What the Hell Do I Know?

In an ironic twist of fate you cold see coming from a mile away. As soon as I wrote my last post about "the things I've learned" I proceed to lose in my next two sessions.

Party Poker had given me a $40 bonus to come back and play at their site. I spent a good amount of time on their .10-.25 blind NL games trying to work off my hands to earn the bonus. I finally finished and had about $50 in the account. I decided to move back up to the .25-.50 level and play some more "serious" poker. I was stacked off within 15 minutes and the party balance is back down to nothing.

The first hand of my demise, I have QsJd under the gun. I limp in for .50 The small blind folds and Canalope in the Big Blind checks.

The flop is Qd Qc 5h. Yahtzee! Although I have a great hand, chances are that Canalope has flopped nothing. I want to give him a chance to catch up. Canalope checks and I check it through.

The turn is 7s. No flush is possible and very remote chance of a straight. I still have the best hand. This time Canalope bets out .50 and I smooth call hoping for a good card on the river.

The river is 6s. It makes a 3 card straight, but it's still not very threatening. This time he bets $2. I raise to $5 hoping for a crying call. Instead he raises me to $15. I just call since I don't have the nuts. Canalope turns over Qh 6h for the rivered full house. Man that sucks. Again another reason why No Limit can drive people crazy with the swings. In limit poker I only lose a couple of bucks on this hand, but in No Limit I lose close to $20.

My demise was soon to follow.

I am in the small blind with Kc Qd. Canalope calls on the button after one other limper. I complete and the small blind checks.

Flop 3s Qc 6c.

I bet $1. The big blind and other limper folds and Canalope raises me to $3. I call. Canalope did not raise on the button preflop but now he's raising on a pretty uncoordinated board. I put him on a weaker Queen, maybe QJ or QT. A set is a possibility but he hasn't had a chance to prove it to me yet. There is $8 in the pot.

The turn is Qh. Now I have top set with a good kicker. If he has a set of 6's or 3's I am screwed. If he has the weaker Queen, I'm in great shape. I decide to go for a check raise since he raised on flop. I check and Canalope checks behind me.

Now I am convinced that he has a weak Queen or maybe a pair of Tens or 9's.

The river is a Jack of hearts. Even though I thought he may have QJ, there are a lot of other hands that I beat so I lead out for $7 an almost pot sized bet. Canalope raises to $25. What the fuck! I don't wait to try and talk myself out of it and I call. Canalope shows Ace-Queen and my hand is no good.

Canalope played the hand sneaky slow and unconventionally and it worked to perfection.

So I am back down to $0.50 in my Party Poker Account.

However, I did make a strong comeback on Full Tilt. I am up a net $60 since my last post due to some nice wins on Full Tilt and a marathon 8 hour session at Casino Arizona yesterday.

We'll see how I do on the Wednesday night game this week.