Bad Day from Evan Roberts. 6 December 2007, 15:15.

It seems like everyone I know is running bad the last few weeks. Among my closest poker friends, I know at least 5 who are going through pretty large (20 buyin+) downswings. I know ansky has a pretty rough day yesterday too. I, for the most part, have steered clear of this whole running bad business. Until today, that is. I promise I wont use this blog as a forum for me to post bad beat hands and complain, but I just cant resist doing so today.

The day started out fine. I played a few 25/50 HU matches and ended up about half a stack. I recently opened an ipoker account and deposited 5k there and decided to give it a shot. I picked a 25/50 player at random who was sitting by himself at a hu table and was greeted with the most horrendous noise ive ever heard from a poker site when it was alerting me that it was my turn to post my small blind. It was like a fog horn going off in a broom closet. Needless to say, I disabled the sounds first thing.

The guy I was playing seemed to be a pretty average high stakes hu player. He played kinda tight from his button, and didn't really reraise
enough. The software was painfully slow though, and I started to get really impatient and made a really bad float in a reraised pot, turned a pair to go along with my gutshot, and decided that it would be a worthwhile play to shove over the top of his bet (which was less than a minraise). GG me. I don't think i'll be playing at ipoker anymore.

Anyways I took a break for a bit and had lunch with a friend. I came back and most of the hu action was pretty dead so I started playing some 25/50 and 50/100 shorthanded. The 25/50 didn't go very well. Two failed semibluffs, a coinflip, and a big bluff later I was stuck almost 20k. The table filled up to 10 handed and I decided to quit.

The 50/100 game was running 3 handed and it was going better. It was me, another reg who plays pretty straightforward against me, and a soft spot. The soft spot had 20k when I sat down and had built that up to 25k mostly against the other player. I was picking on him, constantly reraising him preflop and taking down pots postflop. I had built up to 15k when this hand went down:

Seat 2: _NormanChad ($13,784 in chips)
Seat 7: reg ($11,644 in chips) (on the button)
Seat 8: villain ($13,142 in chips)
*** Blind Bet Round *** :
villain : Post Blind ($50)
_NormanChad : Post Blind ($100)
Dealt to _NormanChad: As
Dealt to _NormanChad: Ks
*** Pre-Flop *** :
reg : Fold
villain: Bet ($250)
_NormanChad : Raise ($1,200)
villain: : Call ($1,000)
*** Flop *** : 3c Kh 10h
villain: : Check
_NormanChad : Bet ($1,900)
villain: : Call ($1,900)
*** Turn *** : [ 3c Kh 10h ] 5s
villain: : Check
_NormanChad : Bet ($5,250)
villain: : Raise ($9,942)
_NormanChad : Call ($4,692)
*** River *** : [ 3c Kh 10h 5s ] 8d
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $26,282 | Rake: $2
Board: [ 3c Kh 10h 5s 8d ]
_NormanChad lost $13,142 Shows [ As Ks ] (a pair of Kings)
reg lost $0
villain bet $13,142, collected $26,282, net $13,140 Shows [ 3h 3d ] (three threes)

Oh well, whatever. Just one of those hands where you're going to go broke. I grind back up to 20k and proceed to successfully make a huge bluff in this hand:

Seat 2: _NormanChad ($19,538 in chips)
Seat 7: reg ($9,850 in chips)
Seat 8: villain ($24,757 in chips) (on the button)
*** Blind Bet Round *** :
_NormanChad : Post Blind ($50)
reg : Post Blind ($100)
Dealt to _NormanChad: Js
Dealt to _NormanChad: Ah
*** Pre-Flop *** :
Johny 001 : Bet ($300)
_NormanChad : Raise ($1,250)
reg : Fold
villain : Call ($1,000)
*** Flop *** : 5d 7s 9c
_NormanChad : Check
villain : Check
*** Turn *** : [ 5d 7s 9c ] 5c
_NormanChad : Check
villain : Bet ($1,600)
_NormanChad : Call ($1,600)
*** River *** : [ 5d 7s 9c 5c ] 6h
_NormanChad : Check
villain : Bet ($3,500)
_NormanChad : Raise ($16,638)
_NormanChad : All In ($16,638)
villain : Fold
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $26,036 | Rake: $2
Board: [ 5d 7s 9c 5c 6h ]
_NormanChad bet $19,538, collected $26,036, net $6,498
reg lost $100
villain lost $6,400

Nice, things are looking good and I think I have the villain pretty well set up to call his stack off light. 3 hands later I get aces on his button, reraise him preflop and am getting ready to win a huge pot.

Seat 2: _NormanChad ($26,136 in chips)
Seat 7: reg ($10,198 in chips)
Seat 8: villain ($17,807 in chips) (on the button)
*** Blind Bet Round *** :
_NormanChad : Post Blind ($50)
reg : Post Blind ($100)
Dealt to _NormanChad: Ad
Dealt to _NormanChad: Ah
*** Pre-Flop *** :
villain : Bet ($300)
_NormanChad : Raise ($1,250)
reg : Fold
Johny 001 : Call ($1,000)
*** Flop *** : 9d 6c 2h
_NormanChad : Bet ($2,100)
villain : Call ($2,100)
*** Turn *** : [ 9d 6c 2h ] 8s
_NormanChad : Bet ($6,500)
villain : Raise ($14,407)
villain : All In ($14,407)
_NormanChad : Call ($7,907)
*** River *** : [ 9d 6c 2h 8s ] Qs
Dealt to _NormanChad: Ad
Dealt to _NormanChad: Ah
Dealt to villain: 6s
Dealt to villain: 2s
Johny 001 : Show Cards
_NormanChad : Show Cards
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $35,712 | Rake: $2
Board: [ 9d 6c 2h 8s Qs ]
_NormanChad lost $17,807 Shows [ Ad Ah ] (a pair of Aces)
reg lost $100
villain bet $17,807, collected $35,712, net $17,905 Shows [ 6s 2s ] (two pairs, sixes and twos)

Damn. I was way, way ahead of his hand range there. Oh well. The reg doubles through the other guy and then quits. Its hu now, sweet! I reraise him a couple times preflop and take down pots and am back up to 13.5k. I get jacks in the bb, reraise preflop, and flop top set. He raises the flop allin, sweet! Crap.

Seat 2: _NormanChad ($13,496 in chips)
Seat 8: villain ($24,133 in chips) (on the button)
*** Blind Bet Round *** :
villain : Post Blind ($50)
_NormanChad : Post Blind ($100)
Dealt to _NormanChad: Jd
Dealt to _NormanChad: Js
*** Pre-Flop *** :
villain : Bet ($250)
_NormanChad : Raise ($1,200)
villain : Call ($1,000)
*** Flop *** : Jh 7h 9c
_NormanChad : Bet ($1,900)
villain : Raise ($5,000)
_NormanChad : Raise ($10,296)
_NormanChad : All In ($12,196)
villain : Call ($7,196)
*** Turn *** : [ Jh 7h 9c ] 3h
*** River *** : [ Jh 7h 9c 3h ] 8d
Dealt to _NormanChad: Jd
Dealt to _NormanChad: Js
Dealt to villain: Qd
Dealt to villain: 10s
_NormanChad : Show Cards
Johny 001 : Show Cards
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $26,991 | Rake: $1
Board: [ Jh 7h 9c 3h 8d ]
_NormanChad lost $13,496 Shows [ Jd Js ] (three Jacks)
villain bet $13,496, collected $26,991, net $13,495 Shows [ Qd 10s ] (a straight, Queen high)

Blech. I called it a day after that one.