The roller-coaster continues

This has been a very frustrating week. Most of all, I have been frustrated with my own play.

Monday - Thursday was very good: I won almost $150o. Unfortunately, on Friday and Saturday I managed to play horrendously and lose $1600. I am my own worst enemy, as I seem incapable of accepting losses. I play a more aggressive game, which is undoubtedly less-profitable and at higher variance. This is what keeps me around the break-even mark as a poker-player; no doubt about it.

The 4-day winning streak contained solid play at $1-$2. The only cooler (in my favour) came in the form of KK v QQ, and in this hand the villain could have probably lost less than a full buy-in if he had slowed down a bit.

The 2-day losing streak began with me losing an all-in pre-flop coup with AK v AA whilst playing 3-handed. This seemed to induce me to play much more aggressively than I had been as it was Friday night and as usual there were quite a few bad players around. With this in mind, I decided to take a shot at $2-$4.

Straight off the bat I lost a buy-in 3-barreling someone who made 2-pair with K8. To be fair, this nearly worked as he took an age before calling my big river bet.

Next I pushed too hard with 2nd-pair + gutshot against someone who (judging by his betting pattern) was never going to fold his top pair - there goes another $100 equity.

By this time my table image was that of a total donkey and I made matters worse when getting involved with A9 v AQ (tptk) when I picked up a gutshot on the turn. I was convinced that the pre-flop reraiser was pushing me around (it was his 3rd or 4th reraise from the blinds against me). I then put a short-stack all-in with my 1010 only to find he had AA, before restoring some credibility by getting paid off the maximum with a full-house against the nut flush.

Later, playing 4 handed I lost further when my Q8 (raised from the button) lost a decent pot against the BB's 32, with a 224 flop, turn 8 and 3 on river. I then donked off another buy-in with 97suited, getting busy from the BB when I turned a flush draw to go with my flopped straight draw, only to find the SB pre-flop raiser had trapped me perfectly with a set of 6s which he filled up on the river.

On Saturday, I played 4 big pots and managed to get my money in whilst in the lead in only one of them, so all in all a big improvement over Friday!

On Sunday I returned to winning ways, but again a week that started out really well ended up as a huge roller-coaster. The result of +$150 for the week pales into insignificance compared with the variance. I am really annoyed that I am not reporting a $1000+ win for the week.

I really need to rein in the aggression when I am losing. I just find it so difficult, especially when there are bad players, as there were on Friday and Saturday nights. I just want to get in there and play against them before they bust out to somebody else. I am sure there is some merit in this approach, I just need to temper it a bit.

One guy played so bad on Saturday that he would play about 50% of hands, call raises out position liberally and was passive post-flop: the dream customer, you would think. He lost his $400 eventually, but would have lost it a lot sooner had he not won about $750 from me. I won all the small pots and he won the 3 big ones.

First, I raised his big blind and bet him all the way on a J-high board with my QQ only to find that he had pocket AA. Next, I reraised from the BB with AK after a raise and his call from the button. I bet the K-high flop and again on the safe-looking turn, committing myself to the pot, only to find that he had spiked his set on the turn. Then I raised his limp from the button with A10, which he called with 10/8. On the flop of QJ9 I called his weak lead-bet before raising him on the turn when the A landed, drawing almost dead.

Sunday night was much better. I had had a chat with myself before playing. I decided that I needed to slow down my decision-making a bit. I was playing too much on auto-pilot and wasn't really considering all of what was going on. I realised I needed to pay more attention to what the other players were doing, what their tendencies and capabilities were. I had been concentrating too much on my own cards and prospects, and not enough on the rest of the game.

This is what I need to do, going forward. Also, more importantly, I need to keep it going when things are going against me.

I ordered a couple more books from Amazon yesterday: Professional No-Limit Hold 'Em, and a poker psychology book called (cant remember exactly) Your Own Worst Enemy. I am sure there will be some interesting concepts / tips in both books that hopefully will save me many hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars.

The biggest problem I have is with maintaing my objectivity whilst playing [more specifically losing]. This is something I can overcome with discipline and I guess the number one requirement in solving the problem is recognising it. I have read quotes from the great cash-game player Ben Roberts about "losing in poker is OK" and "its the quality of the decisions that counts". I am sure he is right.

In terms of bad beats, I am becoming increasingly indifferent to losses after the money goes in. However, I still have trouble when I go from being a 80-90% favourite on the flop to drawing dead on the turn. This is something I must learn to deal with, as with decent stacks the majority of the money is remaining for bets on the turn and river. The only way to deal with this is to improve my hand-reading abilities.

Wish me luck!