BrewBrain Sports Investing

In limited playing time, February was a very good month at the poker tables.  I decided to take the game seriously and turn it into a part time job.  Like clockwork, the downswing commenced.

It could be tons and tons worse given the horrible luck I’ve had, so I can’t complain.  I’ve had enough weirdos dump stacks to me in very strange ways that it has come somewhat close to offsetting the unusual number of sets and goofy straights my big hands have run into this month. 

Whenever I’m running bad, I like to look back through my database and review hands where I either won a big pot or lost a big pot.  On the winning hands, I’m looking to see if I could have played the hand differently to try and get more of my opponent’s stack.  On the losing hands, I try to determine whether I could have avoided shipping chips.  This also tells me whether I am truly running bad or just playing bad.  Or, commonly, a combination of the two.  To some extent, it is usually a combo.  This time, while I could play better in spots, I am definitely on a goofy run of terrible luck.  I am happy to say, I can’t find too many tilt-related losses at all.  There are a couple hands where I picked awful times to play back at opponents who had  been giving me trouble.  Mostly, though, I’ve been running into an unusual number of sets.  Plus, very often, my big hands have become counterfeited by the river.  I’ve had quite a number of flopped sets get drawn out by gutshot straights, etc.  I’ve also gotten it in pre-flop with KK three times against AA, while not once having AA against KK.  One of these I was lucky enough to flop a K.  Queens I can get away from.  I’m not sure I’ve ever been able to fold Kings. 

I have noticed that my table selection process needs polishing.  I am pretty good about selecting decent tables to start out, but I don’t leave often enough when a bunch of tight aggressive players are sitting around the table.  There isn’t much money to be made once the table degrades to six probable long-term winners in the game.  I’m pretty confident this is my major leak currently.  It is the easiest to fix.  Consider it done.

So, all told, so far in March I’ve played just shy of 19K hands and I’m down just over $100 playing 25NL, so just over four buy-ins.  With rakeback, though, I’m at about break even.  I have one last weekend to turn my numbers green.