I Wanna Tell You About Texas Hold 'em and the Bad Beat

So I have this pretty little graph in my spreadsheet showing my online bankroll over time... it's fun to watch go up and down, yet trend upwards: a visual aid to prove to myself that I can in fact, play this game.

Recently, I've been on a major slide that I fear will take months to regain. Not the "screw it I'm gonna go zero out my roll on the highest buy-in sit and go that I can find" kind of slide, but when you see over 1/3 of your roll get raped in a week, that's a little unsettling.

Perhaps this is all some form of punishment for breaking my bankroll/stakes rules (20 buyins min per level) and toying with .10/.25 before I had built myself to the $500 I wanted to have. Still, it's the same game, and I'm long past the days where I'm going to blow up and burn the whole bank on some double or nothing bid to get back to even if a session goes bad. The following hands should prove that there are still donks at every level, as well as illustrated the capping off of one awful week of play.

AA. Of course a bad beat story starts with "I had rockets". I play it the way I always do, meaning HARD, juicing the bet preflop to 6x the BB with all the limpers. One caller. Flop: KQJ, a little scary, but not against this opponent who's been a complete calling station. I bet the pot. He calls. Turn: what should be a harmless 5, ends up making him two pair with, yes, king f^#$ing five offsuit. I go broke. Who plays K5o against a big raise? Who calls my bets even when they make kings and fives here? I could be jamming the pot preflop just as much, if not more with KK or QQ, and maybe even with JJ which would have all flopped sets. Anyway.

Sit out 2 hands. Game still beatable. Tilt check. OK. Rebuy.

66. Cute little set making hand. A couple limps followed by mine. Small min raise preflop to my left. I call. Flop: K64 rainbow: LOVELY!. I check. Raiser bets pot. I call. Turn: 4, giving me a damn nice boat. I check. Raiser bets pot, and I call. River: Ace. Now I'm thinking this guy may have AK, because that would fit with his betting pattern and style that I've been watching for over an hour, which means he might be really ripe for the picking thinking that he just made the best two pair, and I've just been calling with... who knows. He bets big, I raise, he reraises, and I have so little left I don't even need to think about the call. He, much out of character, min raised KK preflop. Set over set, turning into boat over boat.

Stoned. Immaculate.

It's time for a manditory one week break from the online poker realm. Not so much because I'm playing bad, but more because I'm going to start playing bad if this continues. Man would that $300 first place freeroll prize tonight compensate though...