History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.
Karl Marx
I guess this is just a continuation of my previous ‘bad beat’ blog entry. But, if I stand back and have a look at it; I mean, if it’s possible to be objective in such a situation, I think it reasonable to say that things are just getting ridiculous now.
I deal with bad beats a lot better these days. I know, on an intellectual level, that they are part of the game, so I brush aside the pieces of my cracked aces, and continue. But lately, my stoicism has slipped. I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.
A sat down last night to try to recover my short-handed SNG stats, which had taken a battering after a series of horrible and/or tough beats (as outlined in my previous blog). I was going to try to put in a decent session; try to get back on track.
Until the first game I play, where I find my self at a table with three maniacs and two calling stations (the type of maniac here is not one with any redeeming qualities; most of these low-level buy-in maniacs fall into the category I call ‘stupid/aggressive’). So I decide to tread very carefully with the stupid/aggressives and the calling stations. The player seated to my immediate left manages to get his stack to about 6000 in short order, and then proceeds to put anyone who dares enter a pot with him all-in with massive overbets. ‘Fine’, I think, as I fold KJ, ‘I’ll wait for a monster and double through’. So I wait. I get trash trash, and more trash. Stupid aggressive #1 loses his chips then gains them again a couple of times, we’re down to four, and I still haven’t hit a hand – not even one worth playing short-handed. Then I see KK. Thank you. I raise, Stupid, aggressive #1 puts me all-in, I call, he shows J4o, I double through. Two hands later, stupid/aggressive #2 raises, I find AK and push, he insta-calls with AQ, I flop a King and he turn and rivers a T and J respectively. Hmm.
Ok, it’s just runner-runner straight. Not really worth blogging about, right? Right.
What if it happened 5 SNGs in a row? And 8 from the last 10 I’ve played?
Perhaps a little bit more blogable, and certainly frustrating for someone like me who has been playing only 18 months, but not necessarily out of the ordinary.
But what if, in addition to all this, I’ve run KK into AA in the last three tournaments I’ve played (when the AA was held by a proven stupid/aggressive player). For a neophyte like me, that’s starting to get pretty grim. I’m starting to fray at the edges a little, know what I mean?
So I decide to take a step back from the SNGs.
And this leads us to the WSOP freeroll on Party. What a minefield. I’ve seen some wickedly aggressive, over the top, maddeningly stupid play before, but I think this particular freeroll would top a bad day at the play-money tables. The swings were unbelievable, the play unfathomable. It wasn’t poker. It had no resemblance to anything I’d read or seen at a poker table – certainly no the scale and intensity of it, in any case. Betting, calling, and raising from the players at the table was arbitrary – the decisions they made appear utterly random, entirely illogical.
But, unbelievably, I managed to navigate these unforgiving waters without too much angst. I tripled up early and basically cruised from there on in. I don’t think I ever put all my chips in the middle after I tripled up (until the last hand, of course). I just waited patiently, forgot about trying to bluff, and bet for value when ever I had a hand. And I got paid off every time – EVERY SINGLE TIME. I can’t tell you how many times I was called down by someone with Ace or King high – when I had a straight or a flush or better. Once I was called down by two players with nothing but busted draws (the best either had was Q-high I think) when I had a set (yes – they both called my value bet on the river).
So it got to the stage were I had about 72 000 and the average was about 80 000. There were about 80 players left – the top 50 got a seat into the big freeroll in few days time (this is the freeroll giving away 1 seat into the 50 000 buy-in HORSE Tournament, 9 seats in the WSOP Main Event, and a bunch of seats for smaller buy-in tournaments). I still felt comfortable, but in the back of my mind felt that 72 000 would not be quite enough. Not quite enough to fold into the top 50, in any case. I’d still have to make the occasional steal to ensure a spot.
So I’m moved to a new table. Second hand I’m dealt KK in the Big Blind. Blinds are 1500/3000/75, cutoff raises to 9000. I just call, partly to be conservative, partly to spring a trap on the raiser later in the hand (it is worth pointing out that the highest pocket pair I had until this time in the tournament was 88).
Anyway, the flop turn and river came ten-high. Guess what my opponent had? Go on.
Of course he did, fucking AA. What a joke. What the fuck star was I born under that I can run KK into AA in four consecutive tournaments? I’m serious. Like I said, I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.
But it doesn’t end there. By the turn I smelled a rat you see, so I managed to conserve about 40 000 of my chips. But soon the blinds were going to hit 2000/4000/100 and I was getting short stacked.
But then the cards went cold. Frigid. And every time I was in position to steal, someone before me would raise. I think in two levels I won the blinds twice – with the best two hands I was dealt in that period: KT and QJ.
So now the blinds are 3000/6000/100 and I am sitting on a stack of 20 000, and beyond desperate. 55 players remain. As much as I wish it, I can’t fold into the top 50. I have to win a hand.
So I find KQ in the cutoff. It’s folded around to me. That’s as good as it’s going to get, right? So I push.
The big blind calls with 89o. Of course he does.
Flop comes (Q8x) river and turn are blanks. I clap my hands together, I see no straight, no two pair, there’s 48 000 in the middle, I’m home.
But the pile of chips hovers over to my opponent. What? I look again at the board. The turn and river are spades. Two spades fell on the flop. My opponent has the 9 of spades. Neither my K nor Q are black.
2048 entrants; 50 get seats; I’m out 55th. Four hours just for a kick to the groin.
Fuck.
So I’m glad I could run KK into AA AND I could get busted by runner-runner near the bubble like this. It just bought all those different strands of my poker fate together.
But I guess I have to take it. And keep taking it, no matter how mad I get. ‘Cause that’s the fucking game, right?
Right.
Karl Marx
I guess this is just a continuation of my previous ‘bad beat’ blog entry. But, if I stand back and have a look at it; I mean, if it’s possible to be objective in such a situation, I think it reasonable to say that things are just getting ridiculous now.
I deal with bad beats a lot better these days. I know, on an intellectual level, that they are part of the game, so I brush aside the pieces of my cracked aces, and continue. But lately, my stoicism has slipped. I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.
A sat down last night to try to recover my short-handed SNG stats, which had taken a battering after a series of horrible and/or tough beats (as outlined in my previous blog). I was going to try to put in a decent session; try to get back on track.
Until the first game I play, where I find my self at a table with three maniacs and two calling stations (the type of maniac here is not one with any redeeming qualities; most of these low-level buy-in maniacs fall into the category I call ‘stupid/aggressive’). So I decide to tread very carefully with the stupid/aggressives and the calling stations. The player seated to my immediate left manages to get his stack to about 6000 in short order, and then proceeds to put anyone who dares enter a pot with him all-in with massive overbets. ‘Fine’, I think, as I fold KJ, ‘I’ll wait for a monster and double through’. So I wait. I get trash trash, and more trash. Stupid aggressive #1 loses his chips then gains them again a couple of times, we’re down to four, and I still haven’t hit a hand – not even one worth playing short-handed. Then I see KK. Thank you. I raise, Stupid, aggressive #1 puts me all-in, I call, he shows J4o, I double through. Two hands later, stupid/aggressive #2 raises, I find AK and push, he insta-calls with AQ, I flop a King and he turn and rivers a T and J respectively. Hmm.
Ok, it’s just runner-runner straight. Not really worth blogging about, right? Right.
What if it happened 5 SNGs in a row? And 8 from the last 10 I’ve played?
Perhaps a little bit more blogable, and certainly frustrating for someone like me who has been playing only 18 months, but not necessarily out of the ordinary.
But what if, in addition to all this, I’ve run KK into AA in the last three tournaments I’ve played (when the AA was held by a proven stupid/aggressive player). For a neophyte like me, that’s starting to get pretty grim. I’m starting to fray at the edges a little, know what I mean?
So I decide to take a step back from the SNGs.
And this leads us to the WSOP freeroll on Party. What a minefield. I’ve seen some wickedly aggressive, over the top, maddeningly stupid play before, but I think this particular freeroll would top a bad day at the play-money tables. The swings were unbelievable, the play unfathomable. It wasn’t poker. It had no resemblance to anything I’d read or seen at a poker table – certainly no the scale and intensity of it, in any case. Betting, calling, and raising from the players at the table was arbitrary – the decisions they made appear utterly random, entirely illogical.
But, unbelievably, I managed to navigate these unforgiving waters without too much angst. I tripled up early and basically cruised from there on in. I don’t think I ever put all my chips in the middle after I tripled up (until the last hand, of course). I just waited patiently, forgot about trying to bluff, and bet for value when ever I had a hand. And I got paid off every time – EVERY SINGLE TIME. I can’t tell you how many times I was called down by someone with Ace or King high – when I had a straight or a flush or better. Once I was called down by two players with nothing but busted draws (the best either had was Q-high I think) when I had a set (yes – they both called my value bet on the river).
So it got to the stage were I had about 72 000 and the average was about 80 000. There were about 80 players left – the top 50 got a seat into the big freeroll in few days time (this is the freeroll giving away 1 seat into the 50 000 buy-in HORSE Tournament, 9 seats in the WSOP Main Event, and a bunch of seats for smaller buy-in tournaments). I still felt comfortable, but in the back of my mind felt that 72 000 would not be quite enough. Not quite enough to fold into the top 50, in any case. I’d still have to make the occasional steal to ensure a spot.
So I’m moved to a new table. Second hand I’m dealt KK in the Big Blind. Blinds are 1500/3000/75, cutoff raises to 9000. I just call, partly to be conservative, partly to spring a trap on the raiser later in the hand (it is worth pointing out that the highest pocket pair I had until this time in the tournament was 88).
Anyway, the flop turn and river came ten-high. Guess what my opponent had? Go on.
Of course he did, fucking AA. What a joke. What the fuck star was I born under that I can run KK into AA in four consecutive tournaments? I’m serious. Like I said, I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.
But it doesn’t end there. By the turn I smelled a rat you see, so I managed to conserve about 40 000 of my chips. But soon the blinds were going to hit 2000/4000/100 and I was getting short stacked.
But then the cards went cold. Frigid. And every time I was in position to steal, someone before me would raise. I think in two levels I won the blinds twice – with the best two hands I was dealt in that period: KT and QJ.
So now the blinds are 3000/6000/100 and I am sitting on a stack of 20 000, and beyond desperate. 55 players remain. As much as I wish it, I can’t fold into the top 50. I have to win a hand.
So I find KQ in the cutoff. It’s folded around to me. That’s as good as it’s going to get, right? So I push.
The big blind calls with 89o. Of course he does.
Flop comes (Q8x) river and turn are blanks. I clap my hands together, I see no straight, no two pair, there’s 48 000 in the middle, I’m home.
But the pile of chips hovers over to my opponent. What? I look again at the board. The turn and river are spades. Two spades fell on the flop. My opponent has the 9 of spades. Neither my K nor Q are black.
2048 entrants; 50 get seats; I’m out 55th. Four hours just for a kick to the groin.
Fuck.
So I’m glad I could run KK into AA AND I could get busted by runner-runner near the bubble like this. It just bought all those different strands of my poker fate together.
But I guess I have to take it. And keep taking it, no matter how mad I get. ‘Cause that’s the fucking game, right?
Right.
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