Scared Money vs. Toxic Tables

I have written before about crazy poker tables.  Thursday was one of the worst in my history.  I commented shortly after the game began that it might be my quickest re-buy ever, losing most of my rack in 3 hands.  The problem was being seated between 2 maniacs.  The guy on my left was button straddling every opportunity he got (once every 9 hands), and the player to my right was 3 betting it.  Very bad spot.  I did recover due to size of bloated pots and hung in for an hour or so before buying my 2nd rack.  The problem compounded by a 3rd wild man who not only button straddled, but also straddled under the gun every time.  So basically at least 3 straddles per revolution of the button.  The new guy was experiencing one of those days where everything goes right.  He played every hand and either hogged or split most of them.  Seriously.  I tightened up, missing a couple of big pots due to raises and re-raised which is so frustrating.  One huge pot was mine if I made one 3 bet call with my open ended straight draw that hit on the turn.  Probably $80 For the high half, but I folded knowing that it would probably be a split pot and I had no low draw, my hand was 9/9/10/3 on a flop of j/8/4 with 2 clubs. I had spades so there went 2 outs. 

Another bad fold was with a very short stack and top pair flop.  Again, low was there and I folded with virtually no chips only to make 2 pair on river and one pair winning.  This brings me to the real topic, playing with "Scared money".  When you are winning and have a giant stack of chips in front of you it seems much easier to chase.  But, when stuck it is much harder for me to give up chips.  The game really played much bigger than normal and despite it being beatable and really not that big compared to a no limit game, it was out of my comfort zone as a conservative player.  I really should have gone for a table change, there were 2 others going, but somehow pride or something kept me there until I lost my last rack.

Addiction

Playing a couple of tournaments this week did not have great results.  The first was the morning $25 buy in, which cost me $5. Using my $20 discount.  Around 70 entries and finished no better than 25th.  Moving on to the local tournament on Wednesday, $50 entry bounty.  Played tight and despite a couple of setbacks managed to make final table with one $10. bounty plus my own.  They then did something i have never seen before, asking everyone to cash them in.  O. K.  I am now only stuck $30.  A couple of short stacks fall and now in the money.  I get them all in blind and 2 of us are eliminated at once.  I get 5th place money $55.  After tip a big $20 profit.

Now, a comment on the post title, addiction.  I cannot dispute my own poker addiction, too big to ignore.  I have several aquaintenances from the past who are all tied together by gamblers anonymous.  I worked with these guys years ago, some in management, others as employees.  So, I keep running into one of them at the casino.  I am not judging here, but last time I saw him got a phone number of a mutual friend.  So, when I saw him yesterday he asked if I had talked with him.  Yes, we had a good conversation, I said I had gotten his number from him.  He then expressed that he hoped I had not mentioned where I saw him.  I had not.  So, he was gambling in secret evidently, probably hiding it from his family and friends.  Besides the fallout from financial losses the other problems i see are taking time away from "better" activities, the need for secrecy, and neglecting other aspects of or life like excercise, work, etc.  Is this addiction manageable?  Can you find substitutes?  For many years I was addicted to work and racquetball.  I used to get up at 6 a.m. to play for a couple of hours before going to work for 10 hours, 6 days a week.  While this could arguably make me healthier and wealthier, it was addiction nonetheless. Sometimes our substitutes are almost as harmful in terms of best use of our time and robbing us of other important things.  My conclusion I guess is that we need to recognize our addictive personalities and make sure that we control them and perhaps channel them into beneficial activities.

Good day in Omaha

Bought in for $100 and cashed out 5 hours later for $424.  No high hands, though had 3 posted that did not survive the half hour.  Best one was quad 10's busted by quad kings.  Only one high hand at our table which is pathetic.  It was a volatile game with lots of straddles and raising.  Experience has taught me that you can do well in this type of game, but you need to tighten up a bit in the bigger pots and get used to the variance.

Some updates.  Played in 60+ player tournament, bubbled final table, no money, they pay only 10% of field.  Followed up with losing day at Omaha, despite one hundred dollar high hand.  Lost a little less than original $100 buy in.  Really did not play well due to being tired after tournament.

Yesterday gave Caribbean casino tournament another shot.  30 players, $40 buy in, lousy cards but hung in with short stack to cash in 5th place for $80.

Shana Tova

Happy New Year to my Jewish friends and family!  My New Year started great with a good winning day at Tulalip.  Began with the $60. No chop tournament, lasting about 3 hours until getting outkicked on two hands ( JK vs JA on a JJ flop, and J10 vs. JQ on  10 high flop).  Immediately signed up for Omaha new table forming.  After getting my butt kicked last Thursday was cautious and played tight.  The flops and rivers were good to me earning several hog pots and my chip stack grew to the largest at the table.  The high hands have evaded me, so was semi-happy to post a weak full house, Jjj88, early in the half hour.  Expressing my opinion that it probably would not hold up I offered to sell it.  A crazy big guy said he would give me $50, which i quickly agreed to.  So, a couple of minutes before the time was up, it gets beaten.....by that guy.  Lol.  So he gave me half of his win.  Nice.

Sometimes we just know when to quit, so the game got a little wild and I was up over $300 So cashed out in time to get home for dinner.  A good start to the new year.

Statistics, 151 hands

At Sunday's Omaha game, decided to write down each winning hand, not exact cards but flush, straight, pair, etc.  Over the course of about 7 hours of play I observed 151 hands dealt.  There were more, but distractions, bathroom, etc.  But captured at least 90% +.  Here is the breakdown.

Straights  37 or 24.5%
Full house 31, 20.5%
Trips(or sets), fairly even  26, 17.2%
Flush  24, 16%
2 pair  21, 14%
Quads  6, 4%
One pair   6, 4%
High card 1  .1%

So, evaluating, making a straight was statistically the best play, but lots of full houses came in.  Trips or sets won a surprising amount of the time, slightly ahead of flushes.  2 pair performed better than you would guess, while both quads and single pairs winning were pretty rare.

I raked chips around 27 times, including several half pots and one quarter, and one 3/4.  That works out to 18%. With 9 players just a little more than average share, and could be adjusted down as usually short handed with wanderers and vacant seats.  My financial result was a small loss, $53.00, probably one pot away from breaking even.  With 4 tables going, the high hand paid $200, and despite getting quad 8's, did not score.  A new player at our table did, drawing out on my trip aces by hitting her kicker on the river.  If I had hit mine, it would have been good that half hour.

I felt good about my game, played tight and well while other good players lost $200-300+ mostly due to loose play.  I have found that losing sessions can usually be traced back to poor starting hand selection as A/3 or A/4 is a big dog to A/2, and sometimes a back up plan of a 3 or 4 helps.  I had a lot of A2 hands that I folded post flop due to counterfeited lows or high flops.  These hands usually are money in the bank but not this week.