took a shot and it backfired

I squeaked into the money last night with barely any chips left. We started up play again at 7, with 36 players remaining. I only had $5000 chips left after the disastrous end last evening, and with the blinds 800/1600-200, I had to make a move fast.

I got 72o 62o 84o and then I was utg with j2o. I thought it was close inbetween pushing with no folding equity utg, or just playing my BB all in. I decided to take the BB. The Grinder limped UTG, and it was folded to my blind. I looked down and found 72o again, and just figured pushing flop made more sense. The flop came 57T and Michael called my bet pretty fast with A6. The turn was the Ac, and my tournament was finished. The $2375 payout was fine, and almost all I could ask for.

Then the fun started.

I decided that I was going to play 20/40nl this evening. It looked like a good game all week, and tonight was no exception. After a long wait, I finally got a seat in the game. There were so many players spewing chips, yet they would be saved on the flop every hand. I sat back and avoided the carnage for awhile, but eventually started picking up hands and losing chips. In 3 hours of play I managed to lose $12,375. It felt as if I was playing with a rigged deck, and after beat after beat, I think it started to affect my play. I started questioning myself "Do they always flop the nuts vs me?" Which exactly what I said on the last hand before I left the game.

A few of the gems from the session include:

I raise TT get 2 callers. Flop is 964ss, it's checked to me I bet out $360, they both call. Turn is Qc, and it's checked to me again. I made a mistake of checking here even though I was almost certain I had the best hand. It was my first pot at the table and I wasn't sure how the higher limit players were playing hands like sets. The river was what I thought a great card with the 2h. The BB lead out for $800, which left me wondering what he had. After thinking about it the only hand he had that could beat me was 53, and with all the other missed draws, and the fact that my hand looked very week, I made an easy call. Of course he just looked at me and said "I got the nuts".

As a precursor to my next hand, there was a player at my table who just limped in in late position with AKs, called a big raise from the blinds, then called a $800 pot sized bet on a qj2 flop. The turn was obviously a ten and he won a huge pot at showdown. I honestly have not seen someone play a hand so bad in a long time. But hey, he won money and I went bust so what do I know.

And orbit after I saw that I was in the BB with A8. This guy limped in UTG, and we took the flop 3 way after the SB completed. I want to also note that UTG was sitting and playing a gameboy, not paying attention to the table at all. He was playing tight and very bad, and the gameboy just made me laugh. The flop came down 885, which I bet $100 on. He called pretty fast, and the turn brought another 5. I bet out $200, which he also turbo called. At this point I have no idea what he has, but figured him for a big hand preflop. The river was a jack. I thought about checking, but there was really no way I was behind in that hand, and wanted him to call with ace high or whatever he had, so I bet $300. He raised to $1500 pretty fast and I was just like "Wow did you really play JJ that way?" After some thought there was just no way I could not call, so I called and he showed me his ridiculously played pocket jacks. I tossed him $1500 and told him he was a terrible player and didn't know how he was up money.

After that hand I took an orbit off to cool down. I seriously was questioning if I was playing against a rigged deck. Just seemed like some of the bad players would put in money behind so confident that they'd make it there on the river, which they did every hand.

The rest of the night I was just battling check raises and folding hands. I never had anything to call with, and the times I did they always showed me monsters. When I was down to $3000, I picked up AK and raised to $210 over some limpers. We ended up getting to the flop 4 ways which came down A95. I bet out $700, and the crazy asian that rivered the nuts vs me with 53o raised to $2000. I sat and thought for a second on his possible hands. I realized how short I was, and I'd been getting played back at so often that it seemed that I had to take a stand at some point. I moved the last of my chips in and he once again showed me a monster with A9 for top two pair. In retrospect I think I misplayed this hand, as the board was so dry that AQ AJ where really the only hands he could have had, and he might not have raised them considering the board texture.

It was 1am at this point and I decided to just go back and get some sleep before the big $10,000 WPT championship. Hopefully I can pull together a bit on my own good luck and have a good showing.