Mildbeat Cubed

Nothing went right for me last night. I suffered a series of mild bad beats which, whilst unremarkable in their own right, when combined made it a highly unlucky and miserable night. If just one of them had gone my way, I’d have rescued the night, but ultimately I ended the cash session down £750 which is my biggest live loss for some time. Taking into account the fact I was £300+ up (yet again) and it was a painful downswing.

I won’t bore with the bad beat details, but I lost a £600ish pot when I was 88% when the money went in, and a £300 pot when I was 82%. I then followed up by suffering a few less brutal outdraws, before getting a bit coolered flopping AA7 to go with my hole cards of A8, and Wilkinson’s AT ended up out kicking me. To be honest I was in a bit of a daze by then or I might have found a fold.

I then crowned my night by finding JJ on the button and running into the AA of Mark in the big blind. I was down to my last £250 by then, so wasn’t going anywhere with my pocket Jacks. The money went in pre-flop, and I even threatened an outdraw of my own by flopping a Jack, but I was quickly re-raped by an Ace appearing on the river.

At that point I decided to call it a night, but it’s fair to say I’ve played significantly worse and won before, so I’m not too downhearted.

My tournament didn’t go any better as I was second man out of the door. We had about 12 runners, and it went down something like this:

Hand1
I limp button with 8♥4♠, Mark + Sir Mike come along.
Flop is 5, K, 2
I bet 100 and Mike calls
Turn is 6
I bet 200 and Mike calls
River is a 7 to luckbox a straight
I bet 600 and Mike reluctantly calls.

Hand2
I raise KJ in cutoff to 300 and Mark calls on the button.
Flop arrives all low and I continuation bet to 500 which is called. I am about to give up on the hand, when a King binks on the turn. I check, Mark bets 900, which I check raise to 2100. Mark pretty much shoves straight away for 1500 more, and I hate my hand and figure I must be toast as there are no draws. However, I’m getting 5-1 on my money, and I’ve got about a 10% of moving ahead on him on the river (assuming he has a better King, two pair or overpair). Throw in the small chance he is doing something rash and I guess I can justify a call. I dunno - perhaps I should just let it go. Anyhow, I call and he has a slowplayed AA and I don’t improve.

I’m not happy with this hand - I think it was the worst one I played all evening. Getting most of my chips in with top pair, medium kicker is pretty foolish, and if I can’t fold to Mark’s super strong shove what is the point of the check raise on the turn. Originally I had made the check raise to find out where I was, but then I completely ignored the information. Anyhow, I am left with 600

Hand3
I get it in with QT against KJ and double up to 1200.

Hand4
SB makes up and I check in the BB with 83
Flop arrives 8, 8, 3
Check, Check
Turn is 7
SB bets 200 and I call
River is a 7, which kind of kills my action.
SB checks and I shove my last 900 in trying to look desperate but the SB passes a rivered flush

Hand5
Blinds are now 100-200, and it is folded round to me in the SB and I shove with 9T. Mark finishes me off with A7, and that was that.

Unfortunately I’ll have to wait till next week now to put this poor night behind me.