Snickers99

I played in a freeroll Sunday afternoon.  About 1,600 people and I finished something like 512th.  It’s more or less a turbo tournament and I played maybe three hands (never was above the starting stack) before being forced to shove with 9-4o or I would have been blinded off.  Unfortunately, 9-4 was one of the best hands I got when I reached the point of fold or shove.  I did have JJ once earlier in the tournament.  Faced a sizable raise before me preflop, just called, and it was reraised behind me.  I was all ready to fold even before it got back to the original raiser, who then shoved.  The other guy called and it was KK (original raiser) vs QQ.  Jack on the flop had me temporarily pissed until I realized the flop also had a king.  And I was really happy that I folded when the QQ made a straight on the river.

The reason I mention this is because I kinda enjoyed playing…although playing three hands, I don’t know if you really call that playing.  But no sense of impending doom when I was logging onto PS, no fists punching the computer desk or anything like that.  I was looking forward to playing.  I think that’s a good sign.  Then I checked my balance.  Whoa.  I didn’t realize I had that much money sitting there.  (It’s not a lot, but more than I thought.)

I also checked my bonuses.  I knew I had a bonus to clear and figured I had lost the opportunity to clear it by not playing a single cash hand in over two months.  But luckily, it doesn’t expire until some time in August.  I’m going from memory here, but I think I’m about half way through clearing it.  It’s only $25, but $25 is $25.

This all leads to me possibly playing online a lot sooner rather than later.  I know I mentioned before that I thought when I returned, I might drop down to $10NL for a while, but bonuses are hard to clear at that level.  So, I might jump back into the $25NL game to see how things go.  If things don’t go well, maybe I won’t worry about the bonus and drop down to $10NL.  No sense in losing $100 to win $25.

In talking to someone at work, I think I know at least one reason why I suddenly gave up poker.  Well, first, I should say that it’s not unlike me to suddenly lose interest in something.  One example, I was really getting into photography years ago and then just lost interest.  But I think one thing that bothers me is, well, losing.  I’m not talking about losing to someone who outplayed me, losing a coin flip, or misreading an opponant.  No, it’s the suckouts that are killing me.  I know they happen and maybe I’m doing something wrong to put myself in that situation.

There’s a general theory that as you get better in poker, you’ll get sucked out on more often.  Basically, the theory goes that as you get better and know the odds, improve your hand reading skills, etc, the more often you’ll be putting your money in good.  So, in theory, when you lose it’s because someone caught up to you.  That’s the basics, anyway.  I’m not going to get into bluffing and all that.  But it just seems that I get sucked out on a lot more often than me sucking out on someone else.

I’m not saying I’m the world’s best player and I should never get sucked out on.  And, of course, at the levels I play, the play is looser and you can expect more suckouts.  It’s just that I’m getting tired of it.  What bugs me about poker is that you can play perfectly and still lose.  And in February, I was tired of losing and lost interest.

Despite that, I think I’ll be playing sometime this month.  I think I might go over my hands from February…just to get back in the swing of things and to get used to things again.  Haven’t used my poker muscles in a while.  Although right now, time is an issue.  It’s hockey playoff time and the Pens are in the second round.  I’ve been going to the games and watching on TV.  Plus, I try to keep up with the other games as well.  It’s a fun time of the year to watch hockey.  I’ll have to try to squeeze in a session soon to see how it goes.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 5:04 pm and is filed under General Poker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.