When the "maniac" ends up against REAL maniacs...

The gentleman who runs the Fish Food blog at Poker News (linky linky over there on the right) expressed his surprise a few days ago (in response to a comment I left there) that I was playing at a level where I only had 4 buy-ins. I didn’t really listen at the time, but I think I may have to drop down a level to .5/.10, even though I’ve done poorly there for the most part.

I have practically never sat a table like this – loose, insane, raises and re-raises flying in from all over the place. I lost a few cents here and there in the early action, but I didn’t have the kind of hands to play in the face of this insanity going on. There was this one guy who basically saw every flop that he could, and he ended up going from $20 to $60 or so very quickly when he won two consecutive pots that ended up with all the chips in the middle – he flopped a straight on the first hand with A-J, and got someone who had flopped two pair with K-10…the second, he called a 3X BB raise with 7-6o, and flopped a straight again. I’ve seen shit like this with this guy before too, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s a Sportsbook employee or something…I’ll put it that way (“trucker4u”, in case anyone reading plays at that room). Anyway, the other guy had J-9o, and couldn’t suck out for the higher straight.

I lost more than $10 on one hand, and that stressed me the fuck out (again, 4 buy-ins…I think that’s the problem). I got Qh-Jh in the SB…there were 5 callers in front of me, so I probably should have just folded the fucking thing. I ended up raising to .60 to get some of them out, and got three customers…including that trucker guy. The flop was K-6-2 with one heart. I don’t know why I did this with 3 people in there, but I made a continuation bet of $1.60. Two callers, one folder (hint: not the trucker guy). The turn is the 4h, and now I semi-bluff $4 with the flush draw. Shithead trucker guy re-raises to $8. With what he’s been playing (any two cards), I’m 99.9% sure that I beat him if my flush draw gets there. I’m of course 4:1 to get my flush, and a further $4 into a pot of $18.80 is 4.7:1, so I have to call. Of course, the river is a 5d. I had to check…if he was calling down this far, there was nothing about the 5 of diamonds that was going to make him go away…and with the GDP of Botswana in his stack, he’d call me if he had nothing, either. So, of course he bets $6.80 (.10 more than is in my stack), and I have to go away. Cynically, I wonder if he would have made that bet if my flush had gotten there. At this point, I’m wondering if he can see hole cards.

There was a time where I’d be so upset that I’d just leave the room immediately…I think that was a major contributor to a lot of the $200 I lost on Party a few years back. Don’t get me wrong, I was steaming and confused and doubting my ability to play at this table. Two hands later though, I got most of it back. In late position, I got Jd-10d. At this point, just about the whole table was limping on every hand and, at least 3-4 of them would call any raise out there. So, I limped in to see what happened. The flop came Jh-8d-3d. A good, solid player bet $1.20, and I immediately had her on 10-10 or Q-J or something. I call, and one guy I knew nothing about called. Stunningly, when I had top pair and a flush draw, the trucker shithead couldn’t muck his cards fast enough. The turn was a 5c, and Miss Solid bet $3. I still figured I had a good chance of being ahead with the Jacks, so I went all-in for my last $5.30 Both players call. The river was a gorgeous 10h. Miss Solid checks, and Other Guy goes all-in for his last $6.50. Solid quickly folds, and it’s off to the show-down. My two pair was quite good, as luckily Other Guy had called with Ad-6d. Now, at the turn, that was correct as he had to put in another $2.30 into a pot of $10.80…and the river bet was just to get Solid out in case for some reason his Ace-high was good. What a crushing blow for my confidence that would have been though if his flush had gotten there.

Such a narrow escape didn’t do much to help my mentality…I’ll admit it – I was intimidated by this table, and that is a very new thing for me. Practically the whole table would re-raise any time I put a bet on the flop…or, they’d call the flop (and the turn if I bet again), and then just jam a huge re-raise on the river. I don’t think I had the nuts a single time for the rest of the session, so I’d pretty much immediately fold. They had a read on me, and they were right to do so. I played another 50 hands, and ended up leaving with $15.65 of the $20 I bought in with. Considering the circumstances and how new the concept was of people not respecting my continuation bets, I’ll chalk this up to a learning experience, and a lesson in the fact that I have to control my emotions and not take one lost pot so hard.