Pardon the obscure “Project Runway” reference. Yesterday I played a small buy-in ($33) NLHE tourney on Party. I’ve rediscovered Party Poker during the past few weeks, having not played there in a while, and the level of tourney play is gloriously poor. People are putting all their chips in with hands like AT, A3, JT, and all without even a moment’s thought. This is the fourth time in a row I soared to top ten in chips within the first hour of play.
It’s also the fourth time in a row that I lost my whole stack in two hands, taking down 50th place money instead of 1st. In this case, QQ ran into TT (ten in the door), and AK ran into AQ (queen on the turn). And boom, I clear $30 instead of $4000.
This story would be just another boring bitchfest if it wasn’t for the fact that…oh, wait. It *is* just a boring bitchfest. I know I have to accept the downside of ludicrous donkey calls if I’m also going to profit from the other side of such play, which got me my stack in the first place. The problem is, I’m not sure how to minimize the downside. I find I start to develop a fatalistic attitude as the tourney progresses. For example, as soon as I saw the pocket tens on my QQ hand, I grimaced and “knew” a ten was coming. This is not healthy behavior. What am I supposed to do, fold QQ because I “know” I’m going to get sucked out on?
I realize poker is a game of luck as well as skill. I realize that entering a hand as a four to one favorite still means I am going to lose one out of five times. But does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with this nasty business? If you do, I believe a Nobel Prize is in your future.
4 replies on “In poker, one day you’re in, and the next day, you get sucked out on”
Just keep playing. As you know anyone with skill is going to get sucked out on a ton more than anyone without.
It is human nature to remember those suckouts far more vividly than you remember the wins (or the hands where you sucked out.)
Given that I have been traveling and have not played in over a month, I am probably so far removed from my last bad beat that I have a far more centered attitude on this. I’ll comment again in a few weeks after I start playing more.
PS, was just checking your bio. Do you speak Japanese?
I’m spending my fall semester of B-school in Tokyo, mainly to jump start my learning of the language.
“Spending” is the operative term there. This city can be expensive.
So far I have “nihongo-ga wakarimaska” mastered.
Jeff: a better phrase to learn would be, “eigo wakarimaska.”
Tokyo is cho-takai (very expensive). I lived in Kyoto, which is also quite expensive. I hope you have time to travel around and see some other places. Japan is a really amazing place.
I stand corrected, I brain-cramped above.
I’m about to start in on my Japanese classes. Three hours a day, five days a week. Hopefully something will stick.
Tokyo is expensive, but you can live somewhat cheap if you work at it a bit.
I’m going to go try to catch the sumo championship tomorrow. Unfortunately that requires getting up at about 7am.
I do plan to travel as much as my budget will allow. Once I get some pictures online I post a link over here.
Jeff