Another tough session in Sit-N-Go Hell on Poker Stars tonight.

After all was said and done, I ended up down $66.15 for the night.

I took a few 3rds, and a 1st in the single table $6.50 Turbo Sit-N-Go’s,  and didn’t finish in the money in a few 3 and 5 table Sit-N-Gos.

It was the same old story,  I played well, and time and time again I was either sucked out on,  or would make moves and get called down by clueless players.  

The suckouts started fast and furious,  three times in a row I lost with KK,  twice to lower pairs,  and once to some bozo calling with K-10 off who hits a straight.   I also lost quite a few hands where the players were calling down boards they had no business being in,  situations where some guy is holding pocket 77’s, and with a flop of something like K-Q-9,  will call my big continuation bets,  totally oblivous to my what I might have, or even be representing.

As the evening wore on, my game got worse.  I started limping more,  bluffing more, etc. 

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m just not a grinder.   I already knew I wasn’t a cash game grinder.  You know, those guys who play at a $2-$4 table all night, hoping to squeeze out some kinda edge after an 18 hour session.   Sure its fun to play in cash games every once in awhile with your friends, or if you’re at the Bellagio in Vegas or something,  but night in, and night out,  no thanks.

And it turns out,  playing in these rinky dinky 9 player turbo Sit-N-Go’s,  that’s also grinding.  Just a different form of grinding,  you’re grinding away hoping for those top 3 finishes and a good ROI.

Not for me,  I just can’t take the statistically expected swarm of suckout after suckout that’s required to play like that,  sure others can,  (Congrats Beanmo)  but it’s not where I’ve had success, and it’s not my style of play.   I think my game actually gets WORSE grinding in these Sit-N-Gos, not better.   And the players, especially at the $6.50 level are terrible,  they are almost all gambling Donks.

I know I can do well in the larger fielded tournaments, with larger buy-ins,  larger starting chip stacks, slower blinds.  That’s where I’ve done well in the past,  and it’s where the heart of my game is, so that’s what I’m going back to.

It pretty much invalidates the entire idea of the $300 challenge though,  So I’m not sure what to do about that, I suppose I’ll keep the counter on there just so people can track my progress as I ease back into the real tournaments,  however it’s going to be more erratic,  and baring a lucky win the next time I play, I’ll have to reload pretty soon.

So back to the real tournaments,  with the non agressive blind schedules, better players,  less hectic play,  and lucrative payout structures. 

Well on my 2nd night, the $300 challenge almost came to a screeching halt.

I started on the $6.50 single table Sit-N-Go’s, as planned,   and after a few hours was only able to get a few 3rd places and I think one 2nd.   I took a break, and then played some more,  and then… it happened.

The Meltdown.

This has been happening a lot to me,  and it’s always caused by a stream of bad beats.

Not one bad beat, not two,  not even three,  but four…five…six in a row.   By the sixth or seventh suckout I’m steaming, on mega tilt,  and am playing in larger stakes games chasing my losses, which is stupid, and totally against my plan.

I don’t know if I’m the unluckiest person in 2008, or if Pokerstars is rigged, or what the hell, but I swear to god I get way…waaaay…waaay more than my fair share of bad beats.   Sure, I expect to be sucked out on once in awhile,  and sure,  I even benefit from the bad beat sometimes as well.   But in the past 3-4 months, I’ve had over a dozen sessions where the bad beats come in an endless stream, hour after hour, and this is what happened last night. 

Here was a classic Hand,  this illustrates what I had to deal with, and keep in mind this hand, was after a half dozen or so other bad beats very similar to it.

I’m in a NL Texas head-head tournament,  I win round one.   and this is DESPITE surviving a few bad beats by the other guy in the first round.

So here I am,  final round of the head-head.  Winner takes All.

I get KJ off suit,  I limp in.  

The Flop…King-7-2  Rainbow.

I bet large,  other guy calls.

The Turn….Jack.

I now have 2 pair,  KK and JJ.    I bet large…  the other guy?  GOES ALL IN.

I think about it, and call.

What does the Genius have?  can you guess?   I’ll tell you.   He had Queen - 7 offsuit!

That’s right, this idiot goes ALL IN with a pair of sevens, even though there is a King and a Jack on the board.

Now the best part… can you guess the river?      yes… another Seven,  giving the genius 7-7-7 and the tournament and the cash.

When this sort of thing happens to me, it just drives me insane.  Again, I understand that bad beats are part of the game,  in fact, we WANT people to call with garbage, and part of the price of doing business is to lose some to some of those crappy crappy hands.   But 6…7…8 times in a row?     That’s enough to put Ghandi on tilt.

Anyways,  I got stupid last night, chased my losses,  jumped up to higher priced tournaments and lost pretty large (-$170.55).   Leaving me with just $155.71.    This means that I’ll have to drop down to even smaller Sit-N-Gos to stay below the 5% of bankroll for any buy in rule.   Sigh, it’s going to be a long hard climb to the top.

I’m going to take a week or so off from the Challenge, and just write about some cool Poker books and web sites I’ve found.   Once the steam has worn off,  I’ll jump back on and try to get back on track.