It was a long night the other night. The table was ok except for a frustrating player in Seat 2.

For 5 hours, I watched this guy play every pot and get incredibly lucky. He went from $50 to $1800 in that time. In fact, I had a side bet with another player that this guy would be broke by 11PM.

I had to revise the timing twice based on the unfuckingbelieveable luck of this guy. My last time was last call: 1:30AM.

This guy got lucky on me twice for about $500 total. The problem with bad players like this, besides their divine luck, is that when their luck runs out, they give it all away to everyone. You rarely get all your money back from these guys.

His luck started running out during Hour #6. His stack dwindled down to less than $400 by the time I could get in a hand with him. It was 1:25 AM.

This player raised to $8 from under the gun. For 6 hours now, he has raised every pot to $8 regardless of what he held. And every single win came either on the river or was a runner-runner longshot. He has also slowrolled every player on every hand he won during this time, followed by a loud, over-the-top celebration.

For 6 hours, I have been waiting to pounce on this son-of-a-bitch. So, I re-raise on the button to $25 with A-Qd.

He plays back and makes it $50 to go.

I feel good about my hand and re-raise to $200.

He moves all-in and I call.

The flop comes As-9d-3d. I show the Queen. My opponent, now standing up, decides to show me a King.

I am ahead with the flush draw, but I know his other card is an Ace.

The turn is 7c. No help. I am a big dog to a big donkey.

I am thinking that a suckout would be justice here. Give me a Queen.

The river: Queen.

Before I could even think about slowrolling him, he turns over the Ace.

“Ha ha ha Sammy. I win!” he says as he does his little celebration thing.

“Live by the sword. Die by the sword. Motherfucker,” I say as I flip over the Ace for top two.

This clown goes on tilt and storms out of the room scratching is broke ass all the way down the elevator, probably wondering how he could get so unlucky.

I collect my side bet, and 4 players leave the game.

What the fuck? Did he really just say that?

The new player that thinks we all should respect his bad play is a shaved head, tattooed, fight club type bad ass poser.

His opponent is an old school guy with strong mob ties. Trust me, I know he has mob ties. I also know he is someone you don’t want to fuck with at the table. And by fuck with, I mean bad ass babble.

Mr. Old School raises pre-flop to represent A-K or A-Q, some hand like that.

Mr. Respect calls.

The flop comes A-7-2 rainbow.

Mr. Old School bets the pot.

Mr. Respect calls.

The turn is a 5.

There is a bet and a call.

The river is a 10.

Same deal: bet and call.

Mr. Old School shows A-K. He flopped top pair.

Mr. Respect flopped nothing. No pair. No draws. But, he did turn a pair. And rivered two pair.

A 989-to-1 runner-runner longshot.

How is that good play?

Re-raising the top pair player to represent a set on the flop and getting the better hand to fold. Now, that would be good play worthy of good player status.

Folding on the flop when you miss would be worthy of good player status.

Knowing when you are beat on the flop and folding would be worthy of good player status.

Folding a shit hand like 10-5 off pre-flop would be worthy of good player status.

But being a calling station when you are dominated and getting runner-runner luck is not worthy of having good and player in the same sentence, bro.

I will give him this: he had the right combination of ignorance and balls to trash talk someone who is capable of helping you sleep with the fishes.

I pay attention to what is on the board to see if maybe I am playing too tight. But, for the first 100 or so hands, not a single hand would have held up even if the hand ended on the flop.

My first playable hand was a 1000-to-1 disaster. Got away fairly cheap when my 8-8 turned into a set on the flop. I had position, but a player was betting hard into me all the way. My initial read was he had a hand like A-K, so I am smooth calling him when he paired his Ace on the flop.

The turn was a 7 and the river was a 7. It is hard to put someone on quads, but I felt that my boat was no good. Fortunately, the player chose to check the river hoping I would bet it for him and come over the top. I checked behind. My opponent was holding 7-7. Ouch.

The next playable hand came an hour later: suited connectors. A few players limped in and I saw a free flop that brought a straight draw. I call all-in to an overpair – mainly out of frustration – and got lucky with a river straight.

It would take a couple more hours of patience to weather the poker brutality of a cold deck before I started hitting playable hands and catching cards on the flop to triple my buy-in for the session.

Here was a key hand of the night: I have 2-2 in the big blind. The player two off the big blind raises to $17 and gets three callers before it gets back to me. I call.

The flop comes Q-7-2 off. I check.

The raiser bets out $25. I put him on a hand like A-Q or K-Q. I really don’t think he flopped a set. Even though I got stung with a 1000-to-1 longshot earlier, the odds of two players flopping a set is about 99-to-1 against.

I check raise, making it $75.

He plays back at me and shoves.

I insta-call and double up.

Somehow, I avoided a speech. The next couple hours were good. But, fuck, slow starts are brutal.

Others get tilty when they either put it in bad after being outplayed or when they get beat badly after being outdrawn.

At the table Saturday night, a variation on this theme happened between two players: a young tight one and an old loose one.

Long story short, the young tight player flopped a set but thought he was beat on the river by a straight or a flush. The old loose player flopped a pair of Aces and somehow thought it was good. The tight player was ahead the whole way and simply clapped when he found out he was not going home early. The old loose player got tilty and gave a speech about celebrating.

The hyprocisy was that the loose old player celebrated the next hand when she beat my set of Kings by flopping Broadway with A-10 off. I put her all-in pre-flop and she got lucky.

There was no celebration on the next hand when I was up against the same player. I put her all-in pre-flop with 5-5 and flopped a set to beat A-Q off. The irony is the tight player that clapped in victory was holding 5-5 and flopped a set against her.

For me, every hand is the same; it is just another hand. Win, lose, or bad beat, I never show any emotion either way. It slows the game down and changes your mental attitude. I prefer to maintain a steady course and stay focused on the next hand.

I get A-A in the small blind on my second hand and raise to $50 and get 5 callers.

The flop comes J-5-2 rainbow and I bet half the pot.

The big blind comes over the top and the action folds around to the button.

The button re-raises and I fold.

The big blind folds.

“You have J-5,” I tell the button.

“Yep. I out flopped you,” he says and shows J-5.

Then, I got a speech.

The very next hand I get A-A again and make it $100 to go.

The only caller is the small blind and we are heads up to a flop of J-8-3.

I bet half the pot and my opponent goes over the top all-in.

I have him covered by $75 and insta-call since I put him on top pair.

He shows Q-J. Long story short, he rivered another Jack and gave me a speech.

The very next hand I get 9-9 and shove pre-flop.

I get one caller that is holding Q-10 off.

No waiting. He flopped quad 10s.

Sick.

After these three hands, 7 players got up and left.

I rebuy and my two suckout opponents join me at another game.

My first hand at the new game is A-A. I end up folding to a flush on the turn.

An hour passes before I get another playable hand: A-K.

I raise preflop from early position.

Mr. Quads raises me. Mr. Trips raises him.

I just call and Mr. Quads just calls.

The flop comes Kc-9c-2h.

I check.

Mr. Quads bets the pot.

Mr. Trips goes all-in.

I come over the top of Mr. Trips and go all-in.

Mr. Quads calls.

I normally don’t slow roll anyone, but after I got it in good twice and got a speech afterward, it was time for me to get even.

I expose Ac to make it look like I am on a draw.

The turn is 5h and river is 10c.

I then show the Kd and take down the entire pot.

Pleased that I not only felted two donks in one hand, I was also able to get even in chips.

The rest of my session went well. The best part was I went on a run of playable pocket pairs for 6 straight hands to earn me a nice profit.

The one that made me almost puke at the table was me flopping Broadway with a gutshot Royal Flush on the turn.

My opponent was dead to the 7d. Guess what came on the river.

I went on a good, solid run yesterday. But, I would like to share the hand that, I think, was the last hand of my stretch of running bad.

I am in early position with K-K and raise to $25. Action folds around to a young kid who was a combination of very loose and a calling station. I knew I had him beat, but I watched him get incredibly lucky with rags ever since he sat down at the table.

By 7PM, he had gone up 4X from his buy-in. I had a side bet with two other players that this kid would be broke by 9PM. Cutting to the chase, I felted him at 8:30PM. The guy to my left took the under.

Back to the hand.

The flop comes A-Q-10 rainbow.

I bet out $50.

The kid calls.

I know he does not have an Ace. Had I mis-read his hand and given him respect for A-7 off or some garbage like that, I could have saved myself money.

But, I knew I was way ahead with K-K and a gutshot straight draw.

The turn is a Jack.

I bet out $100. I could have gone all-in with the hopes of ending it right there, but I knew this kid did not have “fold” in his arsenal.

He calls.

The river brings another Jack.

“I check,” I tell him.

The kid value bets $50.

“I can’t believe you just went runner-runner full house. Why are you even in this hand, bro?” I tell him.

He sits there studying the board.

“Do you realize that getting two perfect cards like that is a 989-to-1 longshot?”

I call and show the Kings.

Of course, he turns over J-10 offsuit for Jacks full.

When I get beat, I get beat bad it seems.

But, luck runs out. And his did less than an hour later when I felted him.

I, too, should have taken the under on my own side bet.

I can’t fault the play of me or my opponent too much. It is just the way the cards fell.

But, my opponent was a weak player that seemed to put it in bad all night but catch the miracle card to win the hand.

I finally get in a hand with this player, and I was way ahead. Until the flop, that is.

My opponent limps in under the gun.

I raise to $35 one off the button with A-A and find myself heads-up with this player.

The flop comes Kd-10d-9h.

He checks.

I bet $100 and he calls. I put him on either a straight draw or flush draw.

The turn is 2s.

I bet out $150 and my opponent calls.

The river card is 4c.

I push all-in for another $300.

He calls and shows K-K.

I normally don’t get tilty. But limping in under the gun with K-K is just begging to get cracked.

This was his fifth flopped set in 15 minutes. I can’t remember the last time I even rivered a set, let alone got there on the flop.

To make matters worse, I moved from seat 2 to seat 9 to get position on this player.

Guess who moved from seat 6 to seat 2?

You guessed it.

Frankly, I could not have played the hand any different. I would not have folded pre-flop if the chips got in the middle. I might have folded on the flop if he played back at me pre-flop. But then again, I probably would not have given him respect for K-K either.

Readers of this blog know I have had my (un)fair share of bad streaks.

In fact, I consider myself to be card dead for the past month. Yet, it has been a profitable month.

How am I doing it?

First, I am not allowing myself to get frustrated, impatient, or tilty. That has been the big difference.

Many players suggest going down in levels when running bad. I did just the opposite. I am playing at a higher level, yet one that I am comfortable with.

Why? Going up in levels will do two things for your game. You are generally sitting with better players. Players you can bet off a hand. Players that won’t draw out on you with K-3 offsuit.

The other thing the higher levels does for me is if I am playing and winning fewer pots, those pots are 2X – 5X the pots earned in lower limits.

Patience has been key for me as well. Take the other night, for example.

After 6 hours at the table, I had exactly $3 profit. I was winning just enough every hour to stay. And just enough to fund the next hour’s blinds.

Many players running bad would have either gone broke during that time, or invested $200 in blinds. By being patient, I was able to stay just above even.

Then, in hour 7 at the table, I got in two key hands (big pocket pairs) and was able to double up.

And leave.

My definition of running bad is not catching cards to make sets, straights, or flushes. Hands that do not improve after the flop when they need to improve.

During this rough patch, if I am fortunate enough to double up on my buy-in, I have done my job.

Not getting felted is a victory made sweeter by a double up. When that happens, it is time to leave the game … a winner when running bad.

We have played before. He is a tough player that usually plays the “Big Game” and is a notorious bluffer.

He stares back at me.

“You either flopped a set of deuces or you have nothing but air,” I tell him.

I am holding K-J in the big blind on a flop of J-5-2 rainbow.

My opponent is in the small blind and called my pre-flop raise.

I am about to throw my hand in and play it safe since I was not sure (I put him on 60% bluff and 40% set).

He says to me, “Tell you what, Sammy. Call my $85 and we will check it down.”

Like a donkey, I agree.

Why am I a donkey? In retrospect, that should have been a tell that he is drawing at best and my top pair is good. If I come over the top, he most likely folds.

But, since we are friendly (always dangerous at the poker table), I agree.

The turn is a 9 and the river brings a 7.

He proudly shows 10-8 for the runner-runner straight.

I tell this tale to my 7 year old son.

His response?

Dad. You’re a doooonnnnnnkkkkkeeeeeyyyyyy!

It was a full moon last night and I am at a table of half grinders and half donkeys.

I wait 90 minutes to catch a playable hand: last to act after the flop with K-K.

A donkey who thought he was a grinder raised preflop with 8-8.

A grinder who thought he would play like a donkey calls with 9-9.

I raise to what was in the pot.

Mr. Eights calls.

Mr. Nines pushes all-in, which puts me all-in.

I insta-call and the eights folds.

I show the bad news and my opponent tells me I am ahead.

No kidding. He would have raised the original raiser if he had A-A.

The flop comes K-9-8.

Now, the odds of three players flopping a set is 0.12%.

The turn card is a blank.

The case 9 comes on the river to reward my opponent with quad 9s and my hard earned chips.

I thought I was ahead the whole way, but slowrolled on the bad news.

That’s right. He did not show until the hand was over.

Two hands later, I fall victim to a hit and run.

It has been a long time since I put it in bad pre-flop. And even longer since I lost with pocket Kings.

That one hurt, but I never flinched. I guess you get used to the pain of horrific beats after a while.