Being right and still losing

No limit hold'em can be so frustrating, and sometimes you just have to take a break to avoid going mental and pissing away your money.

Last night, I held 66, the flop came J63 rainbow, so I decided to slowplay my set for once. I got lucky, as there was a small betting war between two players in LP, and I just kept calling. The turn brought another J, and I made my boat, so I started raising, and it was left to me and one guy in LP. After a few rounds of betting, we were both all-in (the pot was around $120 now), and I was feeling pretty confident. The river was another 3, and LP showed AJo. Ok, he did have 7 outs, but being a 85% favorite and losing just hurts like hell.

The range of emotions you go through afterwards is pretty interesting (not at the time, though). It's mainly a combination of anger and disbelief. You just stare at the screen, thinking, why not a 2? Or another 6? Or perhaps a king. And if anyone tries to comfort you, they better beware.

This is an excellent thing about being in a relationship where both people play. It doesn't help the situation saying "Aw, that's too bad. I'm sure you'll win it back", when all I really want to do is rip the guy's balls off, and the other person knows it.

This sort of brings me to a point that I've never seen mentioned in books or forums, namely: what size bankroll do you need to not care about beats like that? I should be exstatic about losing to a 15% dog, because this means I'll be able to double up 85% of the time. Easy money. But for me it just doesn't work like that. It probably has to do with the situation I've put myself in. If my bankroll is above $2k (cool Otto, isn't it :), I withdraw my winnings, which means I really hate falling below this mark. I should probably try to build up a buffer of some sort. But I just luuuv the green so much ;)

Today I took a similar beating. KK in early position, I raise about 4BB, and get a single caller. Flop is JJ2. In situations like this, I often think it's better to be fearless, so I bet the pot. The guys goes all-in (for about $25), and I call. All I can really do here is hope that people in late position aren't calling preflop raises with AJ, JT, and garbage like that. And he isn't. He has AKo, three outs. And he spikes an ace on the river. Ok, thank you very much, that's enough poker for today.

I've been involved in five or six large pots in the past two days, and won four of them, so I'm up about $100, which I can't really complain about. And of course you can't expect to win every single hand, this being poker, where any two cards can win ;) It just somehow bugs me knowing that I could've won twice the amount with just a bit more luck. I'm not calling with gutshots without odds, backdoor flushes and crap like that, but I'm winning when I should, and losing when I shouldn't. Bugger.

Cool, I'm beginning to sound like this guy.