Back in the days, I used to hate the fish, especially after they beat me. Nowadays, I sit in front of my screen and laugh…then I feel pity for them. “Pity? After they won against you? But they got the money!” – true, but they’re basically just holding on to it for the real poker players. It’s really sad to see people playing like crap and there’s really only two ways they can win (and I’m talking HU specifically here):

1. Get an insane run of cards (+ you making some sort of second best hand you can’t get away from)

2. Get lucky

I had some encounters with some nice fishies tonight. Why do I call them fish? Because their Sharkscope numbers tells me that they’re fish…and all I see is the nice fishbowl:

So I’m sitting there and I don’t let this knowledge affect me all that much. I just play my solid game, although I assume that they’re less likely to fold a hand than the regular player (so no sick bluffs against them, because they probably won’t fold). That said, I dominate most of them, because I can fold a hand…even if it might be the best hand. As for tonight, I came at them from all angles and they couldn’t do anything about it.

The theme was similar in all those matches: I get ahead, I get a little more ahead, I get waaaay ahead. Then, when it comes to finish them off, they get insanely lucky on my ass. (And even if I make a mistake somewhere in the middle here and I’m down, it’s usually just temporary as they will give me back all those chips and then some later on.) I lost 2 out of 3 matches against the fishies. The scenario: I’m ahead along the lines of 2200-2600/400-800…it all comes down to one big pot and I move my money in as a significant favourite or in rare cases not worse than even money…I lose all those hands and they’re back in business…sick…but hey, what can I do? Tilt. Steam. Get angry. No, I don’t think so. I continue to play my game, I’m confident. Then it happens again and again and they win.

Now I’m not going to say that it doesn’t bother me, every loss bothers me especially against bad players, but I’m at the stage of my “poker career” (if there’s such a thing), where I’ve come to terms with “poker reality”: They’re going to get lucky…they’re going to win matches they’re “not supposed to win”…you can’t win every match, even if you’re the better player. What really counts are decisions and the long-term results…so…even after such a loss, or two, or three…I’m sitting here with a smile on my face and some pity in my heart. Can you imagine what it must feel like playing like that, where basically the only way you can win is to get lucky? The only thing that keeps it from being pure torture is the fact that most of the donks won’t even see the situation they’re in as clearly as I do.

That said, I don’t want to sound too cocky here and I put a little disclaimer on everything that has been said above: I’m talking specifically about the low limit HU SnGs (5$/6$/10$/12$) on PokerStars here, where I feel that I’m a better player than most opponents. That said, I did come across some players, who were at least “as good” as myself and some even clearly dominated me (or kept me off my game), but in general, the “quality of play” is so bad, that it’s not even funny…and I’m seriously working on getting the roll to take a leap in stakes…can’t stay in “low limit hell” forever 😉

Before I log off…here’s my favourite hand of the night…it fits right into the scenario I described…I beat him down…I’ve got him right where I want him (one overcard, money in preflop) and he flops the joint…needless to say that similar hands occured two more times and I lost…