Bear Trap

Another -$900 night (I'll round it). $5/10: -$370, NLHE200: -$148, NLHE400: -$350. First $5/10 session: card dead, nothing too bad. Second session: poor decision making (betting underpair) when this hand hit: I re-raise a raiser on button with 99, he caps with callers other callers. Flop comes T96, and I raise him with five callers. K on turn I raise with four other callers (I'm worried about QJ out there or my capper having KK). 6 on river eliminates QJ, and capper bets with everyone dropping but me, who calls. He flips over KK and takes a $302 pot in $5/10 (one of the largest pots I've seen). Brutal, painful, and all of that. Not sure what I could have done differently. Only thing could have been slowing down on the turn as it was one of the two cards I didn't want to see, which cost me one bet.

Jump to NLHE to try and change things up. NLHE200 significant hand was what appeared to be a steal attempt that turned into a set of kings (don't ask what I had and why I was in the hand). So, of course, I take Wes' advice and jump up to NLHE400. I buy-in for $350, tread water waiting for a monster hand, when the bear trap comes in. A loose loudmouth chatter calls UTG, I call with 55--three more callers. Flop comes 3d4d7s, I bet $20 and the chatter calls. My money card comes with the 6h on the turn. I fire $75 into the pot, and he calls again. He's bluffed folks all night, so I read him as maybe, I'm not sure, not much I can't imagine (you can jump to the punch line), maybe a flush draw (surely a flush draw). Tc hits the river, I bet $175 into a $200+pot, he re-raises me all-in (another something, maybe $40 or $50, it's a blur). He flips over 58o for the nuts, with my trap becoming the trappee. My fault for not raising pre-flop, playing scared and waiting for the trap opportunity rather than playing solid, strong poker.

Hopefully the folks who come here are here for pure entertainment and not uplifting if-he-can-do-it-i can-too. The decision making tonight was solid in spots and impatiently poor in others (sliding back into pretend poker, where you pretend to have cards that you don't have, going against my plans with pocket pairs). That may sound like bluffing, but it is more like bad decision making where you've made your read, know to lay down, then decide (decide is probably too strong a word) to raise or stay in for some reason. The decision to move to NLHE was partly because of running bad (where I need to stop or even move down instead). The decision to move up was a gambling behavior, trying to make it back quickly rather than grind it away, looking for luck to trap rather than performing solidly. The particular hands (the set beaten by turned set, the last NLHE400 hand), well, the last hand is pretty frustrating, with the guy calling UTG with rags, flopping a gutshot, then catching. He paid his money, chased with his strong implied odds, then cashed out. So, I've given back almost all of the gains from the bottom, sitting at +$200 or so/online bankroll somewhere at $600 or so (have jumped back to $5/10). I'll keep you posted.