That dive at the end consisted of two AA hands walking into sets followed by a bit of tilt as I mashed the pot button with a TPGK, only to see them make a second pair on the river.

There’s a couple of other big hands lost in the middle too, and they were TPGK’s too, so clearly not controlling all my demons.

It’s looking like multiway pots are a problem for me, and possibly something more – while all that was percolating around my head (it takes a while) I was browsing 2p2 and hit this thread http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/micro-stakes-pl-nl/top-pair-but-no-reads-easy-fold-863394

The thread was about this hand;

Immediately all the advice was to fold, and I was thinking wtf, fold big top pair with really good kicker? Then someone explained;

which made sense – if it had been me I’d have called (or even shoved maybe!). So I can’t even spot an easy fold

I’ve googled around for reasons but it seems to be a rare thing. Possibilities are either I bluff too much or I’m too much of a calling station. From that last hand I posted it could be that I’m allowing my opponents to draw out on me too often, although I’m usually aware of pot odds and try to protect my hand against the obvious FDs & connected boards. OTOH from these two hands I could quite likely be a calling station when I have marginal hands;

• showdown hand 1
  $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Holdem
  [url=http://weaktight.com/ftp/]FullTiltPoker[/url]
  6 Players

  Stacks:
  UTG ($5.51)
  Hero ($6.82)
  CO ($5.05)
  BTN ($3.80)
  SB ($3.09)
  BB ($5.26)

  Pre-Flop: ($0.07, 6 players) Hero is UTG+1 K J
  1 fold, Hero raises to $0.15, CO calls $0.15, 1 fold, SB calls $0.13, 1 fold

  Flop: 5 Q J ($0.50, 3 players)
  SB bets $0.50, Hero raises to $1.45, CO folds, SB calls $0.95

  Turn: 6 ($3.40, 2 players)
  SB bets $0.50, Hero calls $0.50

  River: 9 ($4.40, 2 players)
  SB goes all-in $0.99, Hero calls $0.99

  Final Pot: $6.38
  SB shows a pair of Queens
  Q 8
  Hero shows
  K J

  SB wins $5.96 (net +$2.87)

  Hero lost $3.09
  CO lost $0.15

• showdown hand 2
  $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Holdem
  [url=http://weaktight.com/ftp/]FullTiltPoker[/url]
  6 Players

  Stacks:
  UTG ($4.05)
  UTG+1 ($3.19)
  CO ($3.28)
  Hero ($5.20)
  SB ($9.09)
  BB ($3.63)

  Pre-Flop: ($0.07, 6 players) Hero is BTN A 4
  2 folds, CO calls $0.05, Hero raises to $0.15, 2 folds, CO calls $0.10

  Flop: 3 2 4 ($0.37, 2 players)
  CO checks, Hero bets $0.37, CO calls $0.37

  Turn: Q ($1.11, 2 players)
  CO bets $1.11, Hero calls $1.11

  River: 3 ($3.33, 2 players)
  CO goes all-in $1.65, Hero calls $1.65

  Final Pot: $6.63
  Hero shows
  A 4
  CO shows two pair, Queens and Threes
  Q J

  CO wins $6.19 (net +$2.91)

  Hero lost $3.28

I looked through nonshowdown hands, and it’s almost all flop cbets, with a few like this;

• non-showdown hand 1
  $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Holdem
  [url=http://weaktight.com/ftp/]FullTiltPoker[/url]
  6 Players

  Stacks:
  UTG ($6.54)
  UTG+1 ($0.38)
  CO ($4.48)
  Hero ($5.87)
  SB ($9.82)
  BB ($7.12)

  Pre-Flop: ($0.07, 6 players) Hero is BTN K A
  3 folds, Hero raises to $0.15, 1 fold, BB calls $0.10

  Flop: J 6 Q ($0.32, 2 players)
  BB bets $0.15, Hero raises to $0.45, BB folds

  Final Pot: $0.92

  Hero wins $0.88 (net +$0.28)

  BB lost $0.30

• non-showdown hand 2
  $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Holdem
  [url=http://weaktight.com/ftp/]FullTiltPoker[/url]
  6 Players

  Stacks:
  UTG ($5.22)
  UTG+1 ($3.45)
  CO ($12.59)
  Hero ($5.13)
  SB ($9.24)
  BB ($14.46)

  Pre-Flop: ($0.07, 6 players) Hero is BTN A 10
  UTG raises to $0.10, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.10, 2 folds

  Flop: 9 9 7 ($0.27, 2 players)
  UTG bets $0.14, Hero raises to $0.40, UTG folds

  Final Pot: $0.81

  Hero wins $0.78 (net +$0.28)

  UTG lost $0.24

so I kinda suspect my non-showdown stuff where I’m catching obvious bluffs is actually good, and if I were to sort out my CS tendencies it would still remain a solid +ve (or at least breakeven) line (obviously reduced since I’ll be folding those pots I’m currently calling).

Plus fwiw here’s some stats;

So far so good, more or less. Had one bad beat where my KT 2pair hand went all-in against their T8 2pair, and of course an 8 rolled out on the river – however need to put in loads more hands so those beats merge into the noise.

Anyway, if I’m supposed to be playing totally ABC, then what’s the move on this hand. Assume no history or stats (it is rush poker after all);

Turns out HEM has a bug – any time that I went out in the first round it was recording the match as a regular 2man HU match. So when I filtered my results on just 4mans those games weren’t included.

No wonder I was doing so well, but it explains I was getting frustrated that I couldn’t continue my 4man success when trying $10 single 2man HU matches. How depressing, it seems that I’m still crap at poker.

Update: It gets worse. I figured I’d experiment and see how far just value betting would take me. I’d still throw a few bluffs in, but just in obviously high FE spots.

Didn’t make any difference at all. It seemed to be an endless series of missed flops and villains with constant made hands.

In my last game the only hand I got that I’d consider ‘big’ was a straight, plus trips once was nice. The rest were weak pairs. My opponent got 2 flushes, 2 straights and also hit trips. It just felt like he never missed.

It’s felt that way all evening – I’ve played 11 games and only won 3. So I pushed all my opponents from today into one alias in HEM, and compared showdowns;

if straights+ are monsters, then they had 16, and I had 7. Obviously value betting isn’t enough, I’m going to need some kind of hole card spyware…

or, maybe I’m going to showdown too light? More to think about.