Not Firing On All Cylinders

Played for about an hour and a three quarters last night. The usual $25 NL Hold'em. Not a particularly good session, down $12 overall.

Started off tight and stayed that way for a while. Played few hands and the very very few times I did hit a hand I bet it strongly. But little in pay-offs. Varying between being up and down 8-12 dollars most of the session.

The table was initially quite loose with one or two players making very bad calls, but unfortunately these players got stacked by others before I could get to them.
I was getting no premiums and very few even playable hands, and was hoping for an opportunity to play connectors or the like and hit a strong disguised hand. But anytime I stuck my neck out to tried and sneak in with a suited connector I was snapped off by a big raise. I was soon down about $17 and feeling a bit frustrated but anyway I bought back up to $25.

Was getting a bit impatient and made a few silly plays like raising with J8s and calling a preflop raise with 97s only to flop middle pair and fold to a bet.
But eventually an opportunity arose. I limped in with a pair of fours in MP. A very loose player in LP raised, another player called and I called.
The flop was a nice 4-rag-rag. At last I thought, a hand! With no straight or flush draws on the raggedy flop I checked. To my dismay the raiser checked behind me, as did the third player. I figured he might have Ax and had not hit.

The turn looked like a blank and the board was four different suits and no straight draws, so I decided to check again - I figured betting now would look suspicious and they would both fold to any bet.

The river came an ace. This was potentially a great card for me as it was very likely one of them (probably the raiser) held a high card hand. Continuing my pattern so far in the hand, I checked. Now my opponent bet the pot and the third player mucked. I raised him a bit and he reraised back all in (he had about $14). I called and he showed AK. A nice pot and I was back to nearly even.

After a while I sensed the table had lost its profitability and when two sharks I had encountered before sat down I should probably have taken it as a sign from the gods and called it a night. But for whatever reason I stayed on. Both sharks were very tight players, and when they entered a pot they usually bet very aggressively.

The sharks were folding and folding patiently and I was getting bored and tired but I wouldn't get up and go to bed. I tried a steal when last to act on a rag board after the turn and river were checked-checked, but my $3 bet was called by a player with middle pair no kicker! Doh! When trying a steal, at least consider the likelihood your opponent will fold. This guy had been calling with weak hands all night and I should have remembered that.

About half an hour elapses and I have AKs on the button... one limper calls and the shark to my right makes it $1.50. Him being tight, I put him on anything from AA to roughly 88, AK or KQ. I briefly contemplate reraising but as I have position I decide to call and see a flop. The limper also calls.

While waiting for the flop I was thinking about what I would do if an A flopped and also trying to think what the shark would be likely to do if an A flopped and he had AA, KK, AK lower pair etc. But my thoughts were a bit muddled. And I was a bit wary of this player as he usually played a very tight range of hands.

The flop came A-rag-rag. Shark bet about half the pot. My thinking was that it's more likely he has AK or an underpair (KK-88) than AA. But AA was possible and if I called I wouldn't know where I stood on the turn. So I raised about 3 times his bet, intending to fold if he reraised me large (negative thinking?). The limper folded and after thinking for a while, shark layed it down.

I thought afterward that his half pot bet was more likely a "see where I am" bet than a value bet and am not sure if I made the right decision in raising. Maybe I could have made more out of him by flat calling the flop bet, but there was no draw on the board that I could credibly be playing; and he would have had to have put me on an A and would therefore be unlikely to pay me off on the turn if he couldn't beat my pair of aces.

An hour passed and I was getting tired, feeling unfocussed and past the point where I should have quit for the night. Why do I play when I am not firing on all cylinders? I suppose because I want to play, but that's not a good enough reason.

Now I'm in the big blind, and oh, here's JJ. Two callers in MP and Mr Shark raises $1.50 from the button. I call.
The flop comes three cards lower than my jacks. I'm first to act. Now what? With a pot of about $5.50, I decide to "donk" bet $3. The preflop caller folds and after thinking for ages shark raises to $8.50. The question I'm asking by donk betting into him is "Can you beat JJ?", and his raise says "Yes I can". The flop is lowish cards so his raise says high pair or bluff. I'm contemplating a fold but don't feel too good about it. But I'm definitely not going to call, it's either raise all-in or muck. The tight side of TAG. I credit him with AA-KK-QQ and lay down my jacks.

Thinking back over this hand I think I made a mistake by betting my jacks on the flop from out of position. He had previously seen me raising him on the flop in the AK hand when he had raised preflop. He had folded so didn't see my cards.
This hand was playing out similarly, perhaps from his point of view he remembered the previous AK hand and figured I was 'again' stealing on a rag flop.
So maybe he decided to play back at me with a hand like AK when in fact my jacks were good?

Overall I am unhappy with how I played. Though I did bet solidly to protect some made hands, overall I feel I played weak tight at times and too loose at other times. And I tried a couple of very dumb bluffs. I played when feeling unfocussed and tired. I think it was Mike Caro who said that the time you feel like you are "stuck to the chair" is the very time you should leave the game.

On to better sessions......