Don't Play Poker to Wind Down

Played $50 NL hold'em for two hours late last night. Played absolutely shite.

In terms of play I made all the mistakes the better player in me knows not to make. Mistakes I normally profit from when others make them - ill conceived bluffs, far too much limping preflop, draw chasing without odds, calling instead of raising when ahead, paying off winning hands blah blah blah ad infinitum. If I was watching me I would think: FISH!

Observation wise, I was all over the place. I wasn't reading the board properly, I was reading my opponents poorly and in one hand I even found myself only noticing an opponent on one side of the table, totally forgetting that another player was also active in the hand.

Really I shouldn't have been playing at all, as me and the other half have recently had a medical problem to deal with and it's been praying on my mind, and into the bargain I was quite tired. I suppose I played to try and forget the problems and wind down, but they were always there niggling at me throughout the session.

The lesson: Don't use poker to wind down and de-stress, it really doesn't work. I'll rephrase that: By all means play poker to wind down and de-stress if you don't care about winning. But if you're the type who plays poker to win then have a few drinks to wind down instead of playing a few hands.

I only played one $50 NL table because, even in my emotional state, I was self aware enough to know that my concentration was only partly there. The table I played was really loose and pretty aggressive, the pots were big and there was plenty of loose calling, loose betting and bluffing going on.
If I was playing my A-game it would have been a most glorious table to be at. Sadly I was playing my C-game all night and I was one of the loosies, as John Vorhaus describes them in his Killer Poker books.

I tried two stupid bluffs against players who I had already noticed were incapable of folding any pair. A player called Mike was constantly raising the flop and turn, and "value" betting 1/4 the pot on the river with top-pair-no-kicker and middle-pair-middle-kicker type of holdings. He was the type who wouldn't fold if he had any piece of the board, unless someone moved in on him. Even then he was making some very questionable calls.

In one hand I got ahead of myself and stupidly tried to bluff Mike by betting the the pot into him on the river after check calling his big bet on the turn. I had to fold when he reraised me all-in.

Ten minutes after this hand I was in the small blind and called a UTG pre-flop raise with T9s. I know I know.......calling a raise from out of position, with a suited connector and with only 3-way action. Little chance of winning a big pot even if I hit the fop hard. I can't say I'd recommend it as a quality play. Mike had limped from OTB and also called the raise.

I flopped a full house, nines over tens and the board was two tone. A scary enough board, paired and with two suited cards. I checked to the original raiser who led out for the size of the pot. Mike raised large and I called. To observant players my check and then an overcall would look suspicious, but I wanted to keep the original raiser in as my hand was unlikely to be outdrawn. The original raiser folded.

The turn made me tens full and the stone cold nuts. In keeping with my action on the flop I checked and Mike checked behind. The pot was now about 55bb.

I was now trying to think how I could get paid big on the river. A few minutes before he had raised me all-in on the river after I tried to bluff him, and I had to fold. In that disastrous hand I had "call bluffed" on the turn to try and steal on the river.

"Could I exploit my earlier bad play? Maybe Mike sees me as a bluffer". I figured he was likely suspicious of me and might just call me with a worse hand.

So I decided my best chance to get paid big was to make it look like I was trying to buy the pot. He was a very loose player and likely would not be able to dump a strong hand even if he thought he was beaten.

The river was a king. There was a very small chance he had called the raise preflop with kings but I discounted this because there was absolutely no way I was not getting my stack in the middle here. I overbet into him for about 70bb, almost putting myself all-in.
He thought for a few seconds, called and doubled me up. I don't know what he had as he mucked his hand.
Ironically, I don't think he would have paid me off if the previous failed bluff hand hadn't happened.

That hand halved my losses for the night. I was stuck for over two buy-ins at one point, but I soon called it a night and was lucky to finish down only one buy-in.