Good And Not So Good

I am discovering more and more as I play what the pros talk about. The cards can, indeed, be running hot for a player and then suddenly freeze you out. And it can all happen in the same tournament.
I'm playing and my pockets are all great cards, Aces and Kings or pocket Jacks. I'm winning great pots and looking good to make the final table and grab some cash. Then, as the blinds increase higher and higher, the pockets get smaller and smaller, twos and sixes and they are unconnected and unsuited and all I am doing is bleeding away my chips wondering if I will even make it to the cash out level and earn a dollar. It's very frustrating.
But, I try to play each hand as best I can no matter what the cards. Sometimes you can get lucky and those low cards show up on the flop, sometimes all you can do is check and if someone bets fold and hope for better cards in the next hand.
Sometimes even good cards can do you in. I have a low stack and get pocket jacks. I go all in hoping that the hand will hold. I'm called by pocket queens and know I am doomed. The flop is all low cards and I am out. In the next tourney I get pocket queens and the flop is all low. I push and get called and re-raised. I go all in feeling confident. The cards are shown and my opponent has pocket jacks. I'm grinning. The turn card is a seven. I'm feeling great. The river card is a jack and I am out! I stare at the screen in disbelief!
I had to laugh after the initial shock wore off. Poker is a strange game and, in spite of what all the pros will tell you, is still a game of luck. There's no way to tell what the next card is going to be, period. Yes, you will see many of the same pros at many final tables and they will say it has nothing to do with luck, but I think they are full of baloney. They are very, very lucky players.
Patience is still the major key to success in poker and the pros generally have lots of that. They need it as their tournaments last for days not hours. In an online tourney you do need to be patient but sometimes you just have to shove and hope.

I am having fun and have met some really nice people from around the globe. And, more importantly, I am learning to have more patience. Now that I am older I find that I am much more impatient with everything than I used to be. Sad to say but I have become my mother in that regard. the world moves to slowly, the computer isn't fast enough to suit me, things like that. I need to learn to be a patient person again.

Starting Over

NoPayPoker support finally answered me. It seems as though they do take umbrage at the three accounts here in this household. So, I have to cancel two of them (gladly) and I can then have my account and will have to start over with a balance of zero dollars. The $25 I made already is gone with the wind :(
I really don't mind that much I just want to be able to play poker on that site! Of the four or five poker sites I have tried out, NoPay is, by far, the best of the bunch. The players there are mostly good players and there are not that many donks. The players there are generally friendly and that's nice too.
So, all I can do now is wait some more and let support do their job in their own, slow, fashion.

Worst Game Week Ever

It seems like, no matter how well one plays, there is always the possibility that someone else will play better. I must learn patience!!

Have a great week, everyone. Stay safe, stay warm :)

Playing Meaner

Lately I've noticed that my poker playing is getting more aggressive. This is not always a good thing but occasionally it seems to work just fine. I refuse to be bullied out of hands simply because some idiot made a large bet, bluffing.
What amazes me about a bluffer is that after all the cards are on the table and I have re-raised his bet thinking I have the best hand (and I do), why in the heck do they call that re-raise showing all the people at the table that they had nothing to bet on? Makes absolutely no sense to me. If I'm bluffing and I get a re-raise like that I fold that hand so no one can see that I was full of baloney. I'd rather they think I was too chicken to call and waste more chips.
Playing aggressively does seem to have a major drawback for me. I need to learn to leave my anger emotion away from the table. I have made bad calls out of anger and lost more than it is worth. I need to constantly remind myself that there will always be other hands to play and that, sooner or later, if I am patient I will get the dork that keeps going all in right after the flop or even pre-flop.
Poker is, for me, an ongoing learning process.