Sitting out....

Apologies for forgetting to post anything about the Bloggerment in yesterdays post.Congrats to Hulljimi for taking it down again! Two key hands helped knock me out.For the first I raised with 1010 and folded to a reraise and a shove.I would have been up against AK and KK but would have hit my 10 on the turn to win a huge pot.The other key hand was when I reraised all in with QQ and was called by KJ.A nasty 3 outer King on the flop and I hit the rail.I usually hang about for the chat but after my Sat night poker hell ( see previous post) I actually felt quite cheesed off about my Queens getting busted and didn’t watch any more of the Bloggerment.Thanks to all who turned out.Same time,same place this Sunday!

Last night I finally realised why it takes me so long to begin to play poker most nights and it’s quite simple really.I hate poker! At least I hate suffering beat after beat and when playing turbo’s there simply seems to be no escape.I fired up some $16’s ( 18 player as usual) and went 0/5 without cashing after yet another horrible run.No boring details but I couldn’t win a race and I couldn’t even win with hands like AA v KQ.

I told myself to get a grip and to keep playin’ em right and I would come out ahead, but I’ve been on 0/13 and even 0/20 without cashing before, and the hard cold fact of poker is that you can play like a WSOP champion and still get beaten down time after time.Determination and willpower can only take you so far.Thankfully I fired up three more and managed a crashout,a third place and win in the last one.From 0/5 despair ( ok not quite despair but the frustration was building) to a small profit overall.I did feel I actually got lucky on a few occasions in the game I won and I’ll try and remember that when thinking about the previous beats.

Not that I’m running out of ideas to post about ( ahem!) but I thought I’d mention a comment I left on BM’s latest excellent post on variance and not berating the villains in the chatbox.Although I tend to focus on my own bad luck rather than an opponents donkey call, the other reason I’ve never ever berated a villain over a bad beat is that if I’m still at the table,I feel it narrows the calling range the table will put me on.ie if someone makes a donkey call with A9 V AK and hits, typing “how could you call with a9 you idiot” simply alerts the table to the fact that I’d be unlikely to call a shove unless I had a premium hand,leaving me more open to getting my blinds stolen.As poker is an information game I reckon it’s best to keep ‘em guessing.

I did have a funny moment at a turbo tourney the other night when I raised with J8 from the small blind to steal the big blind because the big blind was “sitting out”.He/she must have “sat back” just as I raised because he called and we saw a ( lucky for once) Jack high flop.I bet out and he called on the flop ,turn and river and then berated me for raising with J8.I don’t think I mentioned I only bet because I thought he was away but it did get me thinking about using “sitting out” to gain an edge,especially during the mid to late stages of tourneys when the blinds are worth stealing.

I usually fold garbage hands anyway so the plan would require sitting out and letting the site software auto-fold for me until I picked up a playable hand,hoping someone tries to steal and quickly sitting back in and reraising.If the initial raiser is betting from the cut-off/button then they are likely to be betting quite lightly ( ie with not much) so it may not even require that great a hand to “sit back” and shove over the top with.

I’m sure there are other variations on using “sitting out” to gain an edge and I’d be interested to know if anyone has tried any or had any other suggestions.

Off to the ex’s tonight to look after Step A and Nacho.I’ll be taking my laptop and will be watching poker training videos and trying to “borrow” a wireless connection to play some poker….