I thought I had a pretty good understanding about poker...

So I just played a poker game last night and I was baffled... I did not win a single hand last night. I had a ton of chips to start with and still did not win a single hand. The last time I didn't win a single hand was my very first played poker and didn't know anything about the game. But I came along way from my first game. I've pretty much dominated all of my friends and put on a 6 game win streak which is very impressive as there were 10 people 3/4 of the time and it was first places takes all the money except one buy in.

So just going by my winning streak and not but my separate other wins and that's just to give a idea of how good I play and actually am.

So last night I found myself sitting in the middle between 2 loose cannons I know that from previous games. One of them checks almost everything and calls everything even if shes a monster and has the pot won on the flop and the only time she won't call you is if she doesn't have enough chips to call. She doesn't bet her monsters as she doesn't understand poker to much.

The other guy beside me knows poker a whole lot more but thinks of himself as someone on my level of poker knowledge. I'll give you a example. I gave him shit for taking 30 seconds to think of calling a all in on a flop when he had the 2ND best straight possible for a wheel. So that means if the flop was 2,4,5 and he had ace,3 he was putting the opponent on 3,6. Come on are you serious? He gave me shit later on that night because I raised preflop early position a short stack pushes all in and another person calls then he pushes all in. I look down at my cards I have pocket kings.

Here I'm debating. Raise, reraise, call, then all in.
Usually when someone raise, reraises preflop that means watch out kings or aces on board. Now I have the kings so who has the aces? The short stack reraises so even if he has aces I have him covered so if i lose against him i lose a little bit but I get a shitload of chips from the other person that was in the pot. next person that calls he wouldn't just call because he had aces he would try to isolate the pot. the 3rd person he went all in but I don't give respect to him as hes loose. So that took about 30 seconds or more to realize I'm making the right play and calling. I made the call flipped over my kings and short stack had ace 10 suited next person had ace king and the guy that pushed all in after had pocket jacks. Right off the bat he said it took you that long to call with Kings!?! One thing its not the same thing it may seem like it but in poker theres a whole of different scenarios and I'm not just playing my own cards like you.

I just said look raise reraise means aces or kings because I could have just put him down on another level of poker reasoning and I don't want to look like a dick.... Its one of the basic quotes that poker players know if you have some knowledge of the game and if you were curious what happened in the pot a jack came on the turn. So I lost that pot and had about 30 chips left and then lost it later. So kind of sick for making the right call against people who had 2 outers(2 jacks and 2 aces in the deck)

So anyways the best hand I got was against the loose cannon girl in a family pot. Flop I had a gut shot straight draw. Everyone checks I get a free card I complete my straight. someone else raises she calls i reraise the original raiser folds she calls. River comes a card that pairs the board. She raises and here im thinking why did she not re raise me on the turn when she had 2 pair? Theres no way she could have 2 pair on the turn and didn't re raise me. I decided to put in a small re raise thinking I'm ahead and worst case scenario I call if she re raises or fold if its a all in. She decided to call. She turns over a full house. I'm like wtf in my ahead why not go all in....

The hand that crippled me. For some reason no one at this table understands table image. If someone doesn't play a hand in 10 hands their tight. and if someone plays a lot of hands their loose. So more often then not if someone preflop raises and their tight. Automatically you have to give them credit for aces, kings, high ace and other hands like that. I look down I have jack 9 suited I have the button I raise. 2 people call me. Now I don't understand why I get so much action as my raises preflop are a lot. Flop comes 9,8,4 I hit top pair I'm in position this pot is mine. 2 other players check to me I raise one of them calls.
Turn comes 10, so right now I got a up and down straight draw with a pair of 9's he checks I raise he re raises. I'm putting him on jack 10 at this point as it would make sense he has a up down straight draw on the flop and that's why he chased. I decided to call as he gave me 4:1 odds and I still had outs to win with a trips or tie if a queen came. River came a blank I check he raises. At this point I'm like WTF I have to know what he has I know I'm behind. I call just to see what he has. He has queen jack. So on the flop he has a gut shot straight draw 4 outs.

Are you serious? Your going to draw to 4 outer against the tightest most aggressive raiser at the table? His excuse was he has chips. Now if you step back and look at the whole picture he does have more chips then me but not by a lot. I would say $50 more. So if that turn card didn't come I would have pumped it. So basically your risking over 3/4 of your chip stack for a 4 outer? Now lets just say it didn't come and he hit a pair of queens. Now what? How do you play your queens when your against someone tight aggressive for all you know I could have ace queen. Your screwed if you play so in the first place queen jack its not a good hand to call with out of position. Yeah.... And for some reason this guy always makes his hands when hes against me. Which makes poker absolutely unbearable to play when people don't understand whats going on.

So Basically how I dealt with people that are loose before is just don't raise preflop save those chips as they won't fold anyways and if the flop comes bet but when they call bet again and be cautious of when they reraise so call 3/4 of the time and fold 1/4 the time. So by playing like this it makes me look very timid at the table as that's all I can do they don't understand preflop raising or raising on the different streets. Believe me I've waited for those flops where I flopped a full house or straight. If it doesn't come you get dwindled from those other hands. So I can't trap them with a monster hand if I'm not catching cards and I can't beat them with aggression or table image. So the question is to any other poker players out there how do you beat a loose canon. Am I suppose to raise more? Like a quarter of my stack and then just push on the flop if I hit top pair or better? Wheres the strategy in that. If you can't tell from this blog I actually work out percentages when I play so if it doesn't make sense in my head I will fold.