Whenever one of his students complains about suffering a bad beat at the hands of a fishy player, the Guru likes to respond, “if you don’t like playing with bad players, exactly who is it you would prefer to play against?”
While I normally agree with those words of wisdom, I realized today that sometimes idiots are the last possible opponents you want at your table. Case in point: a single table sit-n-go I played this afternoon.
With a free hour to kill on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I jumped into a $3+.40 SnG and played a very solid game of poker. I was pretty proud of myself for my game, including a couple of big lay-downs and pre-flop folds. For instance, I patted myself on the back for a fold of AQs in the small blind pre-flop to a super tight-passive UTG player who (min) raised for the first time in the game, forty hands in. The big blind called and lost to AK that the UTG player turned over. My AQ would have lost a lot of dough because two aces flopped and I would probably have gotten all my money into the middle.
Anyway, I managed to build up a T4000 stack through slow and steady play, getting aggressive when it seemed the opp was weak, and getting off losing hands when they played back. When we hit the bubble I was second largest stack, and the two shorties had less than T1200 apiece with the blinds at 75/150. All I had to do was sit back and await the popping of the bubble….
…except that the big stack at my table turned into a complete tool. He single-handedly kept the other two short stacks fed and nourished while I slowly went broke. He would continuously call (or check-call) big bets from the other two players on the flop and the turn, and then fold on the river. Eight times he let those two guys come back from near extinction. He was on my right, so there was little to nothing I could do to stop the insanity. His own stack dropped from T6500 down to T3000, redistributing the wealth to the other two players and dragging me down with him.
My own playable hands weren’t holding up either (my 55 lost to 66 and my AT lost to AJ). I ended up busting out in fourth place when the blinds got up to 200/400 + a 25 ante and I had to push with a weak ace and just T1300 in my stack as the blinds approached. Of course I got called, and of course the player who knocked me out was the bozo on my right holding Q4o. Arhgh.
I’m not sure what the lesson is to be learned, except maybe to either really batten down the hatches and not play any hands unless they’re monsters (JJ or larger and AQ+??) in this situation, or maybe open up the aggression against the idiot and try to knock him out before he kills me. Dunno. All I really know is how pissed off I was at this one bozo, who obviously didn’t understand the concept of busting out a short stack to get into the money.
Okay, enough griping. The good news is I did fairly well yesterday, posting another decent win, which brought the YIPES ‘roll up to $130. If it weren’t for today's bozo, however, there’d be at least $5.40 more in that bankroll this afternoon.
While I normally agree with those words of wisdom, I realized today that sometimes idiots are the last possible opponents you want at your table. Case in point: a single table sit-n-go I played this afternoon.
With a free hour to kill on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I jumped into a $3+.40 SnG and played a very solid game of poker. I was pretty proud of myself for my game, including a couple of big lay-downs and pre-flop folds. For instance, I patted myself on the back for a fold of AQs in the small blind pre-flop to a super tight-passive UTG player who (min) raised for the first time in the game, forty hands in. The big blind called and lost to AK that the UTG player turned over. My AQ would have lost a lot of dough because two aces flopped and I would probably have gotten all my money into the middle.
Anyway, I managed to build up a T4000 stack through slow and steady play, getting aggressive when it seemed the opp was weak, and getting off losing hands when they played back. When we hit the bubble I was second largest stack, and the two shorties had less than T1200 apiece with the blinds at 75/150. All I had to do was sit back and await the popping of the bubble….
…except that the big stack at my table turned into a complete tool. He single-handedly kept the other two short stacks fed and nourished while I slowly went broke. He would continuously call (or check-call) big bets from the other two players on the flop and the turn, and then fold on the river. Eight times he let those two guys come back from near extinction. He was on my right, so there was little to nothing I could do to stop the insanity. His own stack dropped from T6500 down to T3000, redistributing the wealth to the other two players and dragging me down with him.
My own playable hands weren’t holding up either (my 55 lost to 66 and my AT lost to AJ). I ended up busting out in fourth place when the blinds got up to 200/400 + a 25 ante and I had to push with a weak ace and just T1300 in my stack as the blinds approached. Of course I got called, and of course the player who knocked me out was the bozo on my right holding Q4o. Arhgh.
I’m not sure what the lesson is to be learned, except maybe to either really batten down the hatches and not play any hands unless they’re monsters (JJ or larger and AQ+??) in this situation, or maybe open up the aggression against the idiot and try to knock him out before he kills me. Dunno. All I really know is how pissed off I was at this one bozo, who obviously didn’t understand the concept of busting out a short stack to get into the money.
Okay, enough griping. The good news is I did fairly well yesterday, posting another decent win, which brought the YIPES ‘roll up to $130. If it weren’t for today's bozo, however, there’d be at least $5.40 more in that bankroll this afternoon.
Ah, idiots. Can’t win with ‘em, can’t win without ‘em…
All in for now…
-Bug
All in for now…
-Bug
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