The Pain of Mediocrity and Why I've forsworn AJ (yet again)

The desert continues: no live play in New York city. The last club I know of (the one I did not mention in my last post about closing clubs because hell, I thought I'd keep one quiet in my pocket) seems to have closed itself as well. Chicken Little, one of the nicer things FTrain has called me, or not--I'm jonesing for live play. His theory is that this will all blow over as soon as the mayoral elections run. I don't see it: it's just hard to believe that Bloomberg, who is way ahead of Ferrer (granted the source may be biased), thinks he needs that extra push from shutting down those dens of vice. I'll be very happy to be proved wrong.

So I was stuck this weekend playing blogger tourneys. Ok, that's not so bad, but I followed my normal course for blogger tourneys, up to a big stack, encounter a crippling beat, cooler or self-induced donkey moment, hang on by my finger nails, bust out in respectable mediocrity short of the money.

In the WWDN on Friday, I had a particularly meteoric rise to the first break, even meriting a brief note in Wil's live blog:

5:04 PM - At the break, we have 68 players left. The big stack is SoxLover
with 9000, the short stack is Daddy, with 575. Average is 2801. I have 2480.
Blinds will be 75/150 when we come back.

And then I ran into some Geek. Here, I'll him tell you in his own words:

Level V (75/150): Here's the big one. Donegal pushes all in for 1170 UTG.
SoxLover raises to 4200, and I wake up with KK. I push in for 5990 total, and
SoxLover calls the extra 1790. Donegal has A6s, SoxLover has QQ. One 6 comes out
on the flop, but no more help for anyone, and I take it down. Stack: 13375.

Iggy popped up on my IM asking what happened to my stack? King Kong happened to my stack. The Geek also put me out of misery:

Level V (75/150): I call a raise from SoxLover with 65s. Flop is 76J,
check-check. He bets the 4 turn, and I call. 6 on the river, and he pushes. I
call, and he shows K8s. I take it down and bust him. Stack: 16669.

I think I was out in about 58th or something. It was pretty meteoric. At least he put my chips to good use, taking the whole thing.

Next day in Dr. Pauly's tourney, I finished still out of the money but better at 32nd. Of course, I did that mostly because of a wicked suckout I laid on the Prof. I believe I smooth called a preflop bet with nothing but sailboats, got called behind by the prof. Flop was 33J, looking pretty ragged to me. Putting him on overs and figuring my pair was probably good if very vulnerable, I pushed. He called with AJ but a 4 spiked.

Finally in the Bill Rini's WBPT shoot out satellite, I finished I think 21st in a 40 or so player field. Learning one lesson and relearning another. Lesson learned: believe Drizz when he reraises me preflop. Lesson relearned: don't freaking stick with AJ when you face resistance. Once again I had built up a big stack, mostly by snapping off Otis a few times when I had cards. With that crappy hand MP, with about 4000 behind I open my standard pot raise, which I believe at time was about 150. Drizz I think on the button with about 3600 (I really should use the hand history here but I'm at work) made it 500 or so to go. Flop was J66. I don't see how I get away from this hand and since I'd been playing pretty aggressively, I figured (well the inner donkey figured) I might get called with a hand like TT. I pushed. I was called with a hand like QQ.

This displays exactly why hands like AJ should be lain down to that kind of raise (unless you're facing a maniac, and I didn't get the impression that Drizz is a maniac): when you hit, you're strong enough to be pretty damn committed but with a fairly large chance you are still behind. I mean, unless I put Drizz on a stone cold bluff, what do I think he has there? Either a bigger ace or AA-99. If it's a bigger ace, well, I hit my lucky flop and he's going to fold to my bet. If it's a pair, well, I'll get a call from all the hands that clearly beat me. Maybe a check raise all in is a better play, with some possible fold equity, but only if he bets small, and, who am I kidding, I play in such a way that people like to call those all in reraises (which is something I like). The answer here is to lay down that AJ preflop once raised.

SoxLover repeat to yourself: AJ no good AJ no good AJ no good.

Ignore the inner donkey.