The Cost of Being too Active

The £50 league game at Loose Cannon took place last night, and unfortunately my run of 5 straight cashes came to and end. After the break, I had made some minor progress, up to 5k in chips. With the increasing blinds, I became more and more active, and that ultimately led to my downfall.

Prior to the 3 hands below, I had knocked out Sonny’s cousin (Osman 4) before immediately donking off 2k to Professor Jalfont in a blind on blind battle with Jack high. In the Jack hand, Jalfont had raised me with the Queen flush draw on the turn - correctly countering my agression and in fact “bluffing” with the best hand.

Hand1
I raise on the button to 800 with QQ (Blinds 150-300) - all pass.

Hand2
I raise to 800 from mid position with 4♣5♦. All pass.

Hand3
I raise UTG with A♥J♥ to 800. folded round to Fluke, who has had enough of my constant raising and he shoves. Hmmm - after the Jalfont chip leakage I have about 25% of my stack in the middle already. We are only 5 handed, so easy to see Luke doing this with AT or Arag with my persistent raising. I call and he in fact holds 25 offsuit! The dealer deals down a straight for Fluke by the river and I am gone.

Nice to see tournament regulars Sir Mike and Shazbo take down 1st and 2nd respectively.

I also made an ahead of shedule return to the cash game last night. I was very pleased with my play and booked a £320 profit for the night. I was very solid, and only bluffed when it was appropriate, when it looked like people had missed draws, or scare cards arrived on the board.

On Saturday night I am making a long overdue return to the online arena. I am going to play a long tournament session, and we will see if I can emulate my sparkling form from earlier in the year.