Poker Sunday: Week 5 - The Dream Ends
Well after just over a month of being staked $200 from 4 investors I have a balance of $0. It was fun playing even with the added pressure of knowing there are four other people counting on me to win. The final hand that knocked me out was another bad beat story. Seems like I’ve got a lot of them. I was dealt a pair of 9’s and raised from the button, pre flop. Three other players called. The flop was J, K, 9. Exactly what I wanted! I figured there was a good chance one of the callers would either have a J or K and felt it would be an outside chance that they held 10, Q to flop a straight. The first player bet, the next two called, I raised. The first player reraised, the second called after a hesitation, the next player folded and I called. The turn was a 6, a nothing card. The first player bet out again, the second called, and I raised. The first player reraised and the second player once again called. I reraised again and the betting was capped. The last card was a J. I figured even if the other players had a J in their hand I still had them beat with a full house 9’s over J’s which also beat the straight possibility. My stack was low so I figured I would raise any bets that were made. The first player continued to bet and I continued to raise, while the middle player called all the way. We flipped over our cards when I was out of money and the first player showed J, 9. He was losing the whole hand until the J showed up on the turn taking down the pot with a full house J’s over 9’s.
So what have I learned from this experience? Not much. I played the same style of cards when I was winning as when I was losing. Statistics say that in the long run playing good cards, as I do, and betting when you have the best hand will produce a winning result. My question now is how long is the “long run”? I played 3 weeks of losing poker with good cards and getting beat on the river. I don’t believe that the website is rigged because it doesn’t benefit from me losing and not playing anymore. I don’t think that I was part of a scam between two players on the phone at the same table trying to “sandwich” me into raised pots. That’s pretty easy to spot and I’ve seen players kicked off casino sites before when they try that.
What I think I can take away from this is that I’m a half decent poker player for an amateur, but to get past these disastrous losing streaks I think I really need the advice of a professional Poker books are too general for my problems so I don’t think I’ll be able to solve them by looking it up. I’ll take a break from poker for a while and next time I play I’ll take my money out when I get some initial winnings. Although I don’t like that style because the big bucks come when you have big stacks playing on high roller tables. Regardless I think it is safe to say that being a professional poker player just isn’t in the cards for me.
Thanks for following along.
Sorry to hear that your bankroll went broke. These sites will never admit to it, but I believe that they deal “better cards” than what can be expected in real life. This keeps everyone in the action, thus keeping the rakes nice and high. If the first person didn’t flop two-pair, he probably wouldn’t have been so involved all the way down. If you hadn’t flop a set, you probably wouldn’t have been so involved all the way down. By forcing, essentially, both of you to keep betting and raising one another, the pot gets huge and thus the online casino/poker room makes a nice juicy profit/rake.
That’s what I dislike about limit poker. Its so difficult to protect your hand. Keep at it, sounds like you have the skills to do well in the long run.