Weekend washout

What a washout of a weekend. I didn’t play as many hours as I’d like – only about twelve in total, which is poor for Friday night through all day Saturday and Sunday. And I came out almost even. Down seven dollars, to be precise.

Extraordinarily, the biggest factor in that was yet more losses at heads-up limit hold ‘em. I seem to have gone to pieces in that game, but the real blow was losing an astonishing fifty bucks to one player in about an hour. I felt all the way through that he wasn’t anything special, but I simply could not win a showdown to save my life; the stats (which I haven’t really looked at in heads-up before) showed that I won only 23% of hands. Basically, when there was a showdown, he won it – if I pushed middle pair he would have top, weak kicker; if I had top pair good kicker he would two-pair up; if he had a straight draw he would hit it, and so on.

It was quite an eye-opener. And alarming, because even taking that session out of the equation I have clearly stopped winning money at heads-up after doing so well early on. I think I have to be more ruthless and predatory in terms of opponent selection, and in getting out when I am losing to somebody who is as good as me or better. I need to play doofuses, and only doofuses. I am not even up $2 an hour after twenty hours (about 3000 hands) of this stuff!

Other high or lowlights of the weekend: I played three $10+1 PLO sit and goes, and came second in two of them. I was on course for my first win at that level when I went all-in (with a fractional chip disadvantage) on the turn with the broadway straight. My opponent made what I consider to be a terrible, terrible call with only the flush draw – even if I had been bluffing or semi-bluffing his hand would likely have needed to hit something – but the spade came and I was runner-up again.

Five card stud went well, thanks largely to one game winding up short-handed with one idiot bluffing off his chips. And PLO, well I had a losing session (fifty bucks) yesterday, after eleven straight winners. I am up $19 an hour in that game over 24 hours since I made my deposit at the end of August. I cannot stress enough how the major factor in that fantastic result is the game selection, game selection, game selection. I am no great shakes as an Omaha player, but I am only sitting down at the moment when the game looks soft and suitable. Every time I don’t sit, because the game is too wild, or has too many strong aggressors in it, I am contributing to the growth of my bankroll, by not blowing chunks of it off against better players.

Try it; when ‘your’ game looks tough, or is short-handed when you like ring or vice versa, or features a couple players you fear, don’t just sit down anyway figuring you could still do okay. Of course you could, might, maybe; but go play something else instead if you have the poker itch. Play smaller, or – even better - experiment with a new game. Finally learning to NOT play just because Omaha is ‘my’ game is the best thing I have done in poker.

An interesting experience: I watched a $10/$20 blinds PLO game for a little while on Friday night. That’s a pretty big game. I saw one chap bet flop, bet turn and call a smallish raise, then bet the $1500 size of the pot on the river, with a board showing straight and flush draws. His opponent took most of his time, then folded. The aggressor showed his hand of nothing but bottom pair… What struck me about all this was that his opponent (who wasn’t exactly impressed) is a good strong player who used to run all over the low-blinds games with fearlessness and aggression. The point being, there is always somebody higher up the food chain than you, there is always a bigger shark out there. What also impressed me was the beaten guy left the game just a few minutes later, rather than steam and try to get the other guy back.

And finally, I did buy an MP3 player on Friday after work. Only a cheap, small memory model for £50, but I already love it and am a convert. I wasn’t sure how much I would use one, but something so small and convenient which doesn’t skip no matter how much you move around – what’s not to love? I think it might reawaken my musical tastebuds. And you know what? I wouldn’t have bought it if it were not for winning at poker. Sweet.