Blindsided by the Variance Express

Much like Fuel and Dragonystic, I am currently getting THROTTLED at the tables.

$20 SNG #1 - First hand busto. I wasn't about to let AK go in the big blind to a PF raise, but I am *not* an AK re-raiser. I prefer to get to a flop with it. The flop was pretty dreamy and I can't put anybody on an 8, so I call off all my chips fairly quickly hoping to be in a dominating position or against a flush draw. In a dominating position I was, and proceed to get bitch-slapped on the turn. Turns out the flush draw would've gotten home, too, so I was probably destined to lose this hand.

$20 SNG #2 - Sixth hand I try and push my 2 pair hard, I'm pretty certain I flopped the best hand, but I can't find any way I'm ahead on the river, let alone the turn. After a couple orbits and some failed blind steals we find ourselves on hand 21. I check my option in the big blind, turn an ugly little 2 pair that is undoubtedly the best hand at the time, get my money in good, and his draw gets home. I didn't realize until just now that he was open-ended w/the pair, so its not *as* brutal as it originally felt, but it still stings plenty.

At this point, I realize that luck is NOT on my side and make a smart decision to drop down.

$10 SNG #1 - Here's a fun one. Admittedly, I probably played this terribly, but hey...I'm a pocket pair limper. This could've happened either way, and the fact remains that I'm an 80% favorite preflop against his hand. UTG w/10s, I limp, as do 4 others. Flop comes 9-high. SB bets out, I raise it up, player goes all-in behind me, and I make a relatively easy call, expecting to see A9. No such luck. I go home on hand number 9, when a standard coin flip turns into me getting backdoored. Turns the straight, and twists the knife with the river flush.

$10 SNG #2 - After systematically dorking away a few chips raising and missing and calling a bet w/2nd pair, we find ourselves at hand 18, where I can't get a monster draw home. At this point I tread water through bad cards and increasing blinds, until push monkey time, where after some thought, I decide to push all-in, in a spot where I really felt like I was going to be a 40% dog and/or didn't have much of a choice. I was exactly right, and my heart flip-flopped a little when I flopped my Q, but then the poker gods returned us to our regularly scheduled programming when he turned another 9 to end the suspense. Fantastic.

$10 SNG #3 - This game was actually pretty average...assuming by "average" you mean "never getting above your starting stack". I showed a little bit of promise in some spots, actually making a hand or two, but like I said, nothing is too terribly impressive if you never get above your starting stack. In the end I proved I couldn't win as a favorite, a slight dog, or dead even, and this saga is complete.

Now I know I didn't play some of these hands top notch, and others are pretty average beats, but it just goes to show that when variance hits, variance hits hard.

I'm actually not terribly disheartened with the whole matter. I'd been running pretty damn decent, and I didn't stick to the $20s like a moron. I'm at $177, down about $80 in an hour and 45 mins or so, which is just an atrocious amount of time to burn through 5 SNGs. Next time I play, be that tonight, tomorrow, or whenever, I'm gonna try 2 more $10s, and if I'm still getting b-slapped, I'll drop down to the fivers. I'm not about to let this skid break me, that much I know.

Anyway, just a rare little afternoon/quickie post for me because I felt like I just had to share. Especially the 1st hand 3-outer massacre.

Off to real life for me. Enough of this crap.