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You know, I am never going to make it in poker. You know why? I am genuinely unlucky. I can't think of any other explanation.

In this tourney, I had a 4.5K stack that I acquired by getting it in with two players on a big blind special. I had 55 on a 654 board, they had 64 and 88. So that was lucky, right? Yes, and I should win a lot of games that I have 4.5K stacks in.

But a few hands later, some retard with 40/25 stacks raises big and I shove over with JJ in the cutoff.

I run into AA. So I've played maybe 20 games yesterday and today, and I've run JJ into a bigger hand in, no kidding, half those games at least.

So no worries though, I still have a decent stack:


PokerStars Game #27426736014: Tournament #158263361, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2009/04/23 23:06:06 ET
Table '158263361 1' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: FR Vessant (2515 in chips)
Seat 2: Almighty 1ne (615 in chips)
Seat 4: walrus1855 (6010 in chips)
Seat 5: sixpack1111 (2265 in chips)
Seat 6: shocker33 (860 in chips)
Seat 8: jrags72 (1235 in chips)
shocker33: posts small blind 75
jrags72: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Ah Ks]
FR Vessant: raises 300 to 450

Bear in mind that I have played maybe 3 out of 40 hands. Not that I'm trying to be that tight. I have just been card dead (for a month actually, except for a run of cards in the previous tourney). I'm under the gun, so my range is going to be very tight here.

Almighty 1ne: raises 165 to 615 and is all-in

This guy turns out to have A7s, so his play is forgivable.

walrus1855: folds
sixpack1111: raises 1650 to 2265 and is all-in

He has AJs. He is shoving over second in chips, who can bust him and is tight, so probably beats him. He is third in chips with a bunch of shorties behind and there's a shorty already in, so I won't be folding much, if any, of my range, with the overlay.

This is awful and if you're learning STTs, don't do this. I know AJs is pretty, but you have to fold in this spot.

shocker33: folds
jrags72: folds
FR Vessant: calls 1815


Easy call obviously with AK. With the overlay, I would not have folded anything I'm raising here.

*** FLOP *** [9h 2c 8c]

OMG. Two of his suit.

*** TURN *** [9h 2c 8c] [2h]

Safe so far.

*** RIVER *** [9h 2c 8c 2h] [Jh]

That's just sick though.

AK beaten by AJ again.

***

So I make mistakes. One of the JJ hands, the other guy, who was UTG, limped and I raised fairly decently. He flatted. The alarm bells went off but the flop came all rags. He bet out. The problem is that these fools can easily be leading out with TT/99 or top pair, or even overcards, thinking you have AK and will fold. But I think I knew that he had to have a monster and I still shoved. It's really fucking hard to fold in that spot. But, you know, I think I'm going to start folding when my gut tells me he has to have AA/KK there, or at least, just flat and then see whether he shoves the turn. I used to avoid going broke with JJ on raggy flops, precisely because players on Ongame like to trap rather than limp/shove.

But I'm still good enough to beat the very bad players in Stars $11s handsomely and I should be good enough to beat $22s (haven't played many so don't know how I run) and $16s (actually breakeven in the few games I've played this year, but overall, really bad, but again, no volume).

I know the answers. Play more, work on my ICM, forget bad beats. Yeah, I know. Easy when you can 16 or 20 table for a working day, really hard when you can only play a few games each day. And what sucks the most is that I keep winning the shitty small hands, when I have 1K and shove 63 in the small blind and I'm live, and losing the huge ones, like the one here, which involve stacks that I've already put effort into acquiring.