divine intervention???

I found myself struggling to put pen to paper (errrr finger to keyboard) to put together a post today. The creative self has been a bit pre-occupied by the shift of fortune and luck. Well not the creative self, but the mind has not allocated many cycles to creativity and imagination and has instead focused attention on sifting through my poker play and more importantly the outcome of said play. Remember I had been indulging the Beginner SNG's over at Bodog. For some reason that well of abundance dried up. And so dry that it began to suck back from me my reserves. I had grown the roll to around $290-ish, and now find it at $210. In game after game, loss after loss, good hand meeting better hand the hand of variance was upon me. Or the tongue of Lady Luck was not flicking at my earlobes anyway. But I'd just gotten excited by poker again, and now it felt like it was all going to fade away. But late evenings kept presenting opportunities to play, and I didn't want to waste them. So, I've been hanging out at the $25 MAX NLHE full ring games. I've played break even, grind out a couple of cents poker on a couple of tables for the past few nights. Last night in particular was absolutely devoid of any cards on one table. I know you're thinking I was too picky, but you know after 250 hands on one table something should have at least hit me. Nope, I was getting junk, and the extremely rare mediocre starting hand was usually greeted by a raise/reraise before it ever got to me. I looked like an absolute rock, and knew if I did make a move, it was going to net me next to nothing. When I did finally look down at A-Qs from mid position, and I popped it I got one caller. I hit my queen on the flop and bet out 1/2 pot. Insta call. The turn was garbage, but I opted to bet small, insta called. The river was garbage, and for certain something was smelling, so I checked it down only to have my opponent turn over his set of 8's! Another notable hand involved 4 way action, in which I'd hit top pair and top kicker, but again the "just calls" kept coming in immediately. I got out of that one too, without losing my shirt somehow, when after the river he'd slow played rockets despite the 4 way action. Thank goodness I'd decided to play two tables. I was able to capitalize on one hand there, to win what I was losing at the other table. As a way of limiting my play time and not allowing fatigue to set in, I'm playing on the laptop on battery power. When the lower power alert goes off after around 2 hours... I'm done. That's it! When it went off last night, I was happy to hear it. 2 hours shot to hell, with nothing more than an additional 60 cents to show for it. Geee, don't quit yer friggin' day job, cheer_dad. So what changed? Why from feast to famine? Well, the post from a couple days ago about Just saying no to NITS... was interesting. But lowering standard starting hand requirements from position and also raising with position was getting me nowhere a lot faster than before. I've to a degree found this true in some home and/or live games as well. Position doesn't even register on the radar of a lot of players. Your big raise from early position means nothing and doesn't send an alarm at all to maniacs. But Big starting Hands, do not hold up well against multiple callers, unless the deck absolutely hits you! That my friends doesn't happen often. My observation of what worked best in the SNG's was, rock hard tightness in the early stages, don't get involved and build the image of the rock, and feel free to comment to those who are reading the chat window that you haven't seen good cards in forever. WTF! Push every once in a while from late position and see if they'll fold to you. Make certain that in oddball circumstances where you are last to act, that you fold when no one has entered the pot, besides the SB and BB. Not ever time, but when it looks like dominoes collapsing quickly around the table, resist the desire to raise it up a couple of times and take a long time, to grudgingly fold, like you're terrified of doing so. This may be important later.

Early on limping may be more beneficial to you. Early on you really need to blindside to score big pots. When an Ace flops and you bet it, and haven't been playing many hands thus far, folks are going to know. But develop an almost invisible early image and you might pounce when you connect for a set of deuces and no one saw it coming. A couple of idiot testosterone infused donks padding the pot the whole way. Those are the hands that'll get you paid. AND you don't need many of them. I recall making it to the money in some of those early SNG's having only won 1 or 2 pots before 4 or 5 people were out. Then, I would come alive a little earlier than expected. One out of the money, people's butt cheeks tighten up and their play style follows. Shoving hard here, and putting them to a decision for their tournament life is not as risky as it sounds, and the blinds and possibly antes will be well worth the stealing prospect. Don't abuse it, but in moderation in can be very effective AND demoralizing to the guy whose blinds you continue to steal. Do the same thing when you have the monster and they'll try to punish you with some weak holding. If you have opportunity to show your bluffs, when you're reading to switch gears again, by all means do it. No one likes to get pushed around!

When I would finally find myself in the top 5, then I tended to be ruthless and was ramming hard. A number of SNG's I was coming from 3rd and 4th in chips to take down the top spot in the end. I recovered nicely once from a 12,000 to 3,000 chip deficit one night that was epic. I bet pot so many times preflop, without even looking at my cards that on the hands where I wasn't first to act, the guy was folding to me. I'd win like 5 pots in a row, and then lose a small one. And we were seldom getting to or past the flop! Anyway, that's where the strength of my game lies. Getting there lately has been a chore. I'm sincerely hopeful that this is a momentary lapse in luck, the forces of variance or whatever; because this dry spell has really got me down. Nonetheless, I'll keep up the good fight and see how it this roller coaster ride ends. I can't get scared, as the old adage says, "scared money can't win." So, I ain't skeered!

Maybe Lady Luck just took a vacation... maybe Bodog hit the "fail" button... maybe I just suck... all valid and possible explanations to my current poker experience. Maybe I can blame it on this Hindu diety:

The Fickle One

”The gods may lack strength, but they are intelligent. I shall go to them.” So saying, Shreedevi turned away from Bali and went to the gods. She blessed the gods with ruling majesty, material prosperity, physical health, bodily beauty and divine fortune.


Angry and bitter in defeat, the demons rasped, “Shreedevi is Chanchala, the fickle one. Once she favored Bali, now she favors Indra. She is faithful to none.”


“That is not true,” said the goddess, “I am eternally faithful to he who does not abuse my gifts.”


That last response from the goddess... hmmm.

Regards,

cheer_dad