swongfest 2008

Yeh last nights session really did drain me mentally. I think it was just a culmination of a swongy week where i just haven't seemed able to play steady poker. As is evident with my previous 50k or so hands of poker, i play quite a minimal variance style. This, i believe, is achieved by generally avoiding marginal situations. In the long run this strategy may cost me money but it greatly reduces my swongs & thus helps to alleviate tilting from big downswings etc.

Unfortunately this style seems to have been underfire this week. Reviewing my hands i really just had a number of gross situations where i considered folding & may have done it in the past but just really found it difficult. In the end with each of these hands i feel i made the right decision but alas i was punished.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3633316 --> A blind battle with my AA<33

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3633319 --> a much more marginal situation. I had previous established that villain was a big donk so i just couldn't fold here given strongish 10's made up a solid part of his range. Even QJ can't be out of the equation.

There were lots more hands but these were the most recent and fresh in my mind. Here's the graph for the week:

Another interesting find i made was this: My pocket Kings have really been underperforming badly relative to my other big pairs. It seriously seems like every time i have them somebody has AA or an Ace flops and villain chk raises or plays strong enough for me to fold. When this doesn't happen villain flops an underset/two pair etc. I really think 242 times is almost a large enough sample size that for KK to start getting into the solid green but i guess not.

Quite a faggy post but it feels good to discuss these variance aspects of poker. 7k hands really isn't a massive sample so i should probably stop whinging and just keep playing.