Stacked - up and down

I find myself stuck a lot lately. I seem to sit down at a table, ready to play, and for the first fifteen minutes, misplay everything that I’m dealt. Even as the action approaches my seat, I look at my cards and think “yes, 79s is playable in late position, but NOT to an UTG raise, wait for a better hand.” Then, like Thing, or some other possessed body part, my hand treacherously clicks the “Call” button. And I’m stuck for two bets with a marginal hand and nothing but position to back me up.

Now occasionally, I can pick off the heehaws who find it morally repugnant to lay down AKo on a 6-high flop by firing bullets on every street, but usually I end up down three small bets right off the bat, and find myself quickly down 5-8BB and struggling to make up the difference. Last night was a prime example. I signed up for Interpoker (Scurvy, if you get the signup bonus, buy me a beer, I did hit it through your link), fired up a $2/4 table with $100, and found myself down to $30 within 40 minutes. That’s a retarded >15BB loss in less than an hour. I ratcheted down, played my premium hands, caught a set or two and finished up 20BB by the time I was done, but that’s not the point. I’m not playing optimal poker when I first sit down, and the same thing has translated into my live play as well.

I wonder if I’m getting stuck on purpose, subconsciously, to make myself work harder to win money. Silly, huh? But that’s what seems to be happening. So my plan tonight is to start off very slowly, only opening one table at first, then adding one or two more as I get my game on, rather than rushing into things with 2-3 tables of 2/4 open immediately. Maybe that will help me keep my idiocy in check. I’m still profitable for the month, but I feel like my bad play early in my sessions is costing me serious EV.

On another note, I got my preview copy of STACKED the other day and fired it up yesterday. The graphics and audio are smoking, and the ability to customize your character is pretty badass. I don’t have Xbox Live, so I won’t be able to comment on those aspects of the game, but so far it’s pretty cool. If I were going to play poker for no money, I’d be much more likely to play this shit than the play money games online, even though I’m playing against the computer instead of real live donkeys. I’ll put in some more time on it this weekend and give more info next week.