Lydias, 9/17

One of my flaws is I refuse to believe, for whatever reason, that it is possible to go into a night, play well, and never win a hand.

So I sat down to a 7 player table. Immediately to my left is a guy I have only seen play once. He is a weak-aggressive with more tells than an Israeli dig. To his left is Todd, who lately has been playing a much sounder game so he is a bit harder to read since he is bluffing less and playing better hands. We also had I think Danny to his left, the Cowboys fan who plays quite similar to Todd sitting to my right, Bill to his right and...one more. Randy maybe?

This is a table where bluffing is pointless because someone will call you all the way to the river. I did not see one hand not shown down. So you HAVE to have cards to play.

It was also a weak-aggressive table. Until a couple people busted out and Don joined the table there was not one hand raised pre-flop. On the bright side, you can limp in with any drawing hands...all those medium suited connectors have as much value under the gun as they do on the button. On the dark side...unless you flop a MONSTER you are probably beaten.

And if you are not even getting suited connectors...well...here was a night when how I played did not matter.

I limped in with a few drawing hands...stuff like 4/5 hearts, 7/8 off, k/j off. But for the most part, even in a limp-fest, I folded, folded, folded, folded, folded...and proved wise, wise, wise, wise because not one of my hands would have hit and on a night when everything is getting shown down...well..you have to have the cards to win. Meanwhile, we had several hands with 3 full houses on them at showdown, several trips, etc. Big hand after big hand.

I was being blinded out. The best hand I had was at one point, in a hand eerily similar to another I had shown John the previous session, I picked up J/10 suited in the big blind and checked it. Weak play? Maybe. But there was no raise I could make that would drive everyone out with 5 other people in the pot and I was not going all-in with J/10. It is not that good a hand. Well, it looked good when I flopped 2 pair...problem is, there was a queen to go with it. So anyone with A/K has me drawing all but dead to 4 outs. And with 5 other people in the pot...who is betting against it? And yes, they had already limped multiple times with Aces, Kings, Big Slick...so it was not an unreasonable assumption. Still, I bet into it to test their resolve. Nobody came over the top, but 3 people called....including Randy who lately has been on a slow-playing kick. If he had a good but not great hand...say, 2 pair...he would have come over the top. Right there I was done with the hand. Of course, the turn was a queen, counterfeiting my bottom pair anyway. I checked and folded. One full house beat 2 others at the showdown.

I only played 2 other non-blind hands, both of them weakly. I limped with pocket 4s and pocket 7s. The 4s had a huge flop of face cards and were into the muck fast. The 7s saw a better flop...only one over card, a 10/6/4 flop. This had promise. I bet into this one...and had one caller, one re-raise, and a re-re-raise. Fold. Sure enough, someone had the 10, someone else a set of 6s.

Other than those hands I folded, folded, folded. On a table where you can't make moves...what else is there to do when people are hitting straights, flushes, boats or sets on every hand and even a pair looks like gold to you? Ironically, I still had more chips than 2 other people who went to the final table...despite not winning a single hand all night. Actually, I did not show down a single hand all night. I was down to about 1400 (I started with 3K) and the blinds were still only 100-200, so I had time. I was at 7 times the blind...the point where I pick a premium hand, raise all-in pre-flop and have fold equity so I either steal the blinds, double up, or am out.

This is a night I would argue I played well...and it was some of the most boring poker of my life. On the bright side, just watching the others battle, I picked up some nice information so we will see how that goes.