Three Bad NL Hands

Since Friday, I have travelled to Indiana and back. In the meantime, I've played a little poker with surprisingly bad consequences. Although I've played well, there were three NL hands that were very costly. All of these hands were in the $50 NL at Party Poker, although I had bought in for just $25. In each hand, I had about $25 in my stack.

Hand#1: I am dealt QQ in the big blind. Four people limp, and I raise it to $4 (8x the blind). I am hoping to steal the change, really, but at worst I wanted to narrow the field to heads up. Unfortuanately, three of the limpers called ($16 pot) and saw the flop. The flop with 9 9 5, so I pushed all-in, hoping no one had a nine. Unfortunately, the donkey UTG called my raise with J9s, and I lost my stack.

Hand#2: This was about two orbits after Hand#1. I was still steaming, to be honest. I was dealt A3s in the big blind. The button made a minimum raise and the small blind and I called. I normally would have folded here, but I was steaming. It really wasn't all that bad of a call, just not one I normally make. Anyway, the flop with A 9 3. The SB checked, I checked, and the button bet $5. This overbet of the pot screamed weakness. The SB, I presumed, picked up on this too and called, so I pushed all-in. The button folded, but the SB called, and turned over A9. Oops, right move, wrong time.

Hand#3: I was dealt AKs in mid-position. I raised 4x the big blind, and the button re-raised me to 10x the big blind. I called. The flop was A K X. I made a pot sized bet on the flop, which was called. I pushed all-in and I was insta-called. He turned over AA. Oops. This was perhaps my worst hand of the three. What else would he have had? At worst, KK. Duh!

Anyway, I plan on playing $0.50/$1.00 limit for awhile to re-build my stack. I feel like my game is spot-on and I should be rebuilding right now.