June Swoon

So yeah...so much for finishing up those Vegas trip reports. I won Friday-Sunday and ended up finishing up a few hundred bucks poker wise...almost paid for my whole trip, which is always cool. Anyway, I've played a few Capitol sessions since Vegas, +300, +40 and now -200 after tonight...

Tonight I just ran kinda shitty. I wasn't "up" money-wise once the entire time...can't really say much about the session other than the fact that I missed a few big pots where I couldn't hold/couldn't hit or I kept finishing second with kicker problems. No big deal...

First big hand at the kill table I think I won with a rivered flush in a kill pot, so I actually went from down a hundo from the 4/8 regular game to almost even, then I got involved in this hand.

The table was extremely loose early on, and I looked down at a pair of Kings. It gets limped in like four spots, I'm in the cutoff (seat six) and raise, this terribly loose guy behind me calls, called around...

Flop: KJ7 with the King and the seven being spades...bingo?

It gets checked to this Korean guy (seat two) sitting on roughly $800 in chips (he had been there all day and possibly the night before supposedly) donks into the field, this black guy to his immediate left who plays just awful (seat three) raises, folds to me, I three-ball, guy behind me caps...everyone calls...we're four-way to the turn.

Turn: 3 of clubs

I still have the nuts...checks to me, I bet, everyone calls. I guess my hand is somehow face-up...everyone else I assume is drawing (obv lol)

River: 8 of diamonds...sweet...no spades or club

Korean guy donks, seat three raises to $10 all-in and during this time, the Korean guy is giving a semi-speech. I had seen him do this about an orbit before this where he had a fullhouse (basically the nuts) and kinda discouraged people from raising. I was pretty positive he was really strong, so I only called the ten, the guy behind me disgustedly folds Ax of spades, and the Korean guy calls the extra $2and shows T9os for the double-gutter on the flop that just had to get there. The black guy showed K8 of hearts (yeah that's no good) and dug into his pocket for another rack. Ahhhh good times.

I think I've said this in my blog pretty recently, but once again I just really want to emphasize how little I care about results now and how much it has helped my steam control/overall image and attitude at the table. I've always had pretty decent steam control, whether it's avoiding playing too loose or even too tight (yes, there is such a thing as playing too tight), I really feel like the advice I read from WillinNewHaven on Cardplayer has really helped establish my current demeanor at the table. I'll paraphrase real quick:

"Distance yourself from the results, all you can do is make as many correct decisions as possible, the rest is just cards."

It's so true, yet so many people let the results get the best of them. Whether it's a steam raise the next hand, a fear of raising AK for the next couple of orbits, or just having a shitty attitude while you're playing (no one wants to pay off the angry guy that keeps face-mucking the dealer). Anyway, what I'm getting at is people let the results of certain big pots incorrectly affect how they should be playing their hands and how much fun they are having at the table. Let's not just focus on negative thinking either...there's also players who are guilty of loosening up their standards and seeing flops with shit just because they're currently running on god-mode. It all catches up to you in the end. Remember, life is just one monster session in the grand scheme of things.

And I know it's hard to have fun at the table while you're losing, but just try it. Shoot the shit with the guy next to you, shrug off the flopped set that couldn't hold, muck the nut-flush/gutterball straight-flush combo draw (I had one of those tonight too lol) without showing the guy next to you how many outs you had...here's a newsflash: only you give a fuck. When a guy next to me shows me his hand, I could give three shits that he just missed an OESD and a Q-high flush, but I'm kinda happy he showed me what he's folding because now I know that he's only calling along with that type of hand on the flop, he's limping Q7 of clubs from MP, etc. By showing your cards, you're giving away pieces of information about how you play that players should have to pay to see. And don't think that just because it's 4/8 no one is watching...no matter what level you play at, there's always going to be someone out there paying attention.

That's enough ranting from me, thanks for reading; hopefully it helped you somehow.