Stupid Cowboys

My cowboys kept getting the crap kicked out of them last night. Every dang time. Which was even less fun than normal given that I was playing 3/6.

That said, I was a lucky donkey in a couple of huge hands with suited connectors, so I managed to scrape back to dead even for the night. Which seemed like a big victory at the time. Which I suppose it was.

I play too passively in general. I know this, yet continue to ignore it. To some extent, I don't mind, as I'm comfortable with the groove I've fallen into the last few months, loosening up my overall starting hand selection by not ramming and jamming pre-flop with hands like AKo. My game is decent enough to dance around a bit after the flop and generally come out ahead, so playing a larger sample of starting hands has been a good thing.

I'm leaving a lot of money on the table at the river though, turtling up when a scare card hits the board. Especially when a third suited card hits the board and I'm not holding a flush. I almost always instantly go into check and call mode, afraid of the re-raise. Which isn't the stupidest thing in the world, but -EV in the long run, especially in games where people will call middle pair all the way to the river. Having to occasionally call a re-raise, weeping, isn't the worst thing in the world. In fact, it's much worse to never be faced with a crying call to a re-raise in that situation, as it means that you're playing way too tightly.

Knock on wood, but it's been a good poker month, taking stock at the midway point. Bankroll is approaching the 2K mark, which isn't bad, given that it's built from a $200 deposit back in May. That said, the wedding is probably going to take a huge chunk out of it soon, but such is life. That's why I'm building it, that's what it's there for. But it would be nice to have enough to fund a trip to Tunica for the WPT event in January. I think that's still doable, though, even if the poker funds get wiped out at the end of October. I was only planning on playing some satellites and smaller events anyway, so that's not outside the realm of possibility.