Posted by Johnnymac 8:53 PM
I played for about 6 hours Friday night at the Friendship in my usual 5-10 game. The game started at 5:20 and at 5:21 I was up after being dealt AA on the very first hand of the game! What a good start! Of course later on I was dealt AA twice more later on in the night within 4-5 hands of one another and then, of course, both times those aces didn't hold up and I was a net loser on the bullets for the night. By 10:00 I was stuck about $500 and starting to contemplate booking a losing session, but very soon after that the cards started running my way and I was back to even and then up $240 in a matter if minutes and that's where I decided to call it a night. As is the usual in this game, just crazy, crazy volatility.

Anyway, a couple of observations to share:

1.) While the cards were running cold I tried to make a move and steal another player's big blind after the action had (very rarely for this game) folded all the way around to me in the cutoff seat. I raided the blinds with AQs and then bet all the way to the end with no help from the board. He called all of my bets and then then turned over bottom pair with 83o from the blind. In retrospect, I guess it was an obvious move and he could tell that I had nothing, but at the time I started to get frustrated and grew even hotter as I sat there and stewed that my luck was running so cold that I couldn't even steal a pot from another good player. I started steaming more and more and grew quite upset until another player at the table had a bad beat and went on tilt himself. Watching him curse and slam his chips on the table and complain about his rotten luck was all I needed to get back on the level plane and back to a more even temper.

This has happened to me before: I see other people looking like fools and I realize that I obviously look like a fool, too, so I quit myself and try and get refocused on the game.

2.) There was a new player at the table on Friday, an obnoxious girl named, "Lisa". She was a better player than the usual FSC crowd, but not nearly as good as she seemed to think of herself. She was good, however, at taking advantage of the default bully-like attitude that strikes all of the men at the table when an unknown woman sits down - she plays aggressively and pushes back and steals pots with semi-strong hands. She very quickly got way up, and then, when I left, she had very quickly fallen right back to even. I think her problem is that she plays too aggressively. First, I should give her credit for doing this because most women never learn to get aggressive enough and generally don't rise up to their potential because they play too passively.

Perhaps the funniest (or worst) example of this occurred early on on Friday when she raised from under the gun. As is usually the case in this game, the raise was called by 4 or 5 players and the board ended up loaded with face cards and a possible straight. It was obvious that another player had made the straight as he bet on the end after Lisa's check. Lisa called the bet and turned over a pair of 5's in the pocket and said, "I guess I'm just going to have to flop more sets if this is what going to happen!"

I don't know if it ever crossed her mind not to raise with 55 from under the gun, though, especially in the passive game that is the FSC. I am looking forward to playing with her again - I think it might be profitable.

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