Falling off the swings

It was nearly 12 last night when I stretched out in my chair and left the poker tables. It was a very memorable night, and for the first time I truly appreciated the power of variance. I had just experienced what was easily my most unlucky session ever: I had just been bad beaten out of 2.5 thousand dollars in the space of 4 hours. The 'lucky' part of the evening(and you really have to want to see it) was that a] it wasn't 5 thousand, and b] I was able to win a thousand back.

I made only a few mistakes for the session, but I was unable to get ahead enough to do any serious damage to any of my opponents and their grossly (not to mention unfairly) inflated stacks. Just checking on a poker calculator and I found that I put the majority of my stack in while I was ahead as an 85, 90, 90.5 and a 91 percent favourite, and yet for each instance the statistical expectation would simply not hold steady.

Although not the worst beat I suffered in terms of probability, the following was the one that stung the most. I'm glad that I can say I didn't tilt, and was able to keep playing against players who were clearly weak, and I can only hope that next time I will not be quite so unfortunate. That's all folks, hope you enjoy better fortune than I..... and I hope you enjoy the following hand! :-)

***** Hand History for Game 5394361782 *****

$400 NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, October 25, 16:24:33 ET 2006

Table Table 106050 (Real Money)

Seat 6 is the button

Total number of players : 5

Seat 3: fekunayre ( $537.20 )

Seat 5: m_zeal ( $612.90 )

Seat 6: Finansen99 ( $1528.21 )

Seat 4: Sub__Zer0 ( $404.10 )

Seat 2: bicko2 ( $396 )

bicko2 posts small blind [$2].

fekunayre posts big blind [$4].

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to Sub__Zer0 [ 7d 7s ]

Sub__Zer0 calls [$4].

m_zeal folds.

Finansen99 raises [$22].

>You have options at Table 105609 (No DP) Table!.

>You have options at Table 105609 (No DP) Table!.

bicko2 folds.

fekunayre folds.

Sub__Zer0 calls [$18].

** Dealing Flop ** [ Th, 7h, Js ]

Sub__Zer0 bets [$30].

Finansen99 raises [$90].

>You have options at Table 105609 (No DP) Table!.

>You have options at Table 109593 (No DP) Table!.

>You have options at Table 105609 (No DP) Table!.

Sub__Zer0 raises [$170].

Finansen99 calls [$110].

** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ]

>You have options at Table 109593 (No DP) Table!.

Sub__Zer0 is all-In [$182.10]

Finansen99 calls [$182.10].

** Dealing River ** [ Qs ]

Sub__Zer0 shows [ 7d, 7s ] three of a kind, sevens.

Finansen99 shows [ Ad, Kd ] a straight, ten to ace.

Finansen99 wins $812.20 from the main pot with a straight, ten to ace.