Hey guys - I need some help here on how you've overcome this kind of stuff.

I decided to take a crack a 1/3, normally I am a 1/2 player, but I have been solid and profitable so I wanted to give 1/3 a try.

I bought in for $500, and built it up to around $800 over the course of about 2 hours through what I think was solid TAG play, never chased unless it was +ev, never got out of line, etc.

Anyway I am in the BB with 710

Primary villain UTG +1 (2K stack) opens to 15, MP loose guy (3K stack) calls, I call. ($50 in pot)

Flop is 7 7 3, rainbow.

UTG +1 bets $50, MP calls, I call.

Turn is a 10, giving me 7's full of 10's and putting a flush draw on the board.

UTG+1 bets $50, MP raises to $150, I shove all in for ~$600 more.

UTG+1 tanks checks my stack, then says I am going to call no matter what...MP folds. We table our hands and villain has K7, so he has 3 outs to make a better boat.

The river of course is a king. I know I played well, I know I got the money in as a huge favorite, but the result just gutted me. I think it the feeling lasted a few more sessions as I felt like I had a black cloud of bad luck following me for the next few sessions since that big beat. I keep thinking wow that would have been a ~2K pot - the biggest one of my "career". Just having trouble getting over it. I bought the Mental Game of Poker and I plan on going over that again, but anything anyone can contribute I would appreciate.

I had similar "biggest hand you ever had".You won't forget about this hand for years. You did suck out on him on turn but this is typical poker hand. At least it wasn't a runner runner.

Did you realize how qualitatively expensive 1 (one) hand of poker is in cash game? This why tight is right.

Sick beat man. Hang in there. UTG+1 opening with K7, that's an awful opening hand, in the long term you'll benefit from these type of Villains.

If you play a lot, take a break for a couple of days, clear your head. When you feel that you are over the black cloud syndrome, jump back in. Poker giveth and poker taketh away, it sucks.

It's 1.5 buy-ins dude. It's obviously no fun, but if you want to play a lot of poker you have to be able to take these in stride. You got in good & won a bunch of Sklansky bucks.

It is a tough beat but one that if you play long enough you will see more than a few times (and I venture to bet you will see worse beats....try "perfect, perfect" on for size sometime when all the $ is in on the flop. Good times.)

Generally, I take a few days off and then when I come back, I try to keep the first few sessions short and book a few small wins. For me that has always helped me get back in and didn't drive my eyes to the big loss in the poker log.

Hang in there and keep doing what you are doing.

I dont see how youve been playing 1/2 long enough to call yourself profitable and are in the least bit surprised about this. I wouldnt even find it too crazy if similar run outs happened 4 times in a 12 hour session. You must have been running really good before.

I've been playing 1/2 for about 10 years and I have a good winrate. I am not a pro player so losing a 2k pot hurts. Like I said I know there is variance and I know this will happen, just wanted to know how others handled this stuff.

Also I am not surprised by it at all, it has happened to me many times in 1/2, usually in about a $500 pot, not $2k.

Guys, its alot of money.

OP, a great approach to shot taking is locking up wins. You really build your confidence this way and avoid tricky/deep spots and big pot coolers that eat at you.

And here's a sad/fun fact: if you keep playing poker, the "biggest pot you ever lost" will likely get bigger each year.

Thanks...hard not to shove with the boat though.

I assume you are up over $500 at 1/2...so you lost some of it back at 1/3...but you are still up. I like to think of it as freerolling this game with other people's money, and then it doesn't feel so bad. I know the pot was $2k, but you were only in the game for 500.

I also wouldn't feel too bad about a hand where we were crushed on every street except the turn. When deep stacked, you do not want to be getting involved out of position with T7. We are all going to be involved on both sides of coolers in our lifetimes, but the people who are ahead in the long run are the people who are tighter preflop and therefore win more coolers than they lose.

fold pre and this would have never happened

You have a med suited 2 gapper with only two people in the pot, and you're taking a shot.

The easiest way to handle these situations is to just look at the investment into the game. It’s only 500 dollars and honestly the way to build the bankroll is to do exactly as you did. Build up your buyin and get great odds to win a huge pot..

You invested 500 dollars to win a 2000 dollar pot as a 95% favorite on the turn. These are the keys to success in poker and how we build our wealth.

With that said on a side note should probably avoid the 10h 7h out of the bb there.

Over the Christmas break I was playing a 1/3 NL session. I'm in the middle of my tied-for-worst-ever-downswing-to-the-dollar but was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel and had almost dug my way out of it.

I play a lol AA vs KK hand (we both limp it preflop and it goes limped multiways, lol) where we both get it in on the flop. It's only for like $50 as he's shorstacked, and thanks to others putting in some money in on the flop but then folding, I call closing the action and getting 2:1 although I'm convinced I'm behind and likely need to counterfiet. We tables our hands and everyone laughs at us, and one guy says "ha, I folded a King", and I'm pleasantly surprised I'm crushing. King on the turn. So I'm 1 outed, but whatever, it was a small pot and totally worth the laughs.

About an hour later I overlimp on the button with 77. J75r flop, a tight guy donks into the multiway limped pot, call, call, a guy raises, I reraise cuz I know he's got a monster, everyone else folds, and we get in $350+ on the flop in a lol $20 multiway limped pot. My tables haven't been very good the last couple of years, and even though it's "only" ~120bbs I'm pretty sure that's the most money I've gotten in postflop all year in about 580 hours; heck, it's possible it's the most money I've gotten in postflop in years in this game. In fact, now that I think about it, the last time I really recall getting in this much money postflop was back in 2014 in the middle of the initial downswing record, getting $400+ all-in on the turn with my set against a flush draw and losing. Anyhoo, he tables 55 and gets up from the table in disgust to walk away, and I try to console him buy saying "hey, wait, you can still hit a 5...", and with that ringing in my ears the 5 binks on the turn and the ~$800 pot (which woulda got me out of my downswing) is pushed his way (and I go another $350 the other way into my downswing of which I'm still clawing to get my way out of).

But that's poker.

I played a few other other sessions since then, and while I'll admit that one stung and still resonates with me almost 2 weeks later, all I can do is go out and try my best (although I don't always succeed in playing my best, or even sometimes know exactly what that would be).

You just have to put that stuff behind you. You have to smile and laugh at the ridiculousness of it all and calmly tap the table and say "nice hand", and then calmly ask for chips, and then calmly go about playing your game (whatever that game is).

One thing that might help, especially if you are incredibly overrolled for the game (which I am), is to realize how lucky you are to be playing ~$800 pots at poker where the outcome really has no financial affect on your life (whereas for a lot of less fortunate people it would).

If you going to have a hard time putting stuff like that behind you, or if it's going to have a real negative aspect on your game over the next x amount of hours, you might want to consider whether this hobby is for you. You will encounter *much* worse in the game, it's only a matter of time.

ETA: And +1 to Ava's comment regarding racking up when deep. If you never play deep, you can never lose a big stack. And playing deep is a lot harder than everyone makes it out to be.

Gneedsaneditor;enquirewithinG

I meant leave beforehand, obv

Ouch. Set over set is tough enough. But to have the higher set get 1-outed when winning the pot would have gotten you out of your downswing is rough.

Thanks for chiming in everyone. This has been helpful! I am going to try to book a few more wins at 1/2 then take another crack at 1/3, then rack up if I am up 0.5 buy ins - at least I'll have booked a win.

That is a sick beat. Hopefully you can climb out of the downswing soon!

I will eventually climb out of my downswing.

And I will eventually go into another downswing, likely one that is much bigger than I've ever encountered or can perhaps even fathom at this point, likely in large parts to beats that make this beat look standard (2 chances at a 1 outer, big deal, yawn).

It's inevitable, so long as you keep playing.

That's the point.

It's something you have to accept and be prepared for.

GgoodluckG

And Sklansky bucks haven't been suspended like cyber-currency.....they just evaporated this hand.

Dunno about you guys, but coolers don't phase me at all.

It's when you have a 10-hr session with your best hand being pocket 9s and not hitting a single flop with premium overcards, while fish around you table nut flushes, straights and boats.

Also, fold pre.

94~% equity in a $2k~ pot is what dreams are made of

Grunch

Would recommend running villain over in the carpark.

The only thing that really tilts me is when someone bets me out of a multiway pot in a way that is bad for them as well.

Fold pre


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is a brutal beat, but one thing to learn from it is...would you have gii with just trips against that opponent? I suspect you would have anyway and then it would not have hurt as much as you would have been behind the whole way.

My sympathies. What I like to do is go over my results for the last 1 year plus and I feel better about the bizarre variance. It hurts much because you moved up a level that's for sure from a $ angle.