Break Time

OK, last night told me that it’s time to take a few days off from poker, online style at least. Even though the hot streak continues with the Sniper on AP, cashed another one last night for a small amount, I made some real boneheaded plays in it, the Skillz and the Mookie. Time to give my eyes a rest. Some of the plays were pure dee jackass, others, at first glance, might seem to come under the category of “that’s poker” but upon further review I decided that they were plays I could, and should, have gotten away from. Been playing online every night for almost two weeks now, which is a long run for me, and during the run the last week has consisted of some late nights, so combine that with the aforementioned donkery and it means that, after tonight, it’s time for a few days off. Would start to night but there is a regular game I play in, more for the enjoyment than the win, so I’ll go donk off in that one before I shut it down. Maybe I’ll catch up on some reading, maybe go see Watchmen this weekend.

Speaking of the Mook, I found it a frustrating game last night (another reason I’m taking a break. Frustration is not good). The table was a tight as a bull’s arse in fly season. Typical deal went, fold, fold, raise, everyone fold. It was mostly a preflop game, seemed like very few pots were actually played and when they were they wasn’t hotly contested. Seems like the only time someone called my raises were when I was playing position more than the cards. Every time I raised with suited connectors one of the blinds reraised, usually big enough that I had to dump them. Yet I had A-A 4 times and got action once and the same for K-K and that was from a short stack. That kind of thing does nothing to lower the frustration factor. I’m not making any indictments here either, hell I was as guilty of the same style of play and did more than my share of folding to the raises rather than mixing it up though I did defend a couple of blinds with less than premium hands but which I considered playable enough to see the flop. Got lucky with them too. No. just stating a fact, that it was a slow table and not much could be done about it. Of course the general distractedness I have felt the last couple of days also plays into my feelings on the situation. Anyway, we’ll take a couple of days off, recharge the batteries and be ready to bounce back into the BBT in a few days.

The Sniper was also frustrating even though I did cash it. It was frustrating for the opposite of the Mookie. Instead of a TAG table it was LP. I think I was the only one raising preflop unless someone had aces or kings but once they limped they had a strangle hold on that bet. If I had 5 limpers and raised pre I had at least 4 callers to the flop. I was getting creamed coming and going. If I had A-Q in a late position and raised and spiked my A I would get some guy in EP have A-K, who limp called to start, and check called it all the way down. OTOH, I had aces and kings cracked a couple of times by guys calling the preflop raise with hands like K-7 or J-8 and catching 2 pair. Now obviously it wasn’t all the time since I lasted a while but it seemed every time I chipped up I’d wind up bleeding off a quarter to a third of my stack in that sort of situation. The water torture at the poker table, slow death, chip by chip by chip. I felt I was going crazy trying to figure what I could do to get someone off a hand and make my hands hold up but when I guy is willing to call off a third of his stack to a preflop raise with K-7 off just because he already limped in; there ain’t much you can do. Of course, what the hell he’s doing limping in OOP with K-7 when he has less than 10 BB left any way is probably a better question. I realize people do these things, especially in lower limits online, and have lately come to take a Zen approach to it. Learn to keep myself calm, accept that it happens and just hope my hands hold up. Nothing else you can do about these players. Trying to throw punches at them in the form of increased aggressiveness is like trying to punch Jell-O, it’s just going to give and do its own thing anyway. You can only play your game and hope they slowly slip away. If it’s their night to catch cards, so be it, move on to the next game, the next night the whatever. One game does not a career make and $4-5 ain’t gonna bust me. I’ve gotten pretty good at taking this approach and think it’s improved my game some as it allows me to think more about it without the “I’m gonna kill that stupid bastard” attitude screwing up the rest of my game. So the fact that I found myself in exactly that attitude tells me it’s time for a couple days away from it.

Of course I will admit that last night was almost the perfect storm on the frustration front. Between the tightness of the Mook when I actually have caught A-A and K-K at least 8 times between them in one game, the general ‘tardness of the Sniper, the fact I could not win one race when I was behind and my tiredness all combined to try and drive my BP thru the roof. I relaxed and didn’t go off the deep end but still felt frustrated and let it affect me. Timeout. So I’ll play the Shark game tonight, have some fun and spend the next couple of days relaxing and catching up on some things, maybe even getting out to an RPT game to have a few drinks and play a live game. Haven’t done that for awhile except for their team heads up match last Sunday, which, while fun, ain’t exactly your typical game. I mean after all, if one doesn’t notice CK sitting by one’s side something is definitely wrong.

More boredom later. Drop in again