A Cold Night

Tonight was a cold night of playing cards. As the first SNG netted bottom pay, the rest of the night's action was an even further disappointment. No longer rated "Hot" on SharkScope.com, I failed to make profit off three other SNG tables leaving me ending the night in the red.

The first game I played was a 9 player table with my friend Sana. Sana was out semi-early in the tournament and shortly after it came to me be being the low chip stack. I held on battling myself up from 600 chips to a little over 2,000 while dodging the bubble. The culprit for this game was strickly cold cards. Almost every hand I won was by a move pre-flop, raising with Qx, Kx type hands in position and buying the blinds. Finally I was dealt a nice set of cards. Landed my two pair off the flop got sucked out on by trips on the river (the first of many times this happen tonight).

The rest of the SNG games are nothing to really talk about. Either I played horrible poker tonight or the game just wasn't with me. I been rivered more times tonight then I've been in a long time. It's not like I'm placing bets on "bad" hands and getting called. Having two pair with KQ off the flop and having someone with the balls to call you down when the board is KQA6, only to take it from you with a J on the river setting his pocket Jacks was all too common tonight. There were some other "bad beats" but I don't want to focus this blog on too much negativity. The end result is I must have been off my game tonight and not being aggressive as I normally am. It definitely was at fault on the last game I played, I wouldn't let go of some hands that I should have. After tilting a bit on the last game I decided to collect my losses and save it for another day. It's a disappointing evening, but you need days like this so when you are on a winning streak it feels so much more better.

The worse thing a poker player can do is play when they are on tilt. Even though I am down for the night, I must put my action on halt for tomorrow so I am not playing "catch up". When you loose a nice sizable amount of your bankroll you start to play just to 'catch up' which usually results in loosing more of your money since your not truly focused on the game itself - but your bankroll instead. I see a lot of beginning players make this mistake, they loose a couple low-limit games then try to play a larger game so they can win back their losses. For instance, one friend I know loss at three $5 +.50 games and ended up playing a $10 game immediately after trying to make up the $15 bucks he is down. The problem with this thought is you will only profit if you place in first. True, second might break you even but if you lose this game now your down $25 dollars instead of $15. The person in the example did indeed lose the $10 game then in all his wisdom jumped to a $20 game. This was not a smart move and ended up being an expensive night for my friend.

What he failed to realize is that when your on a loosing streak you should minimize your action and take time out to evaluate the game you just lost. Find out where you made bad plays and what you should have done in the situations that ended up jeopardizing your game. So few plays do this and to me this type of discipline is what makes a profitable player in the long wrong. The key thing to remember is when your on a winning streak, you play; when on a loosing streak, you stop. Remembering this can save you a lot of money and keep you away from playing 'catch up'. Every player looses at one point; minimizing your losses protects your bankroll and gives you something to work with when your winning.

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On another note tonight was election day. I am not one to follow politics so I really don't what what it all means; all I do know is I hope that whomever voted for the Internet Gambling Act of 2006 got a smack in the face tonight. Seems like a lot of people who play online are against the Republicans which creates interesting articles like this one from CardPlayer. Even PokerNews is getting some articles in. The whole industry is going crazy over voting! Poker players who never seen a voting booth in their life came out tonight to vote. I wouldn't be surprised if tonight some sort of record was broken for the most votes casted during Election Day.

Well regardless on who you voted for, or even if you voted, I wish you all a better night playing cards then I have had tonight. See you at the tables tomorrow, Cheers!