Today I want to talk about sites.  I currently have money in 6 poker sites.  I only use 3, and the other 3 are dormant, sitting on 4 or 6 dollars in each.  Every once in a while Ill go and see if I can win a game in a dormant site when I just can not catch any cards, and usually I lose one or 2 of the few dollars I have left.  I guess I believed up until now that when your luck is bad, its bad no matter where you go.   Makes sense right?  Its a force that is not biased to certain games or certain casinos or certain websites.  Its your luck, and it goes with you places.

 

Let me tell you about my week.  The week before ended horribly.  I was playing heads up mostly for larger money than I usually do, and I was getting thrown around and taking some big losses.  I gave it a break for a day and opened this week with some tourneys.   My first game was a freeroll.  Why not, it was a special invitation for me and I happened to stumble onto it when I logged on, and it was just beginning.

I havent played an MTT in months.  I did fantastic!  Played a bit tight, took a couple monster pots with monster hands, and after that people would give me there blinds if I entered a pot.  There were over 1100 people in this tournament.  The bubble unfolded with me picking up a few lucky hands like JJ, and KQsuited, and I showed them both down and took decent pots.  After that my next hand was K4diamonds, and first to act I raised to tell them Im still on a run here.  The guy to my left was getting frustrated as he was the chip leader for the entire time I was at his table, and now he was down to 20 big blinds.  He raised my raise.  Everyone folded and the flop came 234, rainbow flop.  I had top pair 😀  I wanted to make it look like a bluff, I dont think he hit anything, but Im sure he had a good drawing hand.  😉

I bet just under half the pot, and he snap-raised me all in.  I called cause I had him covered and I was deeply invested at this point, and he shows AQsuited.  My 4 took the pot and he left crying.

 

I went on for the next 45 minutes or so playing tight again as I was in the money.  The tables got more aggressive and it was hard to justify playing some of the hands I got in some of the positions I was in, and these were all new faces.  My stack didnt seem so large anymore when it was down to the last 2 tables, and this guy with like, 150 000 chips was seated across from me, and he took pots left and right.

The cards were just not there anymore and there was no opportunity to steal blinds, as each hand saw  a tonne of action.  When I finally saw the best hand Id seen in an hour it was AJ suited, and I had 5 or 6 big blinds left in my stack, I pushed all in right away and rich guy was on the BB and he called me with 93off suit and took me out when he hit a 3.

 

Not the best ending, but I finished in 16th place of 1100+, and that was the first game of my week!  So I was happy, and already with a head start on making up for my poor week prior.

 

The day was good, my girlfriend came over, and she usually isnt very happy when I play poker while shes here, but she was interested in playing scrabble on her phone, so it worked out.  By the end of the day, I had taken all the money back Id lost the week before, and made 30 bucks on top of that.  Mostly heads up.  At one point Id won 8 games in a row.

But heres the wrench!  The next day I could not win a hand.  It was amazing! I show 77, he shows 99.  I have A10, he has AJ.  I have Q8Q8, he has Q10Q10, I have trip 5`s, they have trip jacks.   45678, they have 678910.  It was like magic out to destroy me!

I shut it off after 2 games and this was 11 in the morning! I wasnt going to play again until the next day..

 

YA RIGHT.  an hour later I was propped back up, changing seats, changing buy ins, hell I even changed my clothes.  Sure enough I was hammered down 4 times in a row.   I just bought a new mouse so I turned poker off again before I broke it.

A few hours passed before I succumbed to opening one of my other sites.  Expecting it to be no different, I played for only a dollar.  And by golly I got first place in a 6 man SNG.  I tried again, first place.  I tried again, FIRST PLACE.  What was going on!  A few hours ago I couldnt see a flop with a hand better than Q high, and now I couldnt lose on a different site!  I continued playing, for higher stakes of course, and I didnt lose once.  6 first places in a row.  I was baffled.

 

The scientist in me decided to take another run at my normal site, which Id been losing all day from, and lone behold, all the 62`s I folded ended up painting the board with their numbers.  All the AQ`s I played saw 783 flops, and a subsequent all in from my opponents.  I ended up in 4th place, and turned it off.

 

OK the night was getting darker, Id done the chores I had to do around my house, and regained my patience.  One last crack at it.  If I can win 6 times in a row here, and lose 5 times in a row there, something doesnt make sense, and thus engendered my new mission to interfere with this fate of my day of cards.  I logged back in to the site Id been losing, and sat down at a table 3 times my normal buy in :O What was I thinking!

Was this tilt?  I pulled all the distractions away, including light itself, and sat down determined as an angry judge.  The hands were trash to begin, I had to fold for 2 levels of blind increases.  But I got a good look at who was who.  When I played a hand, it was J8spades.

 

I opened with my first raise.  There were two hesitant callers, but that was ok because the flop revealed Aspades, 8hearts and 10spades.  One caller fired 150 into the pot of 200 or so, and the next player called, and I made it 450.  Im sure I wouldve folded to a reraise big enough with 3 people in this pot, but the first guy called and the second guy thought for a moment and folded.  The turn was a 3spades, PERFECT I thought, excellently executed.  Now there was 3 spades on board and I had my flush, but they think I have an ace.  They bet small, like 200 into a 1200 pot.  I was protecting my ace 😉 so I raised it so they couldnt hit there 4th spade.  600.  They call.  Now most of my chips are in this pot from my first hand played, and this other dudes chips are in it too.  The river brought us a 2clubs, so the only thing left to do was go all in and hope they had a strong ace.  AJ was their hand, and Im sure they kicked themselves in the ass on the way out.  

 

And there I was, back where Im comfortable! One hand, one showdown, one sucker and two times as many chips.  The table has seen what I can do, and if they have payed no attention to me yet, they certainly are now.   Few hands later, the guy whos a bit of a donk raises my big blind, but I have QQ.  Lets run with this.

 

I call and theres another player in the hand who calls.  The flop was perfect.  10 2 5.  All different suits.  He bets huge as to protect his A6 probably.  I call, and other guy folds.  Why the call?  well sometimes I do this, and it can be ascribed to many of my losses, and Ill write about that in the future, but for now, I just call.  The turn is a 7.  He goes all in instantly.  I calmly call and have a look at his A7 suited.  The river is another 2 and I double up again and he is left with 2 or 300 chips.  This table thinks I am a god at this point.  I raise, they fold.  I call, they fold.  Thats how I like it.   I fold 5 hands in a row and then three-bet a raiser on the sixth hand with 67clubs, and everyone folds.  Too easy.

 

Now, the miracle hand.  I was chip leader by only a few hundred.  There were three of us left and top two pay.  I folded a few hands to keep my tight on, and then decided on the big blind out of the blue to raise instead of check as everyone limped in.  I had 8hearts 6hearts.

The dealer folded and the small blind reraised me twice what I put in.  His stack was quite small to mine, and I thought it was a bad move to call but my hand clicked before my brain thought.  So I called.  Now the flop comes 7hearts, 9hearts, and Adiamonds.  Im really on a nice draw here.  hes got only a few chips left, just under half the pot, and Ive got about 4 times what he has left.  He lets his clock run down until it checks automatically.  I have to bet here, even if it costs me all my chips, even if he has AK or 99, cause if I check and the turn doesnt bring a heart, I will be pretty vulnerable.  I bet almost half the pot, almost what he has left, to show him I am committed, and he instantly goes all in.  AK.  the ace of hearts, and the king of hearts.  Limped in with AK suited from the small stack, reraised me and managed to get my chips in the middle with a drawing hand like this, and he has a monster.  

 

I felt like such a wanker.  The turn was the jack of hearts 😦  He probably exhaled for the first time in a solid minute.  He sat back and waited to collect my chips with his ace high nut flush, but then the river came, and as you probably have already predicted, it was the 10hearts  !  Straight flush for yours truly, and AK flush goes home 😀

What a crazy hand! He had some shit to say on his way out, and it was very unfortunate for him, but if he had raised me before the flop instead of limping, Theres a better chance of getting me to fold.   so, when the smoke clears.. his bad.

I went on to win the tournament and put an end to my horrible day at that site.  And because I played for larger stakes, Im in a lot better shape than Ive been lately!

 

And it goes to show, sometimes when you feel like youre on a run of weak cards, try another site.  Make a couple changes.  Do your pile of dishes and have a shower.  Put on a new pair of pants.  Maybe rearrange something in the vicinity, and try again.  I feel like I took a bite out of Mrs. Variances ass today.  She had me tagged to lose, and I tricked her by going to another site, and persevering until I felt good about my cards again.  In the end, I am up, and shes moved on for the week.  Everything feels good, and now its onward and upward!