When You Are Beat

Just before my massive purge of brain cells in Vegas I experienced a horrible run of bad luck at the poker table. Go figure.

Even though I was only playing 2/4 limit poker, or maybe BECAUSE I was playing limit poker I paid off the idiots that outdrew me. I knew I was beat. KNEW IT. And yet I could not help but throw my chips in.

I'm thinking now that I wanted to show down my hand just to prove that I wasn't betting with air. Or maybe I wanted people to realize that they had outdrawn me and/or gotten lucky. Regardless, it was stupid. These people weren't going to give me more action just because I paid them off AND paying them off was just costing me $.

At one point, when I was in mid cran-ka binge, I was chided for laying down the second nut low draw and no high draw at a 3/6 O8 table. Turns out the bettor did indeed have the better low and who knows what for a high draw. Granted I was 2.5 sheets to the wind when I did it but boy did I catch hell for it. YOU NEVER FOLD THAT THERE! Well, WHY THE FUCK NOT? It's my $ and I knew I was drawing to half the pot IF I WAS LUCKY and clearly I wasn't being very lucky.

By the end of my Vegas adventure I had laid down an overpair to the flop when I got a lot of action and was giving grief about it too even though I was lead to believe I was behind. What is it with people giving me grief for saving my money when I was already on a cash game spewing binge? Why is it wrong to fold when you know you are beat?

By the end of my trip I was folding so many hands that would have cost me a HUGE pot had I played them. I felt oddly good about this. It's bad enough to be on a horrible run at cash games but to told that you are playing like shit on top of it doesn't help the old morale at all. The mantra of limit is, "A bet saved is a bet earned." I saved myself a ton of bets while losing a crapload of $$$ playing limit poker in Vegas this trip.

Maybe next time I need to spew at a no limit table. Just sayin.