The Poker Gods Don't Seem To Want Me To Move Up

I would never do anything to piss off the poker Gods, as they have been very good to me, but I appear to be hopelessly stuck at the .50/1 nl level. This level is my ATM machine. It is good for a very consistent $30-40 per hour (4 tabling) long term. I have aspirations for much greater poker income, but I seem to get bitch slapped around when ever I move up to 1/2. This is getting really old. If you were to look at my pokertracker statistics you would laugh. I am a huge winner/100 hands at .50/1, and a huge loser/100 hands at 1/2. The key statistics like preflop raise%, voluntarily entered the pot%, showdown win%, and post flop aggression are very similar for the two levels. The luck factor is not. I have to be one of the most unlucky players ever at 1/2. I might have to just skip it and go straight to 2/4 at some point if I ever want to move up. I know this is what the Doubleas recommendation would be.

I have been playing a little bit of 1/2 lately, and starting to churn out some decent results, and move back towards the positive. I kicked Perry Friedman around a few weeks ago at 1/2 on FullTilt. I also needed to step up my FPP accumulation for the FullTilt WSOP freeroll, and 1/2 certainly helps to that effect. I 4-tabled 1/2 on FullTilt Wednesday night, and had a nice run clearing about $110 in profit in an hour plus about 250 FPPs. They play in general seemed pretty bad. Worse then I remembered. It felt like I was being a pussy and not taking advantage of the fish at 1/2 if I stayed in my .50/1 comfort zone.

I played some more today and got bitch slapped bad. This is the 1/2 I remember. I got my chips in as a ridiculous favorite, and get sucked out everytime. Today it was laughable. I pick up AA twice in the span of 5 hands (different tables). I have $120 in front both times as I usually buy in a little light at this level. Both times someone opens for $10. Both times, I reraise to $25. The size of the reraise does 2 things for me. It takes away thier odds to draw to the set (no rule of 10 based on my stack), and it gives me a good idea of their range if they call. I am figuring a pretty big pair or AK if they just call. If they reraise, the money is going all-in right there. If they fold, I'll just take the win and be happy. In this case both times they just call. Flop #1 Qxx, Flop #2, 9xx. Flop 1 is a little scary, because QQ is in the range. Flop#2 does not bother me at all. Both cases, all the money goes in on the flop. Both cases I am against KK and way ahead. Case #1, a turned K. Case #2 a rivered K. OMG, why do the poker Gods hate me.

Lets just take a quick look at the odds here. KK has 2 outs. 2/45 + 2/44 = about a 9% shot or about 11 for 1. I hit an A about 4.5% of the time the K hits and still win so the odds are slightly worse than that. What are the odds that this happens back to back? 121-1. What are the odds that I win both? That happens 82% of the time. So I win both 82% of the time, we split 17% of the time, and I lose both less than 1% of the time. Damn, am I unlucky at 1/2 nl. I am supposed to win one of them back at least, what a JOKE. I'll tell you one thing, my pocket Kings never beats pocket Aces. Never, never, never.

Anyway, I did not tilt, and continued on at 1/2. Normally, I would have been away from 1/2 for a week or two after a beating like that, but I am not going to give up that easy. I managed to recoup 1/2 of my losses, and then ran top 2-pair against a flopped straight. Managed not to rack out there, but I was back to down $240. I think I am dealing with it better now-a-days. I went on a mini slump for a couple of days last week at .50/1, but I laughed it off, blogged about how funny it was, and was back to my winning ways by the third day. Someday things will turn around for me at 1/2. I hope it is soon. Poker Gods, throw me a bone please.