So the good news is that I just had my best day of poker of all time last night. Playing mostly 10/20 6-max, I calmy and steadily just won, won, won and kept on winning all night. I wish it were all skill, but it really isn't all that hard to win when you can play against guys like the SB here:
Party Poker 10/20 Hold'em (6 max, 6 handed) converter
Preflop: Hero is BB with Td, Tc.
UTG calls, 3 folds, SB completes, Hero raises, UTG calls, SB calls.
Flop: (6 SB) 3d, Ts, 9c (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, UTG folds, SB calls.
Turn: (4 BB) 4s (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, SB calls.
River: (6 BB) 9h (2 players)
SB bets, Hero raises, SB calls.
Final Pot: 10 BB
Results:
SB has Jc Ks (one pair, nines).
Hero has Td Tc (full house, tens full of nines).
Outcome: Hero wins 10 BB.
And then the big blind here got a little over-zealous on the flop with his A-high:
Party Poker 10/20 Hold'em (6 max, 6 handed) converter
Preflop: Hero is Button with Ks, Kh.
UTG raises, 2 folds, Hero 3-bets, 1 fold, BB calls, UTG calls.
Flop: (9.50 SB) Qs, 7h, 8d (3 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets, BB raises, UTG 3-bets, Hero caps, BB calls, UTG calls.
Turn: (10.75 BB) 8s (3 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets, BB calls, UTG calls.
River: (13.75 BB) Jc (3 players)
BB bets, UTG folds, Hero raises, BB calls.
Final Pot: 17.75 BB
Results:
BB has Ah Js (two pair, jacks and eights).
Hero has Ks Kh (two pair, kings and eights).
Outcome: Hero wins 17.75 BB.
It looked like QJ to me...who knew I gave him too much credit?
Anyways, I could post a dozen more hands like this with simply baffling play by opponents, but you get the idea.
I'm at just under 20,000 hands now for the 10/20 6-max and cruising along at just under 2.5 BB/100, and that's including a gut-wrenching 130 BB downswing and also last weekend when I LAGged myself practically into a break-even player for over 7000 hands. 2.5/100 is my overall goal and I think I may very well be able to sustain my success. As always, though, the long run is a very long ways away, so I'm definitely not counting my chickens until they're hatched.
As for the bad news...
What was Roger thinking?
In the fourth inning of last night's game, Clemens works the count on Jeromy Burnitz to 1-2 and then does something inexcusable: Clemens throws him an inside fastball. Burnitz of course rockets the ball over Jason Lane's head for a double on what was one of the hardest hit balls I've seen in a long time.
That shouldn't have been a surprise because that's what Burnitz does: he looks for the inside fastball, always. Throw him something else and he an adjust enough to hopefully foul it off or (more often) ground out softly or (most often) swing and miss, but if you throw him an inside fastball, just kiss it goodbye. All he can do is wait for a pitcher to make that mistake inside, so he can capitalize.
So of course we can fast-forward to the seventh inning when Clemens is again facing Burnitz. Clemens goes 0-2 and then 3-2 on Burnitz before, in what has to be the most stunningly stupid decision I've seen made by anyone not on Party Poker, he once again throws Burnitz an inside fastball. Hello! Hecan'thandleanyotherpitch,hejustsitsthereandwaitsforyoutodothathello! Of course Burnitz launches a moon shot for a solo home run which proves to be the game-winner.
So what the heck was Roger thinking? Rocket, you have a wonderful pitch called the splitter that looks like a fastball but is a little slower and sharply breaks downward as it approaches the plate. Throw an inside one of those. Burnitz will just flail away at it. And if by some miracle he lays off of it and you walk him, so what?? The bottom of the order is coming up, Todd Hollandsworth, Michael Barrett and Greg Maddux. Burnitz is the exact last dangerous hitter you have to face. Why give him exactly what he wants in his wheelhouse?
Argh!
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