The first half of this session was downhill. Whiffed flop after flop, then went card dead for about two hours.
I made a tilt-y shove with the nut flush draw and it didn’t come in. I was getting needled by Scumbag #1 every time I defended my blinds or squeezed him (he was in my CO). At first, it was fine, ask me what I have, ask me what I’m going to show, I’ll give you a smart ass (but friendly) reply making it clear I’m not doing either without getting paid. After the fifth or six time it was just him begging, which got annoying. The only redeeming thing from it is that he folded nearly every time I raised.
At the three hour mark, I was tempted to just tell him to be quiet, that I knew he wasn’t going to call, he knew he wasn’t going to call, the OMC’s OMC knew he wasn’t going to call. (I can’t confirm this is true, he may have been asleep at this point.) Just fold and stfu, or flip the order, as long as the stfu’ing happened.
I had zero ability to range anyone all night, even when things picked up. Too eager, too tilted from losing and getting needled. I’d ask “what’s this guy’s range” and the only response would be the brain’s equivalent of white noise. Nothing.
Eventually, I realized I needed to do a mental reset (I had to take a leak). Did that, walked around the casino (got lost. This is a small casino, but I always get lost in it. I’ve been there at least ten times). Once I’d sat back down I reminded myself that I shouldn’t shed a tear for losing any of the money I’m playing with. It’s dead to me. I could set it on fire and it wouldn’t affect my life.
That really helped me relax and just enjoyed playing. I fell back on my instincts and knowledge, and treaded water through a cold deck for about an hour. Finally, I started catching cards and I methodically started applying the pressure. I stole blinds, bet when I had equity, got some bluffs through, and got out of the way when I had nothing. Ended the night up, overall.
I’m unhappy that I couldn’t do any serious hand ranging, but I learned something: most of the people playing at these stakes play pretty much the same. You’ll have the outlier lag or uber nit player, but most everyone else is playing pretty straightforward. Once I determined who was limping kings preflop and figured out Scumbag #1 wasn’t any good, I felt very comfortable following my instincts. I would’ve done better if I’d been able to range people, but I’m not running across many people I want to avoid. I need to remember this- it’s going to help my mental game a lot.
Good things:
1. I’m able to track the size of the pot nearly 100% of the time.
2. I used smart (I guess) aggression. I was punishing limpers regularly.
3. Bet-sizing was pretty good. I got some losing hands to call me.
4. I got myself out of tilt and found a calm positive mindset mid game.
Bad things:
1. Ranging was a big miss, and this concerns me. It’s turning into an issue. I’m just not making progress, I’m really going to limit my potential if I can’t do this at the table.
2. I won a huge pot on my last hand and just racked up and left.