Week 3: Review

This week has been all about getting the money in good against donks... and then losing hands to appalling oppoonents who seem to get rewarded time and time again. The last three days have been brutal. I know bad-beat stories are boring but here's a few of the worst ones that have happened over just the last three days:

1) I hold AA as a huge fish is spewing badly. I get him to make a huge all-in call for about £200 on a 9 9 6 flop. The turn comes a Queen and the river delivers him his Six as he turns over J 6 for his full-house.

2) I get it all-in pre for my opponent's £150 stack while holding AA. He fancies his chances with AQ of hearts. The board gives him the three hearts he needs.

3) We're at The Vic at a ridiculously juicy £1/£3 table. I hold 99 on a 7 2 10 board and the maniac villain has made it clear that he doesn't like his hand and missed the flop. I raise it up to £75 and he goes all-in for £200. I make the call. The turn is a blank and the river is a King. He shows KQ and I lose about £300 on that hand alone.

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How can you get it in so good, so many times yet still lose so much damn money!? The result is that despite a £600 winning session at The Hippo on Tuesday evening and getting in a good 32 hours of live play for the last six days, I'm down £180 for the week and back to wondering how on earth playing live cash-game poker for a living can ever be a sustainable proposition. For the first 20 days of my business I've earned a measly £270 and I'm getting just a little bit cross! 

The upshot is that I'm starting to see this business more as the "four-month experiment" that I hoped it wouldn't be and less as the more long-term investment that I'd hoped it would be. It isn't as if it's many bad-beats, it's just that when they happen repeteadly while playing intense, disciplined poker they end up being very annoying.

With £1k lost over the last three days, tomorrow will be a day off as will Monday in all likelihood. If Week 4 proves to be a similar story I might despair!