SOCOM or Poker?

Poker used to win, hands down. The cheaters/glitchers found ways to tarnish the online experience and the offline game was so so. It looks like Zipper managed to address both those things in the 3rd release, here is hoping that bears out.

I did play a few HU SNG's last night with disappointing results. The first two were against the luckiest player I have ever sat across from. I am not complaining, and maybe I have faced luckier and they didn't show, but in the first ten hands I folded good cards that had matched on the flop to very large bets on the turn and river. The person showed (nicely, and oddly....I rarely if ever show) the stone cold nuts each time. I felt good about folding to trip Aces, flopped straights and flushes. They eventually won when the cards kept going their way. I encouraged them (honestly, w/o sarcasm) to play a higher level (this was a $30) and they said they had and won two $100 so far and were going to play $30 until they lost one. The cards were really hitting them hard. I figured I could break the luck with good play (WRONG) and they accepted the rematch. It was over first hand when I got it all in with AA. Re-raise battle pre-flop had half the stacks in the pot. Flop was 345 rainbow and I decided I wanted it right there, no suckouts, or at least no cheap ones. If there was a set, so be it, I will take my chances but I expected wired 10's or higher. I push all in and get insta called by 26o. Wow nice flopped straight against my now underdog Aces. I quit, you win. I wished them more luck and decided a different level might help. I was not upset with my play, more surprised by the run of amazing cards the other person was on. Go with it.

I played a $50 HU match with a much weaker and less lucky person. Only slightly less lucky... the worst hand of the match was my pocket 5's that hit on the flop and I got their last 700 chips in on the flop. I had a 2 to 1 chip lead at this point. They flip 88 (nothing on the flop was higher than an 8, I can justify the call) and proceed to catch the magic 8 on the river. Luckily, they were so tight and passive that I had built a large chip cushion and could absorb this. I played aggressively and soon was back to the 1500 starting chips and eventually won. It took a lot of hands though because they would fold at almost any sign of aggression. I had to really slow play my monsters to get any action. Net I was minus for the evening, but not much.

I was a winner on SOCOM getting MVP two boards in a row. Too bad it was not a ranked game....

Like the title queries, the battle will continue.... and the odds are in SOCOM's favor right now. I think that I could use a little break.