Donkey luck

Of course I don't call myself a donkey, so obviously I'm not the one who has the luck. Anyways, I was doing well against so many fish today. Friday nights are crazy. There was this one table with this one obvious fish. He plays horrible, is a calling station, likes to bluff and all the donk's attributes. Basically I ended up losing 2-3 buyins to him. The problem with him is that, he plays trash and I would have pretty decent hand like TPTK and somehow the river would leave a 4 card to straight. The card would be some unorthodox card like 3 or 6 or something, and he would win the hand playing 37o or 6Jo. I would be stupid enough to call him on the river each time. See, the thing is that I see others call his bluffs down a hand or 2 before, making a similar play. But every time I call him, he has those junks and beat my hand. He'll hit all the obnoxious hands that you can't possibly imagine, like gutshots and weird 2 pairs. This was frustrating as hell, I sat in that table for hours and couldn't get any action even with position on him. I keep telling myself that given the patience, I can stack off the guy easily but that situation never came and difficult situations kept coming and coming.

I want to post some hands that I got stacked today. These contributed to my losses for the session. Even with my early successes, I only came out about half a buyin ahead for the session.




Before I go on to the donkey hands, there are 2 hands that are interesting that I lost a stack to each time. I'm not sure if I could get away from these honestly.

No read on villian here, his stats looked weak. Might not mean much.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.comFlopTurnRiver.com (Format: Plain Text)

CO ($86.60)
Hero ($25.25)
SB ($4.75)
BB ($24.60)
UTG ($31.70)
MP ($12.05)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Qc, Ad.
UTG raises to $1, 2 folds, Hero calls $1, 1 fold, BB calls $0.75.

Flop: ($3.10) 8h, Jc, As (3 players)
BB checks, UTG bets $0.75, Hero raises to $2.25, BB folds, UTG calls $1.50.

He made a weak leadout, so obviously I raise him. He calls, so I thought I might be behind by AK or AJ.

Turn: ($7.60) 7c (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks.

River: ($7.60) Qh (2 players)
UTG bets $3.5, Hero raises to $10, UTG raises to $28.45, Hero calls $12 (All-In).

This is where it got tough. I hit my 2 pairs, now only hands I have to worry about are sets which I didn't put him on. I put him on AJ or AK. But since he reraised me all in, there was only possibility of AJ,AQ or sets. I put him on AJ, apparently I was wrong. I'm not sure if I should have just called here, I don't think I can even if I do this again.

Final Pot: $58.05

Results below:
UTG has 8c 8s (three of a kind, eights).
Hero has Qc Ad (two pair, aces and queens).
Outcome: UTG wins $58.05.



This villian I played with before, he seems very tight. His VPIP is below 20, he seems solid enough.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (5 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.comFlopTurnRiver.com (Format: Plain Text)

Hero ($61.65)
Button ($48.50)
SB ($29.10)
BB ($16.50)
UTG ($6.60)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Kc, Ah.
1 fold, Hero raises to $1, 1 fold, SB raises to $3.5, 1 fold, Hero calls $2.50.

He 3bets me in SB, I suspected strength. Generally speaking, these limits people only 3bets with JJ+, AQ+.

Flop: ($7.25) Jc, 5c, As (2 players)
SB bets $4.25, Hero calls $4.25.

This is a great flop for me, only hand in the range that beats me is AA.

Turn: ($15.75) 3h (2 players)
SB bets $10.25, Hero raises to $53.9, SB calls $11.10 (All-In).

He leads out. This is where I might have made a mistake. I'm not sure if KK, QQ or AQ would make this lead out. He basically pot committed himself. I didn't give him respect and reraised him all in.

River: ($91) 7d (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $91

Results below:
SB has Jd Ad (two pair, aces and jacks).
Hero has Kc Ah (one pair, aces).
Outcome: SB wins $58.45. Hero wins $32.55.

Sucky outcome, that's not a hand I put him on. Now that I think about it, I was in CO so he probably didn't respect my range and wanted a fold. But in some ways, I think this was a setup. I'm not sure when was the last time I showdown a hand that I dominated. Either players are good at folding or it just isn't happening.



Ok, here's the donkey deluxe. I could arguably made mistakes here. Now that I looked at the stats, if I didn't come in this table, I would be up 5BIs for the session. Man, that's frustrating.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.comFlopTurnRiver.com (Format: Plain Text)

BB ($42.65)
UTG ($17.15)
MP ($53.90)
CO ($13.50)
Hero ($25)
SB ($9.40)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Kd, 6d.
UTG calls $0.25, MP calls $0.25, CO calls $0.25, Hero calls $0.25, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: ($1.50) 7d, Ks, 5d (6 players)
SB bets $0.75, BB folds, UTG calls $0.75, MP calls $0.75, CO folds, Hero raises to $24.75, SB calls $8.40 (All-In), UTG folds, MP calls $24.

I made a weird play here but you see, these guys weren't folding at all. And I know I was ahead of almost every hand possible here. I wanted one caller at most.

Turn: ($60.90) 4h (3 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($60.90) Js (3 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $60.90

Results below:
SB has 7c 5c (two pair, sevens and fives).
MP has Kc 8d (one pair, kings).
Hero has Kd 6d (one pair, kings).
Outcome: MP wins $31.20. SB wins $29.70.

I mean I don't expect to win this race all the time. But the costly part is that the donkey called me with TPNK. WTF!



This hand came from an early time from this table. I didn't know too much about this player then, and decided to let him bluff into me.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.comFlopTurnRiver.com (Format: Plain Text)

BB ($27)
UTG ($35.15)
MP ($44.25)
CO ($31.10)
Hero ($25)
SB ($24.75)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 3s, 3d.
1 fold, MP calls $0.25, 1 fold, Hero raises to $1.25, 2 folds, MP calls $1.

Flop: ($2.85) 5h, Jh, 3h (2 players)
MP bets $1.25, Hero calls $1.25.

Turn: ($5.35) 9c (2 players)
MP bets $6, Hero calls $6.

River: ($17.35) 8s (2 players)
MP bets $10, Hero calls $10.

Final Pot: $37.35

Results below:
MP has 6d 7h (straight, nine high).
Hero has 3s 3d (three of a kind, threes).
Outcome: MP wins $37.35.

Yup, he was definitely bluffing on the flop and hit a double gutshot on the turn. Then he hit it on the river. I couldn't put him on any hand that made sense so obviously I called. I actually took a careful route here.



This came later, I thought I was going to make some money back here. And I wasn't going to overplay my Kings even against him.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (5 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.comFlopTurnRiver.com (Format: Plain Text)

UTG ($14.90)
MP ($66.05)
Button ($25.70)
Hero ($25)
BB ($29.85)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Kh, Kd.
UTG calls $0.25, MP calls $0.25, 1 fold, Hero raises to $1.5, 1 fold, UTG folds, MP calls $1.25.

Flop: ($3.50) 7h, 4s, 5h (2 players)
Hero checks, MP checks.

Kind of a scary flop against this donkey here. He could have any 2 pairs or the straights here. I took a slow route and pot control it.

Turn: ($3.50) Qc (2 players)
Hero bets $2.25, MP calls $2.25.

I bet out so if I'm ahead, I get some value.

River: ($8) 3c (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $8.75, Hero calls $8.75.

Horrible card here. Any 6 would make a straight. He bets out, I controlled the pot, no way I wasn't going to call this against him. He could have anything here.

Final Pot: $25.50

Results below:
MP has 6h 4d (straight, seven high).
Hero has Kh Kd (one pair, kings).
Outcome: MP wins $25.50.



Another KK hand, I mean how many of these hands does it take to make any profit here?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (5 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.comFlopTurnRiver.com (Format: Plain Text)

Button ($24.90)
SB ($64.80)
BB ($29.10)
Hero ($26.45)
MP ($46.60)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Kh, Kc.
Hero raises to $1, MP calls $1, 1 fold, SB calls $0.90, 1 fold.

Flop: ($3.25) 5d, 2d, As (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $2.25, MP folds, SB calls $2.25.

Bad flop but I am probably ahead here. His range is really wide.

Turn: ($7.75) Jh (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks.

It was probably a mistake to let another card, but he was going to call me anyways so what's the point? I mean I wasn't going to shove here.

River: ($7.75) 4s (2 players)
SB bets $7.25, Hero calls $7.25.

God, he made another big raise on the river. And 3 would make a straight. I know he didn't have an ace. Also, he did this many hands before when I had easy laydowns. Now with a decent hand, I had to make this call.

Final Pot: $22.25

Results below:
SB has 3h 7h (straight, five high).
Hero has Kh Kc (one pair, kings).
Outcome: SB wins $22.25.



There you have it.. The donkey deluxe. There were other hands, some were very marginal calls I made on the river that he hit his weird straights or whatever. Those I clearly made some mistakes. But these villians, I really can't do anything against them. I wanted to play basically the nuts against him, but the cards were very dry on that table too. Nothing was going right, frustration wasn't messing with my play. But even if I hit TPTK, I feel my hand is so small compared to his. I can never know if he got it or not. I saw his bluff caught, but I never caught one myself. This is extremely frustrating when I am "donking" my money to this guy, I had all the edges: better player, better cards, position. Sigh. I don't think I've lost so much in one table before.