Whine and Cheese

Starting the Donkey's Tale has coincided with my first major downswing. It's inevitable ... play long enough and it's going to happen. I've read about some players ... good players, great even - who go through horrible downswings, lasting months. All you can do is try and make the good decisions and out yourself into the favourites position oddswise ... but there will always be suckouts, and sometimes they all just seem to happen at once. You try and play solid, tight poker and then some total donk comes along and triples his stack playing like a clown. I saw a guy tonight go all in pre-flop with 72o ... the quintessental worst hand in poker, and hit 72 on the flop and destack a guy who called with QQ.

It's not so much the suckouts the moment that are getting me - although these do happen - its more I seem to get either too much or too little action on my hands. Take these two examples (also I want to test how pasting hand histories in here goes!)

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (7 handed) [url=http://www.zerodivide.cx/converter]FTR converter on zerodivide.cx[/url]

SB ($13.99)
Hero ($4.93)
UTG ($4.67)
MP1 ($7.52)
MP2 ($3.70)
CO ($11.41)
Button ($4.77)

[b]Preflop:[/b] Hero is BB with 8:spade:, 3:club:.
[color=#666666][i]1 fold[/i][/color], MP1 calls $0.05, [color=#666666][i]1 fold[/i][/color], CO calls $0.05, Button calls $0.05, SB completes, Hero checks.

OK so I don't have a great starting hand but I'm in the Big Blind, it's limped to me, I get a free flop, woohoo.

[b]Flop:[/b] ($0.25) T:club:, 8:club:, 8:diamond: [color=#0000FF](5 players)[/color]
SB checks, [color=#CC3333]Hero bets $0.2[/color], MP1 folds, CO folds, Button folds, SB calls $0.20.

Woot what a nice flop, you dont see that very often. OK there were no preflop raises so I'm not worried about TT too much here. Have to figure this for the best hand right now, but there is a club draw out there. So I lead out with 80% of the pot, hopefully enough to deter the draw but surely anyone with a T calls here. Sure enough, 1 caller, all going to plan so far.

[b]Turn:[/b] ($0.65) 9:spade: [color=#0000FF](2 players)[/color]
[color=#CC3333]SB bets $9.5[/color], Hero folds.

OMG WTF. $9.50? Talk about overbetting the pot. A 9 makes the straight a real possibility here as well, if he calls the flop with QJ I'm in trouble. Same 76 or even J7. Of course it could be a total bluff - but evertime I call this lately I donk off my stack. He's saying I have a straight, I gotta believe him. There goes that nice hand.

[b]Final Pot:[/b] $10.15

The next one is the reverse scenario:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (6 handed) [url=http://www.zerodivide.cx/converter]FTR converter on zerodivide.cx[/url]

MP ($1.76)
CO ($11.13)
Button ($6.46)
SB ($6.85)
Hero ($4.65)
UTG ($7.73)

[b]Preflop:[/b] Hero is BB with 9:heart:, 9:spade:.
[color=#666666][i]1 fold[/i][/color], MP calls $0.05, [color=#CC3333]CO raises to $0.2[/color], Button calls $0.20, [color=#666666][i]1 fold[/i][/color], Hero calls $0.15, MP calls $0.15.

This table had a real maniac on it, he went all in a few hands previously and won about $10 with 63o. He was the guy in the Cutoff (CO) - I feared his raise a little but it could have been anything so I had to call with 99. Re-raise was out of the question he would likely have gone all in and I wanted to see the flop with this one.

[b]Flop:[/b] ($0.82) J:spade:, 6:spade:, 9:club: [color=#0000FF](4 players)[/color]
Hero checks, MP checks, CO checks, Button checks.

Happy days the 9 flops and I have the set. I'm hoping I can really destack the maniac here. I look closely at the board and it is moderately risky - J could be a concern if any one was on JJ - which was a possibility with the preflop action. Spade flush draw on the board as well. But given how loose this table was I have to figure I'm a good chance at top hand right here. The flush draw worried me more than the trip J possibility. So.... I check. I figure the maniac is sure to follow through since he raised pre-flop ... and when he raises, I check-raise, all in if necessary. I'm backing myself here! But he thinks ... and thinks .... and thinks ... then checks. Nooooooo! Preflop raise and then nothing? Of course the others all check and I've given them a free card :(

[b]Turn:[/b] ($0.82) Q:club: [color=#0000FF](4 players)[/color]
[color=#CC3333]Hero bets $0.6[/color], MP folds, CO folds, Button folds.

Qc is again a bit of a threat, set Q possible ... but no improvment to the flush. I can't sit back now, I bet out ... and they all fold. No action. Just cant seem to make my good hands stick. Mind you looking again I should be grateful I guess ... I could have got all in against JJ or QQ. Just seems at the moment things aren't falling my way. Exercise in learning patience!

So I ended up down about $1.25 for the night, continuing the downward slide at 5nl. 3k hands at 2nl I'm up $30, 1k hands at 5nl I'm down $-11. I'm hoping its variance ... I have made the odd donk play but the players if anything seem worse at 5nl than 2nl. Time will tell.