Running Bad and Playing Bad

As well as April was, May is tipping the scale to the other side. It has been a lethal combination of running bad with some bad play on my part. I knew I was bringing the pain when I gloated about last month.

Online, I have only played two Brit Bloggerments and a Mookie. I played poorly in one Brit game and my first Mookie outing for the year. I played much better in the second Brit game, but TuscaloosaJohn got the better of me when his flopped trips bested my turned straight by boating up on the river. All the money went in on the turn, so I don’t know how I could have avoided that one. He flopped 3 of a kind and checked allowing me to hit my open ender but the river was truly unkind.

We had our normal monthly game at Kajagugu’s neighborhood and followed it up a week later with a higher buyin charity game. I got knocked out of both of these with the same scenario, we both have a common card and I have a better kicker. I’m down to about 10 big blinds and I see a chance to take the limped pot so I push from late position. The first time I had AQ and my opponent had QJ. The flop comes out with 2 jacks, which are NOT OK. He had me covered so that was it for me. Then, the following week, I push from the small blind with A,10 and all the limpers but one fold. He calls the additional 9 blinds with A,8. If you believe in jinxes, then I surely did it when I said, “don’t worry, there are only 72 more 8s in the deck.” I was the dealer and I rewarded him with not just 1, but 2 snowmen on the flop and I get bounced again.

I thought my luck was returning the night following the charity game. We had a full table at Matt’s with some bonus money thrown in from last year. I doubled up during the first or second level when KK tried to push me off of AA preflop. My hand held up and I was able to take out another player when my Q high flush bested his 10 high with the K on the board already. It was a paired board so I was a little leery, but I ultimately decided he didn’t have the boat. With my nice chip lead, I picked my spots and put pressure on the shorties. When we were down to 5, Surflexus raised 3X from the cut off and I raised enough to put him all in with my AJ from the big blind. He called with his JJ and they held to take about 1/3 of my stack. A few hands later Chris went all in from second position and I had 3-4 times his stack. I wanted to isolate, so I shoved with my JJ. Surflexus quickly called from the big blind with his AA. His aces held and unfortunately he had built up enough to have me slightly covered. So in the course of about 4 hands, I went from chip leader to bubble boy. That really sucked. We stuck around and played a little cash so I got back about half of my tournament buy-in back. I had a great time for the evening but I just couldn’t stop thinking about what could have been or wondering if I played either hand wrong. I realize I haven’t given enough detail like stack sizes and blind levels to determine, but the fellas that were playing agreed I played the hands like I should have. I’ll try to get some of my losses back during another cash game at Mike’s on Wednesday.