Behind all week...

By the end of the week the result was a satisfactory one: an $887 win in just over 16 hours of play. However, that doesn’t tell the whole story: not by a long way.

Monday was poor but that loss was recovered immediately on Tuesday. The Wednesday loss was a bit worse than Monday’s but took until Saturday to clear off.

There were three big pots where I lost more than I should have done, as I had position on my opponent in all three cases and should probably have folded the river on all three occasions.

First, I raised a loose early position limper from the button holding AA and we took the 955 flop heads-up. He check-called my solid $70 flop bet. The turn came another 9 and instead of shutting down I decided I would try to get some value for my AA. Again he check-called: this time $200. The river was a 7 and he immediately went all-in. For some reason I couldn’t persuade myself to fold against his obvious full-house and called all-in for $545. He showed J9.

Second, I raised from one off the button with AQ and was re-raised to $110 by a solid regular in the big blind. I decided to call and also called his flop (AJ2) bet of $150. When he checked the blank turn I decided that my hand was probably best and bet $360, which he called. The river was the King of spades which put a third spade on board and despite this scary card he bet all-in. Again, ridiculously, I couldn’t persuade myself that I was beat despite the weight of evidence. He showed AK.

Third, I raised to $70 after 5 limpers and the only caller was a fairly tight regular in first position. The flop came 235 (all spades) which was not great for my red Kings. I checked behind hoping to see a blank on the turn, which came an offsuit Jack. My plan was to make a reasonable bet if checked to and then hopefully check behind on the river. Phase one went OK and I bet $120, but he raised me to $275. I called this, thinking I may have the best hand but I got a sinking feeling when he bet all-in on the river, which was an off-suit Queen. Looking back, I couldn’t beat much that he might play like this, but still called only to be shown 64 of spades for the flopped straight-flush.

So, three big pots played poorly by me. But there were others that went OK. Its just a bit annoying that I couldn’t find a fold in a couple of these pots, as the bottom line for the week would have been so much better.

All in all, despite being behind for much of the week, I was able to hang in there and play somewhere near my best game for long periods and finally get ahead for the week. Looking at the microcosm of a single week’s results isn’t really that helpful but some sort of a review process is necessary if I am to avoid falling into bad habits. Gradually, by playing well, the results will come together and I will be able to look back at a successful year.

This blog will be one year old at the end of this month. Maybe then I will do a review of the year.