Hey all,

I'm a long time FTR observer, but new to the forums. I have a semi-serious cash game every week with 9 other like minded gamblers (in Australia) and I'm hoping for some advice on my strategy.

Most on the table have about 6 months experience and we're all of a similar skill level and we generally get good reads on each other because we play every week. The winners circle is reasonablewell distributed with one exception : ME !!

I think there are a couple of reasons for this, and the first (I hesistate to say it) is consistent bad luck. Out of every 10 hands, I'm lucky if a get better than a Q6 suited, and at least 50% of my hands are 72o's, or 95o/s or similar. If i do get a semi reasonable hand I'm usually out of position.

My resulting strategy is to play tight till I hit a Group 6 hand or better, then play the hand cautiously (because everyone knows if i don't fold pre-flop I've got a monster, and i just don't have the cards to see the occasional hand to the flop) and try and get some of my stack back. This tends to work OK, I'm usually in the last 4 at the table, but I'm constantly behind the 8-ball, and can never compete with the chip leaders at this stage and usually bow out 4th, due to a combinaton of blinds killing me and not hitting percentages when i do play a hand

Worse still, by the time I actually get dealt a monster or manage to limp in to see a flop and hit a flush or open ended straight draw, I never get the percentages and always lose the pot. For example, if I play an outside straight or flush draw all the way to river 5 or 6 times, I'll be real lucky to hit my out even once onthe turn or river

A further example of this is for the last 3 weeks running, I've gone all-in preflop with a moderately low chip stack (200 all-in with 4 or 5 players on the table, and a 400 chip start for everyone) after a 3X BB raise from someone in position, with myself having KK or AA. The player who raised 3X usually folds, but I usually get called by the chip leader with 8 10 o/s and end up going down to that hand with an 8 and 10 or a straight showing on the board without even picking up a set for my AA or KK !!

I try and use this to my advantage by blufffing and semi bluffing when i get bored of bad hands and it tends to scare a few people off post-flop and pick up a few blinds here and there, but I'm rarely up, and usually the chip leader/s are 4x or 6x my stack by the time we get down to 5 or 6 on the table.

So in essence, I play ultra tight aggresive on a medium loose table (30% call the big blinds each hand) try and minimise my losses, capitalise on some big hands, bluff where i can to counteract losing blinds, but i constantly fail to be on the right side of the percentages and inevitably go out on a bad beat (like my nickname suggests).

I've read up some strategies on this site and a few others, and I think I'm playing it relatively well, but I was wondering if there is an alternative strategy for consistently not getting playable hands, or having "bad luck". I haven't gone heads up in 3 months, and haven't won a night in 6 months. Any suggestions ??