Reversal of fortune

I knew my good run on The Quest had to come to an end eventually. I was just hoping it wouldn't be quite so soon.

Last night was a bit of a setback. I dropped 2+ buy-ins.

One of these days, maybe, I'll learn to stay away from the big pots. I almost never seem to win them. I make most my profit from taking smaller pots and the occasional steal.

I had only played a couple hands when I got dealt 55 on the button. I put in a small raise and it folds to the cutoff, who calls. Flop brings a jack and a couple junk cards. Check, check. Turn brings a king. Check, check. The river fills my set. Cutoff puts in a small bet. I figure this is nothing but a steal attempt. I raise it to about 3 times his bet. He immediately comes back over the top. I stop and look at the board. I can see him with a king, a jack, maybe even a slow play with KJ. Pocket K's or pocket J's? Mo chance any sane person would play it that way. I push it all in. He calls and turns over 64. 64? He called my pre-flop raise with 64? The "junk" cards on the flop were 32.

It's a rookie mistake, but I was so blinded by my set I never even saw the possibility of the oddball straight.

I lost another buy-in with bottom full house. Two pair on the board. I knew there was a chance he had the top full house, but the way he'd played it made me think it was unlikely. That's what I get for thinking I'll see rational play at this level.

Last night brought out some truly atrocious play from my opponents. Sadly, it was generally against other players. It's funny how the bad play where somebody calls down a whole string of big bets with bottom pair doesn't really bother me much, but when I see somebody playing good cards badly it drives me crazy. There was a whole bunch of that last night.

There are bound to be setbacks on this path I've chosen. I'm going to do my best to not let it bother me. At this level at least I can tell myself, "It's only $4."

Graphs have been updated to reflect the unfortunate outcome.