OMG, what a morning! 
Bank holiday monday, nothing else to do and plenty of time, so figured I’d stick a bit of cash onto Pokerstars and play their HU knockout MTTs (where it’s $10 buy-in, then you win $5 for each player you knockout). I thought I’d keep signing up for them throughout the day while taking down a few regular husngs in the quiet spots.
Didn’t even get that far.
I registered for the first one and opened a regular husng while waiting. In the opening hands I tried a few cbets to see where I stood – he called all of them and we went to a cheap showdown where he had bottom pair each time.
I then tried a few delayed cbets and some check-raises. Every time I got called, and somehow he had a piece of the board. I figured I couldn’t put him down as a calling station as he had hit each time, even though he was calling really light.
I finally hit a flop, albeit OOP. I lead out each street with him calling me down. He paired his King on the river and took that pot.
I was starting to feel a bit incredulous, plus a bit short of chips. There were a ton of hands like this;
PokerStars
2 Players
$10.00+$0.50
Stacks:
SB (2,320)
Hero (680)
Blinds: 10/20
Pre-Flop: (30, 2 players) Hero is BB 8
10
SB calls 10, Hero checks
Flop: 7
7 2
(40, 2 players)
Hero checks, SB checks
Turn: 10
(40, 2 players)
Hero bets 20, SB raises to 40, Hero calls 20
River: 5 (120, 2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets 60, Hero calls 60
Final Pot: 240
Hero shows
8 10
SB shows a full house, Sevens full of Tens
7 10
SB wins 240 (net +120)
Hero lost 120
At least he couldn’t get value out of monsters, but I was running out of ideas. I had won a pot only twice out of 80 or so hands (I 3bet pre and missed on the dryest board ever – had to lead out and he folded. The other hand was a flopped straight!).
Finally I was desperate with 500 chips – my KQ hit top pair on 7KTr, I raised and he shoved to show AQ. A Jack landed on the river and game over.
Amazing. But what can you do? The MTT started and I tried to shrug it off.
First game was a Russian maniac. Every pot had a stupid reraise somewhere (several 4bets at times). Finally it came down to my TT vs his AJ, and he hit. So that was that – next MTT in an hour.
So I went back to regular games while waiting. And again all the players were hitting any part of the board and calling down. Over and over again.
PokerStars
2 Players
$10.00+$0.50
Stacks:
Hero (1,355)
BB (1,645)
Blinds: 15/30
Pre-Flop: (45, 2 players) Hero is SB K J
Hero raises to 60, BB calls 30
Flop: K 9 2 (120, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 90, BB calls 90
Turn: Q (300, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 240, BB calls 240
River: 2 (780, 2 players)
BB bets 479, Hero calls 479
Final Pot: 1,738
BB shows a flush, King high
J 3
Hero shows
K J
BB wins 1,738 (net +869)
Hero lost 869
Tilted beyond comprehension, I withdrew the remaining cash from PS and gave up. It was only mid-day, ruined utterly
I don’t believe poker is rigged at all, but it’s so easy to see why so many people do. At the microstakes if anyone with the smallest amount of money can play, then why not be giant calling stations – it’s all about the gamble! When their J2 hits a KQ2 board for the win, then whoohoo!
Maybe if I called every street a bit more I could win too…