A Manic Monday

The past few days have been busy for me and I didn't get in much playing time. Monday was a little rough and I had to dig out of a hole I created. I lost almost my whole stack against a maniac player in an over pair vs. over pair situation. I raise in late position (3.5 BB) and get a call. I have a pocket pair of Tens. The flop is somewhat coordinated with 5s 9s 8h showing. I lead out for 3/4 of the pot and the villain insta raises the minimum. I call. Normally on Full Tilt, players who do this on the flop are holding monster hands. The players here seem to play a lot tighter than other sites, and when they play their hands they play them aggressively. Seeing that I have an over pair there is no way I'm folding to this bet. My pot odds are very good if I hit my set. But here is where I made the mistake. The 7h hits and I lead out again on the turn. I should check here. My opponent has told me - with his minraise- that he likes his hand and is willing to put a lot of money in to get to showdown. That's great. If I hit my set I'm taking his whole stack. But I didn't hit my set of Tens. I should check/fold here in most cases unless I have a read that says he's full of it. I didn't because it was early in this this session on this table. As a result I lost 76 BBs here. It's okay though. It will happen in this game. Nobody is perfect and what matters most is how you play afterwards. If you find yourself hot under the collar you should sit out for a while, cool off, and collect your thoughts. The one thing I try to remember is a quote from Lou Holtz. He said, "You will never get ahead of anyone if you're trying to get even with him." Over the next 19 hands I managed to get back half of my stack, but most of it was from the other players. I played for 76 hands on this particular table and left when people dropped out.

My other table was a little better, although after my big mistake it took me a bit to get over it. I felt myself playing poorly. I did pick off a bluff from a very aggressive player that was kind of nice, but doesn't happen all the time. He was playing 51% of his hands and raised every single time pre flop. I have 55 on the button and raise it up 4 times the Big Blind. He calls from the small blind. Flop is Queen high and he leads for almost the whole pot. I raise him and he calls. This told me that his hand wasn't very strong and I could steal from him later if another scare card falls. The turn is a King and he checks. Now I'm pretty certain that he is weak. I check behind to induce a bluff from him on the river. That's what he does, and leads into me for 17 BBs. I call his ace high hand.

Over all this past Monday was a roller coaster, but I actually come out ahead. I played a total of 175 hands, cleared some bonus and came out winner for the session. I'll get to Tuesday's session later. Until then, good luck on the felt.