The Joy of Losing...?

Every poker player goes through it....the peaks and valleys of your bankroll. At least in the low-limit arena the big swings in my bankroll are $15-$30 in a single day and not hundreds or even thousands in cases of other poker players that I have spoken with. (Don't these guys have a house payment?)

Well tonight was a swing toward the valley...

I was beat out of a $5 sng in fourth place (one place out of the money!), then I lost in a $10 sng. I decided to play some heads up sng's in which turned out to be both a losing venture as well as a learning experience.

Heads Up SNG's
(By the way...sng stands for Sit and Go tournament which means that you pay $5,$10 or $20 to get 1500 chips and play until you either win or run out chips. You typically play against either 1 person (heads up) or 8 others (standard) with the winners getting a share of the pot.)

My first heads up sng was against a player called vanhalen1. I only remember this because I remarked about how that was a great album and I got a great response back from him and I quote "yeah". I was keeping up with mr vanhalen1 and pulled ahead a bit when the following hand came up where I was dealt a Qc/Jc. Soooted!!! I tripled the BB bet of 40 making the bet to him 120. He called. The flop came out QQ6. Woo Hoo!!! I Bet 360 (remember this isn't real money!) and he called. next card was a 4, and I check and he checks. Last card is a 10 and he pushes all in and I call which left me 80 chips left. The cards flip over and he has a Queen and a 6 giving him a full house.

...That's Poker! You know that you are going to lose a few of these every once and a while...and if Murphy's law is invoked that means that this will happen to you a bunches and very close together.

I came back somewhat then lost that game.

I entered another heads up sng, and I lose that one in almost the same way. I have trip sixes and he has trip eights. Go Figure.

Then the last game I figure that I will play knowing I am going to lose it and study my opponent. It must be understood that in a heads up game, the way you play and the cards that you should be willing to play are considerably different that if you were 6-8 handed. Back to the game. The person I was playing was about my skill level which only means it took much longer to lose this game than the other two.

I made the conscience effort to study my opponents play and watch for weaknesses. I found them, but unfortunately the cards did not agree with me. Of the 14 coinflips that I was in today/tonight I only won 2. That is a trend that I will hopefully not repeat for a while.

My KQ was being beat by 5/6. I never got Aces. I never got a pair better than Jacks. I actually had A10 suited in spades and lost a flush draw to a straight flush (Oh the humanity).

Oh yeah...what is the malarky about the JOY of LOSING? Here it is. Sometimes all the skill in the world doesn't change the fact that sometimes you aren't going to get the cards, and you still have to learn how to win without them. Use this time to learn, because if you just kick the dirt and whine you will be in the same place a year from now. Still Losing!