Right, despite one particularly poor evening where I donked off £650, October has been generally OK so far. The loss in question was more a result of self-induced bad play (mistake tilt) brought on after playing a hand really badly, rather than anything else. I hesitate to recall it because it's quite cringeworthy and goes completely against my resolution to play more aggressively on the flop and turn but I'll recount it nevertheless just to give myself the proverbial slap round the face.
In short, I call a £10 preflop raise with 99 and fail to raise on a raggedy board that is 10 high on the turn and after my nitty opponent fails to c-bet or make any effort to take the pot down. A King hits the river, hitting my oppponent's range smack bang in the middle and I actually read him for an AK as he makes a £30 river bet. What do I do? I make one of the worst calls I've made in a long time and see him flip over the AK that I predicted he had from the off! Result? I drive to the Hippodrome and proceed to play card-dead £1/£2 poker for a few hours until the tilt-monster insidiously worms itself into my head.
I inevitably get given the only decent hand of the evening (a set) as a four-flush board starts to roll out. I miss my full-house on fifth street, refuse to believe my villain has it and proceed to pay him off his £100 bet on the river in the most ignominous fashion. A visit to The Empire and a drunken £2/£5 game helps a tiny bit as I eke out a £50 profit after making a mild hero call to a river bet made by a huge whale - but back at The Hippodrome afterwards I donk off another £200 when the red mist comes over as I hold 10 J on a 9 10 J x x board. Yes it was obvious to all but me that the villain had K Q and, yes, I paid them off.
With my wallet depleted to the tune of £650 it was time to go home... but it was definitely a very good lesson in controlling the ol' mindset when making a mistake and when the card-dead monster pays you a visit. Discipline, discipline, discipline.
Other than that stupid blip (and a £170 half-hour losing session where I played weak/passive versus some pretty competent aggressive oppponents) the month has been quite good. One other thing I have also learned - in connection with that £170 losing half-hour session - is that I will no longer sit in on a game where 3 or 4 people know each other well and are bantering with each other in a way where they're obviously trying to make out that they're bad; particularly if they clearly have a large bankroll and seem like they don't care. I'll not touch those games with a barge-pole anymore. If you play in those types of games and you are losing or getting stuck their banter will only serve to tilt you - get out while you can!
Thankfully, as I was saying, other than those blips, October hasn't been too bad thus far and I'm heading for a decent monthly-nut. I've not encountered any serious bad-beat that's cost me anywhere near a full buy-in and I've generally been chugging along nicely in a fairly snug way. I've only missed one day of the month thus far, am on schedule to qualify for both The Empire and The Vic's loyalty/cash-race MTT freerolls, and I have put in a fairly respectable 65 hours. The real test will come when I have to do jury service next week and will need to find enough time to play.
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