Double-down
I've got two sessions to recap, but both will be brief.

Saturday (11/1) - To be honest, I remember very little from this session. It was of significant length, but I took no notes and by the end was basically braindead, so I've got nothing specific to go over. I do know that I took a really early dive and spent the whole session trying to dig out of a hole. Toward the very end of the night, as tables were breaking and new players were filing in (who all had very short stacks), I made up a lot of lost ground, but overall, I booked a loss for the night. Definitely not as bad as it could have been, though. I think this was another one of those nights where I end up down where I was never really up. It's weird how that works out. I wish had more specifics from this session, but...well, I don't. :)

Monday (11/3) - This was last night, and it was definitely my worst session in recent memory. It got off to a terrible start, and sadly it didn't get much better. I hit a few losses really early on, and I definitely dropped a buy-in within the first hour. The very sad ending to this phase of things was my calling off my stack with AQ with an ace on the flop vs. opponents AK. Rookie shit right there, I feel, but...in my own defense, I did at least sit and think about it for a while. :) For pretty much the first half, though, things just overall didn't go right. Like, ever. It is entirely likely that I was just pure and simple getting outplayed. For sure I was more the victim than the perpetrator of aggression. Would bluff, and someone would jam. I would bet a mediocre hand, and someone would jam. It got pretty ridiculous after a while.

Something else that sticks in my mind about this particular table lineup was that there was a lot of that bizarre pre-flop limp-calling mania afoot. I know I used to run into that all the time, but I feel like it's been a while since I've seen that. But it's like...five people limp, late position makes a significant raise, every limper calls. Usually I don't mind situations like that, since it's also often the case that with that kind of pre-flop play, I can often take down a nice pot post-flop with just a c-bet, if I was the pre-flop raiser. Which I did do, by the way, at this table. Complicating factors, though, was that it was often a two-barrel operation. It would generally go like this: pre-flop, many limpers, I raise in LP, all limpers call, flop comes, checked around to me, I bet the pot, one caller for a heads-up turn, turn card comes, check to me, I bet half the pot, Villain grumps for a while and folds. This sequence was totally agnostic to the actual value of the cards. It's a nice setup, but it's high variance, since the times it doesn't work (usually meeting a jam over my turn bet), I've already put in a significant amount of money. So, whatever. It is what it is.

I definitely made some decent laydowns over the course of that session. I probably also bluffed to much, but it's so hard not to when you see the above pattern emerge, and you know what kind of money you can take down with bluffs. I was also experimenting with a new, more aggressive pre-flop strategy, which definitely upped variance, but (hopefully) gets more money flowing. Basically I'm finding that with that kind of loose-passive pre-flop play, I like to raise a lot more with speculative hands, just to juice the pot up. I don't think the technique holds water from a purely pot-odds perspective, but when you factor in the number of times that a pre-flop raise can lead to a post-flop win with just betting, I think it makes a lot of sense. I was pre-flop raising everything. I mean, not everything, but everything I would normally limp with. The results were so-so. Like...assuming I would take down the same pots post-flop as I normally would, they were bigger. But it also meant that I was often going in pre-flop with the worst of it, and it made it a lot harder to gauge when this was the case (e.g. the AQ vs. AK incident). Also, I was trying to throw in the odd check on the flop after pre-flop raising, which I almost never do. One time it really paid off when it turned out someone in front of me had flopped a junk two-pair; I got out of that trap cheaply. ;)

Anyway. I never dug myself out of the initial hole I fell into. As a rule of thumb, if I'm down less than a buy-in, I don't sweat it too much, but this last session was definitely more than that. If my calculations are correct, I think that's three losing sessions in a row. Bummer. I definitely got the feeling that I was playing badly. It was a little hard to tell, to be honest, because I was trying a bunch of new stuff out which was abnormal for me, and also my opponents played pretty erratically, so it was really hard for me to suss out what was working and what wasn't. All I know for sure is that I booked a pretty significant loss, and that I have no particular thing I can point to about why, except it is undeniable that I was playing more aggressively than usual, and probably also more loosely. I guess the loose-aggressive world is not really one where I'm most comfortable, but it just seemed like the thing to do at that table. I was probably very much mistaken about that, in retrospect, considering the number of times people jammed on me. ;) (To make it better, though, they often did show their cards, and they had a reason to jam, it wasn't just stealing.)

Anyway. I only really remember the specifics on a couple hands.

One was pretty early on, during that dismal first hour. I had raised in late/middle with JJ after several limpers. We went to the flop like five-ways or something stupid like that. The flop came T94. The guy on my right opens the betting for some small amount, relative to the pot. Something like $15 into $60? I raised it, I forget how much, but I probably made it like $50, everyone else folded, and the dude three-bet me all in for like a couple hundred. Huh? I actually tanked on that for quite a while. Not that I shouldn't clearly fold there, but I really had to talk myself into it. Overpairs are such pains in the ass. Most of my hesitation was trying to put him on a hand. I kind of rejected T9. I forget now why...I just did. Eventually I figured set of fours. Anyway, it didn't matter...I eventually folded face-up. He showed T9.

Heh. You know, in retrospect, that hand doesn't seem nearly as significant as it seemed at the time. I guess that's how it goes. :)

One thing that stuck was just a coin flip that I lost. I somehow found myself heads-up OOP with A7c against a pre-flop re-raiser. (Yeah, I made a crappy pre-flop call, so what. Everyone else was doing it!) I flopped pretty much the best I could hope for under the circumstances, all rags with two clubs and a seven. So I check-raised all-in and got called by QQ. No help for me, and I double Villain up. I think I was super close to 50/50 on that, so, clearly I'd take those odds (overlay from the pot, plus...what the hell...even a 1% chance he'll fold puts me in the lead ;) ). Anyway, nothing special about that. Just an example that not all these losses are my fault. ;)

Here's the one that blew my mind. I'm not going to tell you my cards (yet), just so you can see how bizarre I found this guy's play. I believe I was in the big blind for this hand. Maybe six people limped in to the pot, which comes something like A82. It checks around to Villain in middle position who bets out $10 (pot is like $12). Folds around to me, and I check-raise to $30. Interloper, behind me but in front of Villain, cold-calls the check-raise. (This is perfectly normal for this guy and nothing to be worried about; better than even money says that he's got a backdoor draw and will fold on the turn.) Villain calls the raise. Turn comes a blank, like a 6 or something. Pot is now about $100, I bet out $70. Interloper, as always, folds. Villain thinks a little while, then calls. River is a 9. Board is now A8269 rainbow. I bet out $75, thinking I had bet $75 on the turn, but whatever. Villain tanks for several minutes, then folds A8 face-up.

What. The. Fuck. So, firstly, what the hell do you think I have? Secondly, what do you think I have that you can call on the turn and fold on the river?! Bizarre.