like playing this guy. I'm laughing, not crying..."

4) ick. nothing you could do.

5) again, not much you could do. I might find a fold to the reraise with the 3-straight on the board, but what, he's got 8T? nah, I stack off too. 2pr is the bigger part of his range.

The only thing I see, it doesn't look like your bets are large enough. This format doesn't show the pot size, and I'm too lazy to calculate it. If they're calling you this much with 2nd or 3rd pair, your normal value bets can creep up in size to 3/4 pot or more.

make notes about the slowplayers.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you for this post, I really do appreciate the feedback.

I continuation bet very frequently, but you are correct the reason I didn't bet #1's flop is because of just how dry the board was. When the river king hit I actually hoped I had sucked out if he held J10 but of course not.

Just for reference my standard bets are between 1/2 and 3/4ths of the pot whether I have a hand or not. Would you recommend staying near 3/4ths and higher? I like to keep the pots relatively small as it reduces my variance, thats why these losses were tough to take.

Re: Bad play? Or bad luck?
 

Bet sizes really depend on villian and board texture.

You can bet half pot on a non-drawy board.
On a drawy pot I bet 3/4 or sometimes pot it.
It depends on a lot of factors.

You should post some hands where you are not sure about the bet-sizes.