Downswing: Continues
Downswings are a natural part of the Poker lifecycle. Sometimes they are caused by things out of your control not going your way. Most of the time, they are. The real issue comes when you let these unfortunate circumstances affect your game plan. That’s called tilt, and that’s where things can go gravely wrong. Tilt can take your 1000bb downswing to 2000bb, and beyond.
I wouldn’t be being honest if I didn’t admit that this latest run of cards has been affecting my play negatively. Playing speculative hands when I shouldn’t be is just adding to the mess, calling when it’s a clear fold, bluffing stations who I know deep down won’t fold, and playing hands less than optimally in general. This post is culminated by the biggest loss in terms of BB I’ve had thus far in my Poker ‘career’.
It’s inevitable that it will happen. But I’ll have to respond better to adversity in order to get out of the downswing.
In our first interesting hand we see an open from MP from a clear recreational to 20. Only we call in the BB with 9
9
. The flop comes 8
7
4
. We check, he wagers 30 and we call. The turn is the K
and we check again. This time he checks back and we see the J
on the river. We check, and he wagers 70. This is a spot that I feel like he never has a K, and he wouldn’t bet a J here since it seems like an easy check back for a rec. so he’s obviously polarized, and I decide to make the call. The issue I’ve seen over and over with the b/check/bet line is that it’s rarely a bluff. He shows 77 and is good.
Next, we open 99 to 20 from EP, and get 3 callers behind us. The four of us go to a flop of 7
4
6
. We wager 50. The player in MP calls and the two others fold. We turn gin, the 9
. This time, we wager 125 with 300 behind. He quickly makes the call again, and our lovely hand quickly turns to garbage when the worst card in the deck, the 3
hits the river. We decide to check, and fold faceup when he wagers 200. He shows 5
4
for the straight.
In between every hand history, we raise 4 or 5 times with hands such as K
Q
A
J
etc, you get the pint and hit 0 pairs. (Bleeding $$)
Next up, there are 2 limps to the CO who makes it 25 to go. We decide to flat the BTN with A
K
. One limper comes along. The flop comes T
8
6
and they both check to us. We decide to stab 35, and they both call. The turn is the 5
and they check to us again. At this post I feel like they’re both called at 1 pair max. This time we fire 105, and the worse player of the two calls in the middle and the original raiser folds. The river is the Q
which seems like a decent card to bluff, and we do so when he checks to us a 3rd time. We fire 205, and he tanks for about 90 seconds. He picks up his cards, then his chips. Then triple checks his cards, and his chips, before calling with JTo. Yup, you’re good.
The real dagger of the night (after bleeding another 300 in an amazing game by just not making any pairs)
We look down at K
8
in the BB after 4 limps and check. The flop comes K
4
8
and we wager 20. 3 players make the call and we see the 5
on the turn. This time, we wager 100. A whale makes it 225, and the other two fold. We jam for 450 eff and he snaps. Yep, 76o is good on the brick river.
Stuck a cool 400bbs, we decide to make a comeback when we pick up A
A
YTG and open to 20. We see a flop 5 way of K
2
Q
. What could possible go wrong? It checks to us and we wager 65. One fold, a badreg OTB calls and the others fold. He has 180 behind and the turn is the J
. I don’t love this card but we also now have 100 more outs to the nuts. We stick in the final 180, and he calls with KQ. We’re somehow (almost) flipping against top 2, but lose with the river 5
.
Proceed to bluffcatch recs for a few more hundred because we finally make pairs, and lose some more.
/rant. This game is tough!
Pic sums up the day imo
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