The epitome of 'Running Bad'

What do I have to do to catch a break?

I played 256 hands on Full Tilt's Rush Poker and ran into a brick wall with every decent hand, either I couldn't get paid when I had the nuts, or I got out-drawn and lost my shirt.

Here are the highlights - virtually all the hands I actually saw through to the river:

Hand 1: My A-J flops 2-pair, fills up on the turn, but the Jack on the river killed the action and I got virtually nothing out of the pot.


Hand 2: My A-Q flops top pair with a decent kicker - shame I had to run into pocket 10's


Hand 3: Next pocket pair I pick up flops and open ended straight draw - but I managed to run into a bigger pair (Queens).


Hand 4: I eventually win a hand when a short-stack pushes pre-flop and I make the call with Pocket-Queens. Still sweating come the river, fully expecting to see a Jack. Just about the only half-decent pot I won all evening.


Hand 5: Picked up Pocket-Two's, flopped a set and got my opponent all-in with 7's. 3-4-2 board runs out A, 5, and we are both playing the straight on the board - chop. Sick!


Hand 6: My A-Q of spades turns into a flush on the flop. No takers, no action, no pot.


Hand 7: My Jd-9d is open-ended straight on the flop, flush come the turn and straight-flush on the river. No takers, no action , no pot.


Hand 8: The crowning glory of the evening's play. On the 256th hand of the session I pick up the bullets. There's a min-raise from middle-position and I min-re-raise. He comes back over the top, I shove and he calls - turning up the Cowboys. Just the action I have been waiting for all night. The 6-3-6 flop is harmless enough, and I have the As as a back-door out. The killer comes on the turn, Ks. I still have the spade re-draw, but honestly that was never going to happen. Aces busted again, as well as my entire stack.


It's enough to make you wonder why you keep coming back again and again and again and again, for this sort of punishment. I now realise why I quit playing on Full Tilt several years ago, you can't win. It was exactly beats (and sessions) like this that made my move to other card-rooms in the first place.

But I am now addicted to Rush Poker, and you can't play it anywhere else. Any other form of cash game is incredibly boring by comparison. I guess I'll have to just learn to live with it (and, maybe just once, fold the Aces pre-flop........unthinkable, eh).

It can't get much worse than this

Things are very quickly going from bad to worse.

After my recent experiences I decided to take a couple of days away from the tables to try and come back refreshed and not playing so negatively - always believing that I am going to lose, then this happened.....

Hand number 4 of the evening. I pick up Poket Jacks in the BB and there has been only one raiser, so I re-raise and he makes the call. Flop comes down 5-6-5, two hearts. He leads out and I re-raise, he calls. The turn is the Kd - I bet, he calls, then following the river 4c we both ckeck and he turns up pocket Q's (I was convinced he had something like A-Q - unfortunate to run into a bigger pair, when you have Jacks).

That left me seething a bit, as I had lost about 1/4 of my starting stack. So, about 5 hands later I pick up Ah-Qh in the cut-off. There have been a couple of limpers, so I pop it up to 4xBB and get one caller.

The flop is J-Q-5, two clubs. He leads out for about half the pot and I make the call. Maybe I should have re-raised at that point, but I was trying to maximize this position. The turn comes 2h and he leads out again. I now put him on a Queen, maybe even K-T, but I wouldn't be expecting the flush draw to be leading out on each street.

Again, I just call. The river is about the worst possible card - Ac. This completes a K-T straight and the flush, but makes me 2-pair. He leads again, for about 1/3 of the pot and I have to call. He turns up Kc-8c for the rivered nut-flush. How the freakin' hell do they always get there!!!

I'm now down to just over $2.00 after starting with $5.00, so I add another $3.00 to my stack (now in for a total of $8.00). A couple of hands later I pick up pocket Tens in mid-position and raise about 3xBB, I get re-raised from the button, so I picture this guy is trying to steal, maybe with a reasonably decent hand. His raise is about half his stack, so I decided to push and he insta-calls, turning up the Cowboys. Insane, another over-pair.

The final straw comes about 10 hands later, when I pick up the Bullets. I never limp or try to slow play them, so with two callers ahead of me I raise 3.5xBB and get two callers. The flop is 6h-Qs-3h (there's always a flush draw when you see a flop with Aces, it's the law). Player 1 leads for about half the pot and P2 folds. I re-raise the size of the pot and the stacks end up in the middle. He turns over 6s-3s (holy sh*t). This guy called over 3*BB pre-flop raise with 6-3 suited and hits the jackpot.

I'm totally busted. This all happened in under 60 hands (and playing Rush, on Full-Tilt, that's less than 15 minutes).

What have I done to anger the poker gods?

On a slippery slope with Big Slick

Last week I posted a hand where I flopped a set of 6's and got stacks in against Q-9, who had flopped 2-pair, only for the 9 to arrive on the river to bust me.

Well, something very similar happened again today, and again it was for stacks.

I was probably feeling a bit hard done by, as I had been sitting at the table for about 30 minutes, and in that time I had been dealt Aces three times, as well as Kings and Queens - also, three times I was dealt low-mid pairs and hit sets on the flop, and not once was there any sort of action at the table - I had made an absolute pittance from these premium hands.

I'd started with $4.00 and was down to about $3.10 when I was dealt A-K (sooooted) in early-position. I raise 3+1/2 times the BB, up to $0.17c and get two callers, the SB and the BB.

The flop comes down 7-K-7, rainbow, the SB checks. BB puts in a pot-sized bet, and I am convinced he has a King (unless he decided to make the original call with A-7), so I re-raise for the rest of my chips (about $2.80) and he uses up all his time before making the call.

The length of time he took meant he had a naked King, or he was scared that a 7 might have clashed with pocket Kings. I am delighted when he turns up J-K off (the Bachelor hand).

The turn is the 9c, but the bomb lands on the river, with the Kd - making him a better two-pair.
It's just insane how every time I get my money in good against these donkey's they all suck out.

Trials and tribulations

Quads are like buses; you hang around for ages and then three come along at once. These three al happened in the space of 24 hours (over 2 sessions) and I managed to scoop an entire $0.66c on the three combined. It's just impossible to build any kind of pot when you have quads!




I'm still playing at the 2c/5c Rush poker tables, on Full Tilt, and my first week of success (took my initial $3 bankroll up to $32 has taken a bit of a hit in the last couple of days (down about $13 over 3 sessions).

The hands I have clashed with have been incredible, to say the least. KK over QQ, all the money in pre-flop and the queen lands on the river - KK v AK, same story, Ace on the river. I could go on and on about the bad beats, but it's not only that. Picking up QQ and finding an opponent with KK - another time with AK on an A-K-Q board, and the opponent turns up J-T (suited, of course, so definitely worth calling a 5xBB pre-flop raise with).

The final straw came today, when I min-raised from middle position with pocket 6's and got 2 callers. The flop comes down 6c-9c-Qs and I immediately put one of them on the flush draw ('cos that's how this game works).

I overbet the pot, trying to discourage any flush draw from calling and the guy behind pushes all-in for about $3. Player 3 folds and I make the call - he turns up Qc-9s for 2-pair.
The turn is the 7c and he now has more outs than I would have liked. I fully expected another club to hit the river, so when it didn't I had to look twice as to why the money was not being shipped my way.....9h, completing his full-house.

Looking back, he did have 13 outs on the river (9-clubs, 2-nines and 2-queens), but it was still a real choker to see the 9. It was symptomatic of how every time I get into a decent pot when ahead, I always get caught (well, recently, anyway).

Perhaps I was a bit on tilt, but I threw all my money into a pot later on, knowing I was behind, but the fact there were two other players, both with shorter stacks (so I couldn't go completely bust) and I had flopped the nut-flush draw. I had called a pre-flop raise and call with Kd-Qd and there were 2-diamonds on the flop, including the Ace.

It didn't take long for the other two to get all their chips in the middle and I was getting decent pot-odds so it wasn't a hard decision to make the call. Luckily the diamond hit the river, as I was up against a set and 2-pair (a real cooler of a hand).


Oh well, I'll just have to try and earn the deficit back again, over the next few nights. Lets hope my luck changes.

Rush Poker

Full Tilt have unveiled a brand new form of poker, where cash/ring meets MTT, it's called Rush Poker and I have been dabbling (with some success) over the last couple of days.

At a normal 6-handed cash table you could probably expect to play an absolute maximum of 100 hands per hour (more like an average of 60-70). In Rush Poker the pace is ramped up to the tune of 250-275 hands per hour - about 4 times as many as normal.

The reason for this is the format of the game: Instead of sitting down at a single table you are put into a type of MTT pool of players, who are all in the same boat. You get drawn at a table and sit down for the first hand. As soon as your participation in the hand is over, you are immediately moved to another table (re-draw with everyone else in the MTT pool) - and your participation can be over as soon as your cards are dealt, because if you decided you are folding you get moved immediately, no hanging around for the hand to play out.

From the other players perspective, it looks like you are still there, but you may have been long gone and played 3, 4 or 5 more hands in the time it has taken for the initial hand to be completed.

It's insanely fast, but perfect for me as I hate all that hanging around at a cash table when you are card-dead. If that happens here you fold, fold, fold, fold, fold until you get a decent hand and play it accordingly. There's a lot of action, because everyone else is playing the same game, so you know when you enter a hand with a couple of players, chances are they have something decent (well, most of the time).

If you haven't tried id, check it out - it's a poker revolution. There's no making notes, and calling for information, because you are never at the same table two hands in a row. You do come across the same players now and again, but rarely in the same position.

I got stung by a couple of sick hands tonight, though. I sat down with $5, at the 5c/2c 6-handed tables and doubled up on my 3rd hand, when I picked up pocket Q's against pocket J's, and should have walked away immediately, with my 100% profit, but I didn't. I was only a couple of hands in and wanted some more play - that was a mistake.

About 5 hands later I had Kh-5h in the BB. The button limps and the SB makes up, so I see a free flop, Ah-6s-5c. I have bottom pair and a decent kicker. The SB checks, so do I and so does the button. Another 5 hits the turn (5s) and the SB makes a small 10c bet, which I immediately raise to 30c. This is flat-called by the button, and the SB.

The river is a harmless looking 9d and the SB checks. At this stage I think I am betting for value and will probably get called by a decent Ace (A-J, A-T, for example) so I put out $1 and the button immediately pushes for his last $7, or so.

The SB gets out of the way and I have to make a decision. I reckon he might have made 2-pair on the river and thinks he is beating any naked Ace or, he has the case 5 and we are looking at a chop. I can't find a reason to fold (and there is very little thinking time) so I make the call - he turns up pocket Aces, for a flopped set and a turned full house - beautiful hand and very deceptively played.


I have taken a stance of never slow playing Aces as I have been burned so many times, but this guy chanced his arm and hit the jackpot - I just happened to be the sucker in the BB who got in for free and turned trips to have enough of a hand to play for stacks.

Looking back, my raise being called on the turn followed by such a massive push should have set off many more alarm bells, but I suppose you live and learn - that's what brings players back to the tables time and time again.

I shrugged that one off, took a 5-minute break and came back and reloaded up to the table limit of $5 (from the $1.50 I had been left with). But, only a few hands later I got involved in another pot, when I picked up pocket K's in the SB. There were a couple of flat-callers so when it got to me I raised just under the pot-level, to 30c. There were a series of folds, except the button who took an eternity, then called.

The flop was a bit nasty, but no Ace (Jd-Ts-Qh). I reckon my overpair is still good and I am hoping my opponent has got some part of this. I put out a bet of about half the pot and it is flat called. The turn is a 4c and lead-out again, but this time my opponent raises all-in, for his last $1.25 (or so) and I have to call. He turns over Kd-9d, for a flopped straight - insane.

Only another Ace on the river can result in a split, and is doesn't come.


I can maybe understand his initial call, as he had position on me for the rest of the hand and he may have thought I was stealing from the SB after several initial calls - but how come it is always the one single player at the table who calls you that hits the cards they need to overtake you.

I must have played 500-600 hands over the last three or four nights and not once, when I called with suited connectors of any type did I flop either a straight or a flush - yet the one time I get all-in against an opponent and I am holding Kings, they flop the straight.

There was probably another player at the table who folded T-4 and would have beaten the two of us, come the river.

Anyway, I played on for about another hour and managed to recover just about all of my losses (started with a $5 buy-in, got that up to $11, then down to $3, ended up buying an additional $6 worth of chips over the next 60 mins, or so, so my total buy-in for the night ended up at $11 and I got out of there with $9.50 after winning a A-K race against pocket 9's then getting into a battle with a short-stacked player when the flop came down A-K-5 and he had A-5 and I had A-K - he shipped his $1.50 (or so) and I decided to call it a night while I was only marginally down (but still well ahead on the week - up about $15 so far).

Rush poker is pretty amazing if you want to play cash, but find it slow and boring - check it out!