Bad beat discussion in RGP

This guy who posted on RGP sounds a bit like me and appears to be taking the worst of it lately.


I am seriously considering giving up this damn game (NL Holdem). No, I am not losing heavily, and I don't think the sites are rigged. In fact, the last two months have been about evens, with the previous 10 showing a profit overall.

No, the reason I am thinking of giving up is I don't think I can handle the frustration of seeing very bad play rewarded by seemingly endless luck. And they don't always involved me being sucked out either. For example, Party Poker step higher level 2, TJ off calling preflop all in when not short stacked in a 9 player table, and hitting 2 pairs to bust AA? That wasn't me with the AA, by the way, and most certainly not me with the TJ off. But why do bad play always seem to get rewarded?

The pot I was involved in was when I held AK UTG+2, blind 50/100, 7 players left and I had 800 chips. folds to me, and I raised to 300, hoping to steal. Biggish stack with 1800 reraised to 800, putting me all in. I called, putting him on medium PP, or a weaker ace like AQ or AJ, and was prepared for a race as the small dog or the big favourite. But guess what? He flipped TK off, and catches a T to bust me. Then proceed to gloat what a great play that was. OK, he had me covered. But nearly half of his stack on TK off, and after a raise in front of him?

Its moments like that which gets me. Not being contend with playing badly and getting lucky, theses fish proceed to rub it in. What is the point of trying to play good poker, when you constantly see these fish playing terribly and win? I lost count of the times I see AX (x<9) calling allin preflop in ring game and busting QQ or KK, and small suited connectors calling allins preflop and busting big pairs. The worst I have seen was 29 suited at the button, flat calling both a raise and a reraise, 15 BBs in all. And then catches 2 pairs on the flop.

I have been tempted to try the same type of reckless/poor play, but I don't think my bankroll will allow me to, certainly my intelligence wouldn't.

Guess I am not cut out to play this game after all, so maybe I'll give this damn game a miss for a while, if not forever..


Bob offered the following encouragement:

In order to enjoy playing poker, you have to be able to take a bad beat and shrug it off. You have to keep playing your best game even if you suffer a number of bad beats in a row. If it's getting to you, perhaps it is time to take a break from poker. Or, as some posters suggested last month, smoke a joint before you play ;-}

Now, there's an idea. This last post I think sums up why you have to struggle through the bad times to one day achieve nirvana, sort of like Andy Dufresne crawling through 500 yards of the foulest smelling shit you could imagine to reach his freedom.


If bad play was not rewarded on a semi-regular basis there wouldn't be any games.
jarrett40

As for me and my bankroll, there's not much to report. I'm down a little for April, though not enough to get worked up about. It appears, though, that I will close out the month a loser. That will result in two consecutive months of poker results in the red, the first time that's happened in the three or so years I've been playing the game seriously. At least, I'm not going on tilt this month. (I shudder when I recall some of my play in March.)


Here's some news I enjoyed reading yesterday, from Brad "Otis" Willis and his Pokerstars blog:

Win a WSOP bracelet with W$

This, quite simply, is neat.

The fine folks at PokerStars have decided that PokerStars players will be able to use their W$ to buy into some of the preliminary World Series of Poker events. That means, if you're one of those people with a bunch of unused W$ sitting around, you can now use them for a chance to win a WSOP bracelet.

Now, there are a few things you should know before we move on. This offer will only be available for a specific list of WSOP events.

June 3-Event #2--$1,500 No-limit Hold'em
June 4-Event #3--$1,500 Pot-limit Hold'em
June 8-Event #7--$1,000 No-limit Hold'em w/rebuys
June 10-Event #9--$2,000 No-limit Hold'em
June 12-Event #11--$2,000 Pot-limit Hold'em
June 14-Event #13--$5,000 No-limit Hold'em
June 22-Event #22--$1,500 No-limit Hold'em
June 23-Event #23--$5,000 Seven Card Stud
June 26-Event #27--$5,000 Pot-limit Omaha w/re-buys
June 27-Event #28--$5,000 Limit Hold'em
July 1-Event #33--$3,000 No-limit Hold'em
July 2-Event #35--$10,000 Pot-limit Omaha, 2p.m. start

In exchange for arranging all of this for you, you will be asked to wear PokerStars clothing during your tournament play. How do you do it? It's pretty easy. Simply e-mail wsop@pokerstars.com with the event you would like to enter. PokerStars will remove the funds from your account and will then email you with a link to the online registration software. Once the registration is complete, you'll simply need to check-in at PokerStars registration desk in Las Vegas to receive your entry.

Before you ask, I should point out, this promotion is not available for the main event of the WSOP.

There's a few events on that list I wouldn't mind playing. Now I need to raise some W$ to buy in. I figure it's better to try and win the money on PokerStars than to play satellites in Vegas. Probably more fish online, anyway. Invested $6 in a $2 + R turbo last night and got 33 w$. Now, only $1,470 more to go.