THEY'RE OUT TO GET ME

Nobody likes a whiner and that is exactly what I equate anyone in the poker community to, if they start telling me a bad-beat story.

Annoying Whiner (AW): “Hey there. It’s nice to meet you!”
Mindful & Enjoyable (ME): “Uhmm hi – likewise.”

AW: “So, how long’ you been playing?”
ME: “About 4 years or so. (feign interest) You?”

AW: “Umm yeah, something like that as well. What’s your favorite hand?”
ME: (sighing deeply and rolling eyes indiscreetly) “Suited aces, I guess. Listen, I’ve gotta go return some videotapes, so I can’t really…”

AW: (excessive laughing, knee-slapping and tears ensue) That’s a GOOD one! I’ve never heard that one before! No no, stick around! Listen, you’ll never believe what just happened to me. I pick up KK in MP and just smoothcall some donk who raised in earl…”
ME: (somebody shoot me now…)

Anyone who knows anything about the game, will know how frequently bad beats occur (yes, even 1-outers for any doubters still left among you – they happen on a daily basis) and how – as is the nature of bad beats – you usually played pretty well to get yourself into a potential bad-beat-spot. So be happy the next time you get sucked out on.

The point of this blog was not to provide yet another unnecessary commentary on how one ought to deal with bad beats. Seems to me, that’s been done enough as it is. It was actually to address a challenge I’m currently facing. Since I write a blog about poker, I’m forced to relay what happens to me and that goes for the good as well as the bad. Since I don’t want to be the “bearer of bad beats”, I’ve come up with the following alternate solution:

BadBeat Codes. I don’t think all bad beats are created equal and therefore propose that – for this blog at least, as an experiment – I begin to use the following codes to describe bad beats:

- “55/45”, preflop. Not sure many players would consider this a bad beat per se, but technically it is a hand with a statistical edge losing to the inferior counterpart. (We’ll call this BB1)
- “70/30”, preflop. You get it in with KK, get called by AQ and lose. (BB2)
- “80/20”, preflop. AA moves in, 66 calls and hits. (BB3)
- “3-outer”, postflop. You’ve made top-pair on the flop, move in and get called by an underpair. (BB4)

I’m sure I’ll think of a few others once I get this blog going, but the above should serve me well to begin with. The whole reason why I would even dream-up the above concoction is because it didn’t go very well for me the last time I played! I say this, even though I actually final-tabled one of the tournaments, a $10 rebuy event. We’ll kick things off there with my final hand:

3-handed and I find Js2d in the BB (stack 15335). Villain is on the button (stack 46735) with the blinds at 600/1200/a120. Villain limps, SB completes and I check.

(Pot 3960) FLOP: Jc 4h Jd
SB checks and I check to the dealer who – as the chipleader – has been betting everything. He obliges and leads out for 1200. SB folds and I raise to 4800.

** ALERT ** BB4 ** ALERT ** BB4** ALERT ** BB4 ** ALERT ** BB4 ** ALERT **

I went out in 3rd place.

Another cute little hand happened deep in a Stars 180-man sitngo ($4.40). As follows:

33 players left. I’m in the SB with KsKd (stack 2220). Villain is in the CO seat (stack 13480). Blinds 100/200. UTG raises to 800, folds to villain who min-raises to 1400 (might be cautious here sometimes, but with my stack and this hand, my decision has been made for me). Folds to me and I push all-in for 2220 total. UTG folds, but villain calls.

** ALERT ** BB3 ** ALERT ** BB3** ALERT ** BB3 ** ALERT ** BB3 ** ALERT **

I go out in 33rd place.

This next one, I won’t be needing my BB-groups for, as it was more a cold-deck (not GREAT play either, that’s for sure) than anything else. Again, I’m deep in a 180 sitngo ($4.40) as only 26 players remain. I am in the BB with QsQh (stack 7163). Villain is UTG (stack 21640) with blinds at 150/300/a25. Villain opens to 799 and at an 8-handed table it folds around to me. I usually don’t muck about here and I make it 2440. He considers briefly and calls.

(Pot 5230) FLOP: 10s 4s 7h
I’ve got 4698 left and elect to push it all-in. Clearly the easiest option with no additional thinking required. However, even with additional thinking and I’m trying to keep myself honest here, I don’t think I’m ever folding in that spot. I think at this level a lot of players are still calling from his position with most of their pairs (55-JJ) looking to set-mine or pick off AK, QQ and KK re-shove and AA calls/re-shoves about 30/70. The better option might however have been to check to him, feign an unpaired AK and hope he bets with 99 or JJ.

Anyway, obviously he had me all along with a well-played AA and I went out on the hand. Well played sir.

Splashed around with sitngos a few low buy-in MTTs that never really got going and booked a miniature loss. Ah well – just one of those BB4 days.

Starting bankroll: USD 6,042.95
Session result: USD -17.00
New bankroll: USD 6,025.95
Days left until Aussie Millions 2010: 273