Winning the War, not the Battles

Poker, of course, is about wining the long time war and not the individual battles. Those individual battles can be pretty painful. I was hoping to post that after my 4 session winning streak, that things were finally turning around. Not the case. As quickly as I built up over the 4 sessions, I lost it in 3. I won't bore you with all the details; but here is a glimpse

Friday.. Started my bonus chase on Absolute and did OK with a positive session.

Saturday.. for whatever reason (insanity I believe), I returned to the Party 15/30 tables. I will chalk this day up to variance as it happens sometimes... you don't hit your draws and others do.. It was painful day; but I never lost focus.

Sunday... This is one of those days that you wish that you could just have back. First off, I went into the session know that I could only play between 30 minutes to an hour. One of the first few hands I get JJ... plenty of action preflop and flop and I stay in after the flop as it was only 9 high. The turn brings another small card and with a bet and raise in front of me, I lay it down. What does the river... yep.. a Jack which would have beat the set of 9s guy. A couple hands later, I hit TPTK with AK only to lost to Q8.. when a second 8 came on the turn. This turned out to be the trend. I would hit top pair, and somebody else would hit trips with their 2nd pair. After this happened for the 3rd time, I went into maniac mode and I don't have to tell you how that ended up.

Monday... Got beautiful cards... AK on very first hand.... lost... I only played around 50 hands and lost my buy in... I lost with JJ twice, AK and AKs, QQ and the straw that broke the camel's back and put me broke was AA losing to AQ. I did win the blinds with KK... whoopee!!!!!

Tuesday.. I played in the Absolute 19K guarantee... or was it 17K? I can't remember. Anyway, these are now rebuy and addon tournaments. Oh well.. It was a freeroll for me due to AP giving me a free entry. The very first hand I get my nemisis... KQ on the button. I few limpers and raise it up. 3 callers.. Flop comes K high. I don't remember the exact details; but there are about 3 people left after them calling my bet... Turn comes another K... cool... First guys goes all in... huh??? I have to call.. Turns out he did this with 65o.. yikes.. no draw no pair... just a pure bluff... you gotta love it though. I don't know who the bigger moron was.. that guy or me actually calling. Anyway I doubled up on the first hand and things went average for a while. Right before the first break, I pick up 96 in the BB... EP min and I called. Flop comes 994... we both check and I bet and he goes all in on turn... He had T9.. ouch.. that cut me in half. At the break, I did the addon and was doing good... picking up small pots... right before the second break, I get KK. I raise it up and get called... flop comes something KJx... the caller goes all in.. Of course I call and he turns over AQ.... turn x.. although it gives him flush draw... river... T.. IGHN.

So for now, I have conceded the battle on 15/30 and will continue to play on AP at the 3/6 to 5/10 level for now. I am not, however, giving up on the war. I just need to build the bankroll to justify playing at that level again.

I was reading Bill Rinis review of Poker Coaching the other day. I'm giving thoughts to giving this a whirl. There is something that I am obviously missing with my ring play. Has anybody ever used a poker coach? What kind of experiences should I expect. Does anybody know of any others?

That is it for now.. It is obviously hard to motivate yourself to write when you are in the midst of huge downswing. Hopefully, things will turn around and I will get back to writing more.