More frustration...Originally written December 15

Week two of my new poker style is not working out so well even though my sessions are more eventful. It has really boiled down to three hands that have made the difference. Ironically, I'm not sure how much the style mattered in these hands. In hands 2 and 3, they probably would've happened anyway.

Hand 1: I pick up J8s in late position. There is one early position call, and I decide to limp in. The player on the button raises the size of the pot. The early position player calls, and I decide to call as well. I'm getting pretty good odds (2.88:1 or 25% break even) and I have a hand that is fit or fold. It's also a deceptive hand meaning I could potentially make a lot of money with it.

Flop: The flop comes JJ3 with two hearts. The EP player checks, and I decide to play the hand fast. I don't want another heart to fall, and I figure that the late position player (VPIP: 9, PFR:6) probably has a strong hand here. He's so tight, he could be holding AA, KK, or QQ. He flat calls me. I'm now a little nervous, but I'm generally happy with the call. He's got some sort of hand, but not enough to raise with, and the flop likely didn't hit me.

Turn: The flop comes 9 of spade now giving both heart and spade flush draws. I'm not in love with the draws, and he's shown some potential to call. I put in a pot sized bet, and I think that will end the hand. He rereaises me to put me all in. I'm thinking what hands could he have:

Hands I beat that are posibble: AA, KK, QQ, TT
Hand that I lose to that are possible: 99, 33, AJ maybe KJ.

33: I don't think a player this tight raises 33 preflop. It's not in his playable hand range if he only in 9% of hands.

A bigger J: Mathematically, the odds he has the case Jack are 1-(46/47)*(45/46)=4.3% for one opponent, so roughly double that, 8%, for two opponents.

The pot is offering me 1:4.09 or 20% breakeven. Regardless of what he might hold, I've almost got to make the call, because I have ten outs (3 3s, 3 9s, 3 8s, and the case J), and mathematically I'm getting the price to call.

Of course, he turns over AJo. The river comes Ace and he wins with a full house. I'm not sure how I could have played this differently. Obviously folding the reraise seems smart in hindsight, but not at the time. Should I have checked the turn and kept the pot under control? There was an error here, but I'm not immediately sure where.

Hand 2: I'm in the big blind and I catch 48 of diamonds. This is not in my playable hand range, but I get a free look at the flop against four other players.

Flop: You guessed it 5T7 of diamonds. I have a flush and a one outer to a straight flush. It's a baby flush though, so there is no need to slow play. I bet $1, and I am reraised to $2 by the very next player. The player after him flat calls the raise, and it folds back around to me. Given the flop, I could be up against a lot of hands, and I'm not sure what to do.

I don't think there is a large probability that either of the other players has a flush right now, but I do remember getting out flushed before in the same situation. Nonetheless, I decide to raise the pot to get all the flush draws out. The original caller folds, and I am raised all-in by the remaining player.

There is nothing he could have but a flush, and I know I don't have him outflushed. I've only got 1 out, so I've got about a 4 percent chance of catching up. I wanted to fold here, but I thought it would be knitty, since I didn't percieve that there was a high percentage of times that he would have two suited cards along with me.

After this hand, I computed the amount of times that two players are dealt cards of the same suit preflop, so I wouldn't make this mistake again. It is the second time it's happened after all, so maybe I don't have a strong grasp of the odds. The odds are actually that another person will have the same two suits around 8% of the time. I guess I've been overplaying my hand in that spot, and I'll need to slow down.

Hand 3: I pick up KK and another guy has AA. I mean, at this point, it's kind of comical. I've played 32 hours at FTP consisting of 2,354 hands. I've had KK 20 times which is twice as many as you would expect. 4 of those times (20%) another player had AA. In addition, I've run into QQ and TT twice in that time, and I won neither hand and I've been outdrawn by Q9 offsuit.

It's to the point that I want to start laying down KK preflop anytime someone plays back at me even though I know that is stupid. I just want to stop getting KK for a while. I hate it and I have no confidence that it can win for me. I know that if it wasn't KK, it would be something else but I would honestly prefer something else at this point.