Feeling cursed
Hey all, longtime lurker first-time poster.
Was wondering if anybody could share some similar experiences and how they deal with them.
I am not going to try and say that I am super-unlucky, or that I take more bad beats than anyone else, etc. Its just that I consistently take my bad beats in the worst spots.
I can literally recall dozens of large MTTs where I play a solid game all the way thru, build a good chip stack, make it almost to the money or even in the money, and then bust out via a bad beat in a crucial hand. The outcome of these hands inevitably means the difference between having a huge chipstack and therefore a good chance to make it further into the money for a bigger payday, or just busting out right there for little to no payday.
For example, I'll make it to the early money in a big MTT, have a lil more than the average chipstack due to playing well so far, get in a raising war preflop when I have AA, end up getting it all in, opponent has some inferior hand and inevitably sucks out.
Or getting a read on an opponent that my TPTK is good, getting all my chips in on the turn, opponent makes a terrible call for more than half his stack by TP weak kicker or some crappy mid pair or gutshot, and naturally I get rivered. This type of stuff has happened so often it makes me sick. Its to the point now that if I get dealt AA or KK right near the money I am convinced that I have been set up to lose yet again.
The same goes for cash games. I'll pick up good cards my fair share and win some small pots, but I so often end up getting crushed in much larger pots i.e. AA vs. flopped set, flopped sets getting rivered by straights and flushes, flushes and straights getting rivered by full houses, etc. If there is some epic hand at a table, there is a good chance I am involved and an even better chance I am taking the losing end of it.
I guess what I am trying to say is that I acknowledge that I get good hands and bad hands with about typical frequency, but the distribution of how I pick up these hands is so consistently skewed to me taking epic beats. Obviously even AA is at best an 80% favorite preflop, which means it will lose 20% of the time, which is substantial and I know this. But it gets very frustrating when my winning 80% comes in insignificant pots, whereas the 20% always seems to hit when its a crucial tourney hand that could send me to a final table, or a big cash game pot that I could surely use.
(By the way, I am using AA as a generic for any good hand that has your opponent crushed pre-suckout).
Anyways, does anyone have any similar experiences, and any advice on how you deal with it?
