Going back to casino poker...

I'm just going to tell my story to get it off my mind and thought this would be a decent place for it. I'm sure this has happened to a lot of people and you will understand where I'm coming from and the gut feeling you get when this happens both good and bad.

I have been avoiding the casino poker rooms for a while because I went on tilt hardcore last time I played. I have been playing home games and online with no issues and been playing well. So I'm thinking about grabbing a couple hundred and going back to the casino.

I just watched Rounders tonight so I'm once again in a big poker mood!!

My last hand at the casino was a combination of a bad read but playing the odds.

My night started with me buying in for 100$ and playing tight/aggressive. I think I played maybe 2 of my first 20 hands or so. So after watching the people at the table and picking out a couple targets I start to free up a little and seeing more flops. I build my chip stack up to around 350$ in about an hour and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm making great reads and just feel like the cards are in my favor.

So I'm playing and I look down at AA I'm in the BB position. 1 person is still in when it gets to me so I raise double the BB just to see if he stays in. He calls with no hesitation. I instantly put him on AK as my gut feeling. Flop comes out 7 2 K. He bets small and I feel that he is trying to get a feeler on what I got. Knowing I have an over pair and thinking he needed the K. I raise he pushes me all in. This is where I sit to think before I play. The last 2 times he has done this exact play he had nothing of value and lost when he got called. I feel he might be on tilt trying to get his money back. I look at my bullets again then the board thinking about the odds of him catching running cards for a straight or flush. Who would call a double BB preflop with 72 or k2/k7. I call and flip over my AA. He says "wow I had you on AK not Aces.". My response, "I also had you on AK what you got." He smiles and flips over KK. I cannot remember the next 2 cards as I just looked at the table blankly in hopes an A would magically appear. It didn't.

I bought back in for 100$ but I was on tilt like nobody's business. I stopped playing poker for a small stretch like a week or so but it was home games and online. I'm thinking my next days off its time to head back up to the casino and see how it treats me...

Thanks for reading and it feels better to share the story with people that know the feeling than people that just say, "wow you lost how much in 1 hand?"

 

Don't feel bad, those are cheap lessons. I've made much worse reads and lost thousands on one hand. You'll get them next time.

 

Unless both of you were extremely deep-stacked for that game, which didn't seem like the case, I don't think you could have avoided felting on that hand.

 

If no-limit stresses you out so much, why not try limit games? I get very stressed in no-limit games because I can lose a big chunk of my trip bankroll on one hand. In limit games I can relax, drink, and enjoy my time while still playing far better than most of the other players. I've averaged $16/hr playing low-limit games (mostly 2-6 spread kill and 4-8 kill) over the last year (I've been running good, though and my sample size is kind of low at 50 hours). You're not gonna do much better than that at 1-2 nl and you will have much smoother variance as well. You rarely have to worry about working for hours to build a big stack just to have it wiped out in a single hand. Just a suggestion.

 

Just chalk it up to bad luck if you get it in with A/A vs K/K and your A/A doesn't hold up. That's exactly what that was. You shouldn't be discouraged by what happened. The best thing you can do in NL hold'em is to try and get your money in when you have the best of it. Unfortunately in this instance, you were out-flopped. If all the money would have went in preflop, the same result would've occurred. It appears you weren't very deepstacked at the time either. My advice, get back to the table, and keep playing "your" game. Play the TAG style that is sounds like you're doing and you'll do fine. Pick your spots and start stacking and felting the players that you know play poorly. Going on tilt is hard to control. If you feel you'r on tilt, get up and walk away. The game will be their another night when your head is in a better spot.

 

Good luck to you back in the casino. Just realize bad beats will happen. It doesn't matter how good you play, they will always happen.





Seems you did pretty good though. To me going on tilt means you lost and then proceed to make your loss 5X as big by trying to chase it back. If it only cost you another $100, that seems pretty reasonable.

 

I am thinking: you say you have been playing home games and online with no issues and you have been playing well... but the question might be: in your time playing online and at the home games have you lost a like sum of money by having your aces cracked (or similarly a large pair beaten by a smaller pair)?

You said you went on "hardcore tilt" when it happened and if you haven't faced a similar situation since (big hand losing big pot, not just a big hand cracked) then you might not be over it...

I say that because:

First, you are on here talking about it, presenting it like it is some major bad beat and you've pretty much stressed how it had a lasting impact with you (you haven't played in a casino since and by the tone of your post its important to you).

The thing is: your aces were cracked at a low stakes game... do you know how often that happens? There are always so many people going to the flop that most of the time you are lucky if your aces hold up half the time.

Next, your hand was beaten by a legitimate hand. The only thing surprising with that hand, his KK vs your AA, was that you guys didn't go all in preflop. At least you didn't lose to a stupid hand like 7-3 offsuit or something.

As for your "reading" the other play: at low limits its almost impossible to read other players because they'll be all giddy and excited hitting top pair just as they would with top set, but on top of that even grizzled poker veterans who have been playing for decades will tell you that its hard to read when somebody flopped a set and you are holding an over pair.


And lastly: I know you were probably hoping for sympathy but there are two problems with that:
1) Have you never done it yourself? Have you not ever cracked a big pair preflop with an underpair or a lesser hand? If you can dole out bad beats you should be able to take them.
2) You need a better understanding of the numbers. Yes, when AA is up against KK heads up the AA hand is the favorite... but its not some guarantee to win: the AA hand is expected to lose about one out of every five times.

Does it suck when your big hand loses? Yes! But its never a reason to go on tilt, just wasn't your time to win that hand...

 

I have played some limit games and I'm not a huge fan of it. I feel like people play lesser hands and just call trying to see more cards. I have won some money at the limit tables I just don't have a strategy I'm comfortable with.

For online and home games I have been winning. Online I play small stakes its just for the sake of seeing a large number of hands in a short amount of time.

I'm sure I have cracked a top pair a few times but recalling one right now it's not coming to my mind of when.

I'm sitting at the point where do I take Vegas money 2 hours to the casino or just hold off and wait until winter time and play poker more because I can't go golfing. I always slow down on poker in late spring summer time so I can golf.

 

It does happen both ways.

I was in Biloxi playing drunk. I got KK. Raise, he raised, I reraised, he reraised. If I wasn't drunk I would have caught on and just called at that point. But I didn't. Clever me got all my money in.
He of course turns over AA.
I caught a king on the turn.


Poker.

 

You must be extremely young in your poker career.

This has happened to me so many times I wouldn't even blink if it happened again... and it definitely will.

 

One question: Where exactly do you think the profit comes from in poker?

Hint: You don't win more in the long run because your opponents play better hands.

And undathesea hit it right on the head. It's pretty obvious that you don't have much experience playing. If you can't recall ever beating an overpair by making a set, you seriously need to play more hands and get more comfortable with losing money sometimes. Trust me, the hand you described is nothing when it comes to going on tilt. I'd barely even call it a bad beat- it's more like a cooler.

Try hitting top set and having someone pull a runner-runner straight or flush on you for a full stack. Then imagine it happening four times in one night. At that point you are justified in going on "hardcore tilt" lol. It sounds more like you are playing with more money than you are comfortable losing, and that is what tilted you. If that is the case, you shouldn't be playing no-limit. See my above post.

Please don't be offended if I sound harsh. There are a lot of harsh truths you must realize if you ever want to be a good poker player. You will lose. A LOT. Be prepared for it. I think I sounded a lot like you nine years ago haha.

 

Too bad you didn't play at a casino where they pay you for AA cracked.

 

I would've been put off by the slow roll of the villain more than the bad beat. He should've instashown his KK, IMO.

Villain put you on AK but he holds KK and the board holds the 3rd K. Was he serious?

 

I am one that is guilty of over thinking when I play. I go by my gut feeling on some stuff but I know I over think many situations and lay cards down that maybe I should have played. But you never know what cards are coming out next and that is a good thing and a bad thing.

I am pretty sure I have done it but recalling the cards and how it happened isn't something that I have stored away in the memory banks. I know that if it has happened to me I have been on both sides of the fence. Making a bad read on someone and having the poker gods give me a pass on it. Its just seems to be easier to remember the times that I lost.

I wouldn't say I was playing with more than I could afford to lose because I wont take more than that to a casino just in case I run bad on poker, blackjack, or slots. I know I lost for the most part more of someone else's money than my money. I just do not like to lose. Ever, at anything. For me going on hardcore tilt is when I start to play really stupid and paying to see a flop no matter what my cards are. "7 2 off...yup I remember 2 hours ago a flop was 772...it could happen again I better play this hand..." for how I normally play thats hardcore tilt.

By lesser hands for limit poker I was meaning more of anything suited or any connecting cards and will just call and try to hit runners if possible. When playing no limit people are less likely to play say K 7 suited but in limit it is a hard one to lay down because you can see the cards for a small bet. I know you cant lose what you do not put in the middle and I know if you don't put anything in the middle you cant win but there are just some hands that 95% you do not play because the statistics are against that hand.

I always forget tho that everyone has a "lucky" pocket hand. Mine happens to be K 2 clubs....I play it every time. Why? I do not know, I do not remember really winning anything with this hand but when I see those cards I get that gut feeling to play them every time.

 

I will play every possible combination of hole cards from any position...on occassion. When in position, the purpose is to steal the pot. The key to playing trash is to know when to slam the brakes on a bluff, and when to muck in a hairy situation. Playing "by the book" is good when you are learning, but you will make much more by learning to play position and learning when to steal. The texture of the board is much more important in stealing than what cards you are holding.

Like I said earlier, for your hand, the only way you could have escaped losing your stack is if both of you had deep stacks. If the board was connected, and/or, if the other guy put in a massive overbet, you could have let the rockets go...especially since the the amount already inveated was relatively small.

 

Variance is a bitch.

On back-to-back days I got all of my money ($200) in pre flop with my AA vs. KK, both times a king flops and felts me.

A few days later I am on the button with five people in the pot and one raiser. I re-raise with AA, one call, one shove for $700. I snap call. He had KK, but this time my Aces hold up.

Poker can be a roller coaster ride.

 

LOL! This was my first thought as well.

 

Since this was a casual recounting of an event in the past (from "a while ago") it would be hard to necessarily say if there was a slow roll or not...

OP doesn't really say how much time elapsed in the exchange, just that the other guy goes all in, OP calls, the other guy says he thought OP had AK and then turns over his cards.

Personally, if I think I am far ahead in the hand if there is an all in situation (either initiated by me or the other player) I always drag it out a little to make 100% sure of the other player's action. Thats just because a couple of times I have been on the other end of a player trying some dick move like "no, I said call" or "I didn't say all in... I was just moving my chips", stuff like that.

As for the guy saying "Oh, I thought you had Ace King" that one is hard to say: I know some people hate it when others say things like that and would take it as a slow roll, but I think people do it instinctively to try and smooth out the situation as a way of saying something like "I didn't realize how strong your hand was, sorry I cracked your aces" without actually saying all that - plus nobody is "sorry" they cracked your aces, so anybody that says "sorry" thats more of a load of crap and an insult than "I thought you had ace king"

 

You and your opponent both played the hand terribly. Had you guys played the hand well you certainly would have ended up felted but by the sheerly awful way the hand was played you should have been able to find a very cheap fold.

1/2 game (I assume, you bought in for 100) and you raise to $4 with aces.

He bets "small" on the flop... with a $10-11 pot it must have been a $5 bet? You raise, and seeing the way the hand is being played out I can't see your raise as being any bigger (and probably smaller) than $20 on top.

We now have a $40 pot of which 75% of the chips were yours to begin with, and he 3 bets all in for your entire stack since he busted you... he shoves your $20 and another $325 into a very small pot and you can't find a fold?

Bud, you got $4 in with the best hand, $25 in with the worst hand, and another $325 when you should have known you were beat.

 

Standard cooler - next hand.