Stubborness

Why do I continue to cater towards my weakness as opposed to my strength.. or at least alleged strength. Historically, I have done better at tournaments rather than ring play... so what do I see myself doing mostly this last week or so.... Of course ring play... We'll get back to this; but let's first look at last night.

I thought I had reached my 2000 CPC points for Carribean; but I received an email saying that I was 70 pts short... off to 5/10 land again... luckily (I thought), they had a full 10 person table going... Even better, first hand AA.... Lost... Sucked out on river... I was also playing a 5/10 table at Party... first hand KTs.. flopped a flush draw and gut shot... didn't hit on turn; but played aggresively enough to get the other person to fold. So, I'm a little down after the first hand.. Caribbean went up and down for the next hour with me staying pretty close to my buyin.... but Party....

2nd Hand.... JJ.... lost to river... 3rd hand QQ (wow)... Lost to A2 on flop.... this continued to be the theme as I went 0 for 3 with JJ and 0-4 with QQ... I did win with KK so I have that going for me.. as you can see I was getting tremendous cards; but as luck would have it, I just wasn't finishing... One huge problem that I had last night was the ever so popular "falling in love with your hand". OK.. I know the guy has been seeing over 40% of the flops... but he can get good hands.. so if keeps coming over the top of you, he probably has you beat... Case in point... AKs... flop TT6... I bet.. raise... what??? reraise... he just called... ah.. I thought so... Q on turn.. he bets out... huh??? I end up calling him down and he shows TT for quads... oops... At some point, I need to realize the Mr Pisces has a hand... The short of it was that I ended up getting stuck for another $550 last night and continual beats despite my good cards.... but the thing is that I'm not ready to call it quits.

I did get my 70 points on Caribbean so I 'm good there... so what to do? SNGs... sounds logical.. I've been fairly successful with them this month... nope... I'm heading to newer, deeper waters...

I headed to a 15/30 table... I also bought in short (on accident)... First hand in BB... AJ... UTG calls and UTG + 1 raises... dang it... lay it down Wonka... lay it down Wonka.... RAISE... It's like I'm on auto pilot... my fingers are controlling the body.. not the brain... they both call... nothing on flop... I bet out... raised... reraised... OK.. I'm out... The hand ended up going to showdown with both of them showing KJ (as a King came on the river). Huh??? OK, I'm new to 15/30 land; but calling and raising with KJ from EP seems odd. Right now, I'm not calling them bad players as I'm hoping that 15/30 players are playing a more aggressive game rather than a more donkey game.

The good news is that I did end up getting AA and KK (yes the cards just kept coming) and they held up.. both until showdown which really worried me... both hands had pots of $352 and I ended up calling it quits after being up $300 at the 15/30 tables... so the net for the night was down $250. I wasn't going to press my luck.

So what's the bottom line.. what can I take away from last night... Well, that brings us back to stubborness... on many levels..

1. I am continuing to play ring play even though I am not +EV on it. I continue to tell myself that I can beat this game. Any "real" poker player can make money at ring play. To justify your poker existence, you have to beat the ring play. Huh??? Why am I so convinced that you have to beat the ring tables to be a poker player... Even professionals have the "tourney" players (Ferguson, Helmuth.. etccc) and the ring players. There are probaably so many ring players that we have never heard of because they just don't play in the big tournaments.
2. Why do I continue to fall in love with hands and not admit that even people that are seeing almost all flops can also have good cards. For crying out loud.. by now, you should know when you are beat and if that means laying down QQ, KK or AA then so be it. What's the big whoop? Decisions.. not results.. you moron...
3. So after you have a bad night, why do you go to deeper waters... I've done it with SNGs and Blackjack as well.. going to the $100 SNGs after losing out a bunch of $50s badly just doesn't make sense. Does the results justify the means... Obvsiously NO... How many times do I have to say it... Just because you think you can beat the games; doesn't necessarily mean that you can do it every night. Grind it out... Ignore that "rush" you get from playing in uncomfortable games... even if you bankroll can absorb it.

OK.. I admit that I like playing the ring games.. I like the process of trying to put people on hands and figuring whether you have odds to call or should be raising.. etc, etc... Just play smarter and hopefully things will work out... in the long run, of course.

Hopefully, I will finish out the month in good style.