Yeah, as usually happens after I write a nice positive blog, there have been some setbacks. I've backslid about $500, so my plans to take shots at bigger games will have to wait. Not really a lot I could do about some of the losses, as there were a few coolers, but there are a few highlights, including one hand I absolutely botched beyond comprehension.

We'll start with that one. OK, this is a somewhat controversial situation. I am sitting directly left of my buddy in a live game. Now, when we play together, we usually just stay out of each other's way. Some people may think it constitutes a sort of implicit collusion not to play all-out against a friend at the table, but stuff happens, and it's just understood that we won't really take shots at each other. Really, since it doesn't affect anyone else at the table (if anything, they benefit from it if they pick up that neither of us will bluff at a hand the other is in), I don't think it's that big a deal. Some people may feel differently, and honestly I would prefer not to do it, but that's just kinda the way things happen when you're playing with someone you know.

Anyway, it gets folded to him in MP and he raises to $11. I look down at two Aces. Now, here is my dilemma. If I raise, the hand ends now, unless someone picks up KK/QQ behind me, and I make pretty much no money (because my friend will not call the reraise, and if he does, he will just want to check it down). However, if I call, I might get a call from some other bad players too, and I can make some money in the hand. Only the BB calls behind me, so we go to the flop three ways, and I have about $300 behind. The flop is . The BB checks, my friend bets $20, and I again decide to just call, thinking that the BB will either call with a weak hand, but will not call a raise with a hand I beat, and I cannot win any more money from my friend (because he will not call a raise here without a set). But then the BB does something I do not expect: he raises to $120. My friend folds, and I make a terrible decision. Now, the BB is a regular, and normally plays very loose-passive. He will CALL a lot of bets with marginal hands, but he will not be aggressive unless he is pretty sure he has the best hand, which is always better than one pair. In other words, there is no hand he is raising here that I beat, and because he is loose passive, he will not fold any stronger hands either! Despite this fact, I lost my head, shoved in, and he instacalled with Q5. I was unable to catch a second pair or an Ace, and I decimated my stack.

I made two major mistakes. One, I should have just reraised preflop and ended the hand (unless someone has KK or QQ in which case I win a lot anyway). Two, I should have folded to the flop check-raise. By playing it tricky the way I did preflop, I should not have gone broke here, because I was not committed. Lesson learned.

The other day I was in a wild game where one player was constantly straddling for $15-$20 and then reraising his option a lot with ATC (but he will fold a weak hand if he gets caught). I had a stack of about $250, and I made a move I'm somewhat comfortable with. He straddled for $15 when I was on the button. It gets folded to me, and I called $15 with TT. Now, here is my logic. In a similar situation the round earlier, I had raised to $60 with AA and he folded. Here, my plan had two contingencies. One, he checks his option and I get to see a relatively cheap flop with TT, and I will try to win a big pot if I hit a set/overpair and I can play with position. Two, he raises preflop and then I shove over the top with what is highly likely to be the best hand. The BB called, and sure enough, he raised to $45. I then followed through with my plan and shoved in my chips. Surprisingly, the BB called (I was not worried he had me beat), but then the straddler says "are you crazy?" as he snap-ships. The straddler had woken up with AA. Oops. GG stack there.

I am pretty comfortable with my play there, as he would have reraised a ton of hands there, just based on how I'd seen him play all day.

I'm still ahead for the month, so I'll just have to keep working hard and grinding it out. The good news is, though, that I'm into grad school, so I will have something else to occupy my time come September. That will be welcome, because playing low limit Poker day after day can be exhausting after awhile. That's why I've taken a few days off, and might be back at the tables either tomorrow or Thursday.