My card dead day
Cardroom, 2/5, 8 max, $1200 max buy, Rake = 6+2
I opened this table 4 hours ago. On the first dealer, I played 3 hands, won 2 of them, and other than bomb pots, I’ve not played another hand. Apparently, there are 53 deuces in this deck because I see one of them every damn deal.
Most hands have a double straddle from the CO so a 3B is usually $80+
Seat 1, Button, TP, V1 is new to me, middle aged Latin male. Sticky, my last hand played 3+ hours prior, he called my bluff and I lost a $200 pot. $1000
Seat 2, SB, V2, OWG, loose reg, losing player, drinks a lot of beer, 60s, $1800.
S3, H, gray beard, people are talking about how I haven’t played any hands today. I look OMC. They think I’m super tight, but I’ve had crap cards and any time I might have taken a chance on SC or small pockets, the pot had already been 3B or 4B. $1000
S4, UTG, V3, bad passive station pre, only a little tighter post. VPIP = 99%, only one fold pre all day. $600. He’s already rebought 4 times @ $500 each. He usually loses $3- 4K per session.
S6, LJ, V4, $1800, Pro, TAG, 30s WG, 3B more than his fair share.
S8, CO, V5, $1500, TAG, 30s WG
OTTH: V5 double straddles from CO. V1 straddles on BU and calls, V2 calls.
Action is to me with T9cc. I generally raise or fold, but there are action players behind me. I hope my call survives. Decision #1 - Bad call?
5 Replies
I get the temptation after being card dead for hours, but I'd rather 3! 72o from the button than limp T9s where you're either going to face preflop raises or go 5-6 ways to a flop, in the middle. It's annoying, but this is just a fold unless you're at a table you can just run over.
Just throwing this out there
When I go card dead, I am looking for situations to use that image - cards don’t matter, it’s the spot now - like steals from the button when no one is interested.
When the guy that hasn’t played a hand gets aggressive, people get out of the way. You don’t want to be hamstrung by the cards in your hand. Sometimes I know I’m going to bet before I look at the cards.
I make a game out of it and distract myself by intently looking for spots that can be bought by a guy with my image. Look at ‘card dead’ as a bluffing opportunity and all those bad cards matter less.
Anyway this seems to help me. I don’t play often and card dead used to frustrate me - now I make a game of it. My worst days seem to come with a bunch of AQ, JJ, type of hands that miss or face overcards - some days every move you make is wrong.
Suited connectors are mostly a waste of money, unless played cheaply, in position closing the action.
Yami explains it well - you have to fold to a 3bet and you have to hit this hand hard against a crowd. A lot of money is lost catching a piece of the board and not getting away from a hand like this.
You can just fold. Hand strength is relative, and this in the BB where it's going to be a big pot isn't great.
But assuming people have noticed you have folded a lot and I wanted to play: I play like it's part of a 99+/AQ+ range ... So open raise or limp/r as you would with those, mostly see a flop and try not to bluff it all off if my range hits.
Check if my range misses, then consider x/r, x/c, x/f depending.
It's probably better to fold a lot more than you do that, but we're all human and it's much better than...
I’ve had crap cards and any time I might have taken a chance on SC or small pockets, the pot had already been 3B or 4B.
This is super transparent IMNSHO, and much worse.
Even experienced players who notice this in others will be card dead for 2+ hours and then see 33 or 76s or something, and decide this is the sign they are about to get lucky so they need to see a flop. But luck doesn't work like that, and even some bad players will assume you've got random garbage or you'll be easily bluffable so will apply pressure. Also if you play 33 and hit ... it looks sus if you suddenly want to pile chips in on KT3.
Or, even worse, you end up with T9cc on J83r with one club and less than 2 SPR with no fold equity.
Interesting perspectives. Thanks for the detailed responses.
raise pre if you're good postflop, fold pre if you suck postflop. and if you raise pre it has to be pretty big. probably at least 6x to get it HU or 3 way at most.
given that you are complaining about being card dead (when you're card dead you should be focused on getting reads, instead of being bored), im guessing the latter is the preferred play.
