Straight sorrow, hammer heartbreak

Last night, I played well; however, the poker gods were against me. At the first table I joined, I lost two hands where I was the heavy favorite; the second one took me to the felt. Since that $40K loss dipped my balance below the magic play million mark, I joined another table just so I could bring it back up above the mark; I was successful in that.

On the first hand where I was a heavy favorite, I flopped an ace high straight and bet it heavily all the way down the line; I lost to a flush which was made on the river. I don't call that sound poker strategy on the part of the winner. Sour grapes on my part? Certainly there's an element of that, but from a purely probabilistic point of view, my opponent never should have called my turn bet of $24,100. I just used Card Player's online Texas Hold'em odds calculator to find out how big a favorite I was when I made that turn bet: I had a 73.81% chance of winning, and a 7.14% chance of tying.

On the second hand where I was a heavy favorite, I was dealt a hammer (7 2 offsuit), but it became what I'll call a full hammer (a full house, sevens full of twos) on the turn. I got into a reraise war on the river, ended up going all in, and lost to a full house, tens full of sevens, which had been made on the river. In retrospect, I probably should not have gone all in, but I had every reason to believe I had the best hand. The full house my opponent made was highly improbable; he had been dealt two tens and the river card was a ten. The Hold'em odds calculator informs me that after the turn card, I had a 95.45% chance of winning.

These two memorable hands begat the title of this post.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 35 hands and saw flop:
- 5 out of 5 times while in big blind (100%)
- 2 out of 4 times while in small blind (50%)
- 17 out of 26 times in other positions (65%)
- a total of 24 out of 35 (68%)
Pots won at showdown - 2 of 6 (33%)
Pots won without showdown - 3

delta: $-37,000
balance: $1,001,358