Dead on Arrival (1 Viewer)

[Kain8]

Incoming venting!

"Everyone gets the same distribution of cards in the long run!" or "The next session will be better!" I've been telling myself quite often lately on drives home from a game. I'm still in the green this year, thanks to mixed games we occasionally play at my buddy's house, but therein lies the issue. When it comes to NLH, I've felt I've been given a rubber ducky to squeak on the sidelines while everyone else has lightsabers, bazookas, or sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads.

Over the course of the last few months I've had the equivalent of rigor mortis when it comes to starting hands. In both a few home cash games and a poker tourney league I attend, I am just suffering from preflop folding exhaustion. And I'm not talking about playing subpar holdings and losing a bunch of chips with them. I get one playable a hand an hour, IF THAT. I've tried to cope with this sheer ridiculousness with laughing to myself (or sometimes aloud) after getting an offsuit 2 through 5 with a paint card for the fourth hand in a row.

But I can only maintain that nonchalant attitude towards receiving those kind of cards for so long. It gets to the point where a flipping or looks like a gift from the heavens itself. But those almost always get tossed into the muck just as fast as I receive them. When I've really had enough, I've just racked up in the cash games and drive home, wondering how in the world can one person be this card dead for this long?

For the league, I've just folded my way to a middling non-cash finish the last time we played before finally going bust with a masterpiece . I swear, that hand looked as good as The Sistine Chapel when I saw it.


Comments, commiseration, or any feedback to break out of this funk are appreciated.

 

[moose]

TL/DR version: NL holdem sucks.

 

[inca911]

I’m curious, what do you feel are typical playable hands (i.e., assuming average position)?

If you are folding that much, you should be able to bluff steal some, regardless of your actual holdings.

 

[TheBigTater]

Playing as tight as you have been (being card dead) it should be easier for you to run a couple of bluffs based on your table image alone. Sometimes buying a couple of pots will turn the tide (mentally) and decent starting hands will magically start coming again. When you don't have the cards you have to find other ways to win a few pots.

Other options is to play anything beside NLH. It seems easier to be card dead when you only see 2 cards at a time.

 

[FDLmold]

There are people who can play NLHE without ever looking at their cards. Study what they do. To them, bad cards is no excuse for not winning.

 

[kmccormick100]

I hear ya, the last month I’ve been drawing really slim on preflop holdings. And when I do open my range waaaay up I still can’t hit a flop to save my life haha. Got dealt about 20 small pocket pairs last night with not a set in sight either. Variance is real, hold on and ride it out hahaha.

 

[AceFour]

I am feeling your pain . . . card dead, get AA and lose to some that played J3 and spiked two pair on the flop. That was my fault for not betting enough to not allow that kind of call pre-flop. Another session I have KK I bet hard and heavy and one guy calls me to the river with A7o and gets the ace on the river. This has been going on for the last few weeks. Taking a break to regroup my thoughts and shake out the cobwebs.

 

[ilovegravy]

Variance is what allows for poker to be profitable. Downswings are inevitable. How you handle it will probably determine what your game looks like when you come out the other end.

 

[Wils]

I played a game recently where I had 2-7, 3-6, 3-7 and the like for an hour and a half. Finally looked down at QQ. The guy to my left has KK.

Had a game a while back where I lost two major hands with the villain chasing one of two queens on 5th street. 96% favourite to win each (so if my maths is right, if we play those hands 500 times, I will win at least one of them 499 times). I lost both.

But that's poker. We accept the variance and we flatten it out or ride it out, or we go play chess instead.

 

[AceFour]

When you have 3 of those people at the table it is a variance multiplier. One will suck out the river on you with his 2 outs and then give the money back to the other players. Modern day Robin Hood.

 

[Ellasdaddy]

Like noted above, run more bluffs. Show some of them and have more fun. Your table image will get you past the doldrums. Keep pushing the few hands you’re pushing.

 

[AceFour]

Cannot bluff a table with three calling stations

 

[Kain8]

Like noted above, run more bluffs. Show some of them and have more fun. Your table image will get you past the doldrums. Keep pushing the few hands you’re pushing.

Cannot bluff a table with three calling stations

Unless I'm playing in a hand against one of the people whose game I respect, bluffs seldom work like @AceFour says. Only way to make money against most of the people I play against is to bet close to pot with a good holding. Because if someone has a piece like a bad flush draw or bottom pair, they're calling down at least til the river. Bluffs get very expensive if you have to triple barrel. If I can win pots just by nut-peddling as it were, bluffs really don't matter overall.

I’m curious, what do you feel are typical playable hands (i.e., assuming average position)?

If you are folding that much, you should be able to bluff steal some, regardless of your actual holdings.

Typical playable hands from say cutoff or button, assuming no raise in front of me, would be any pocket pair, any suited Ace, KT, KJ, KQss, any two broadway cards, or suited connectors 56ss+. You can start shedding the suited connector hands and some of the bad broadway hands, KTo for example, the further away from the button you are.

 

[inca911]

Sounds about right. I’m assuming JT is in your later position range too. Maybe try adding a couple others to widen your range for a bit, like 35s and 24s hands. Sometimes, patience is really tough!

 

[Coyote]

If this is a consolation, being dealt trash hands is a lot more economical and stress-free than being dealt the second best to the nuts...

 

[Kain8]

Sounds about right. I’m assuming JT is in your later position range too. Maybe try adding a couple others to widen your range for a bit, like 35s and 24s hands. Sometimes, patience is really tough!

Patience is very tough when getting dealt offsuit wheel cards with a face card or 82o, 83o, over and over. I once went through a 1/2 NL game and didn't get dealt a single Ace for SEVENTY hands.

 

[Frogzilla]

Usually lots of fun to be had without cards. Enjoy those aspects if you can

1) beer beer beer
2) hanging out and joking with the table
3) practice looking for tells, and honing those instincts
4) making pretty stacks with chips
5) becoming the worlds best folder. See if you can get em to really stick in that muck. Good spin, good arm motion, good badass oh yea just did that face. After all, when you are tossing away Q-3 offsuit under the gun, you are making a literally perfect play. Top of the game, elite level stuff

 

[DrStrange]

Patience is one of the things that separate winning players from losers. Everyone gets a period of run-bad hands. Better players minimize their losses. Weaker players lose patience and money. One thing to keep in mind is that periods of run-bad cards often leads to tilting - perhaps a cousin to losing patience. When you combine some level of tilt with a loss of patience, you end up with a way to burn money.

As for your "good table image" - - - - - well maybe that is true. Assuming the table is paying attention. Assuming this isn't a casino table where the players change every few hands. Assuming the table read you earn isn't craven coward, easy to run over, folds to aggression. Here is a quick test - raise for the first time in three hours and see what happens. If everyone folds then maybe you have an image that can steal pots. If you end up with a five way hand with a $75 pot in a $1/$2 game, then you know you aren't going to easily steal pots. You don't need to triple barrel bluff off your whole stack only to lose to second pair weak kicker to find this out.

One personal story - I am at a newish game for me. It is a crazy $1/$2 game. I haven't three bet the entire ten hour night, maybe raised a couple of times. I am playing $300 on a $600 buy-in. I get dealt pocket queens and have the chance to 3-bet to $75 over a $15 opening raise. I get five callers or a $300 pot. The flop is rags, I go all in and get two callers each of whom have second pair. "we were sure you had AK and were bluffing". Hero holds and wins - turning a ten hour losing streak into a solid win. But if hero had been holding AK rather than a big pair, trying to bluff an unbluffable table would have doubled Hero's losses.

Bottom line - if you are feeling a loss of patience, then it is time to go home or go to your room or go see a show or something. Anything but play more cards were you are very likely to lose your entire stack.

 

[CHP TD]

Hi Kain

Keep records of your play. This will help the longer you do this the better it gets.

 

[Coyote]

Embarrassed to ask an ultra donk question: how can you possibly keep record of live play?

 

[jja412]

A pen and paper. A smartphone. A small recorder. All of these. Develop a shorthand for describing hands, and take copious notes when you have a hand or two off.

 

[CraigT78]

Usually lots of fun to be had without cards. Enjoy those aspects if you can

1) beer beer beer
2) hanging out and joking with the table
3) practice looking for tells, and honing those instincts
4) making pretty stacks with chips
5) becoming the worlds best folder. See if you can get em to really stick in that muck. Good spin, good arm motion, good badass oh yea just did that face. After all, when you are tossing away Q-3 offsuit under the gun, you are making a literally perfect play. Top of the game, elite level stuff

Pretty much this - and beer.