Choices in Life and Making the Best Decisions in Poker

Hello all my loyal readers! Haha. It is another beautiful May day. You would think by the mood I am in, that I am chipleader in the Borgata 500k, but I am not. In fact, I busted yesterday at about 3pm. It was very unfortunate that I only got to play the deep stack tournament for 5 hours.

Once the initial aggravation and frustration of busting passed, I reflected on my tournament objectively and I realized that I made several mistakes of which I have learned from. I will post hand histories at the end of this post. Additionally, after a stimulating discussion with a very pro friend -Dragon -regarding big, deep stack events and experience level, the truth is that this was my first deep stack event in 2.5 years. Dragon has played 5-6 deep stack events and because the majority of his experience/success as tournament player is in buy ins less than $2k, he informed me that for him, there is definitely an adjustment that needs to be made when playing bigger tournaments- getting used to playing bigger pots, playing deep stack longer, etc. Hopefully I will never go two years again without playing a deep stack and I hope to gain much experience in them in the near future.

From the beginning of the tournament, I was not comfortable. I felt a bit anxious, out of my league (which is ridiculous considering my competition), and overall, just uncomfortable. Even after those initial feelings subsided, as time passed throughout the tournament, thoughts from when I first started playing poker haunted me. "He has the nuts, he has a better kicker, she flopped a bigger hand than me." Many times, I observed a hand, whether I was in it or not, and I let my fear overcome my ability to be objective about the playres' holdings. This is very unpro like of me, and extremely novice. While it may be understandable to have experienced these thoughts/emotions in my first live big event in a long while, its also my responsibility as a professional player to take a step back and regain control of objectivity and supress any irrational fear I may have.

Enough about my feelings. Part of the title of this blog is "the best decisions in poker." This is another concept which Dragon and I have discussed over time. His take, which I agree with 100%, is that one of the major contributing factors to his success is his ability to "make better decisions in poker." This is a pretty broad statement. I think that on a general level, these decisions include proper bankroll management (the right combination of conservatism and risk at the appropriate times), game selection, money management in personal life, etc. On a more specific level, related solely to poker, those 'better decisions' come from objectively analyzing each particular street in each hand played, be it a cash game or a tournament, and based on a number of factors- including your opponent, chip stacks, pot size, your holding, reading ability, etc.- making the correct/better decision at the appropriate time.

One part of making the proper decision is understanding your opponent's thought process and to some extent, being able to predict his response to your action/decision.

So, as an example, from a hand I played during the bubble of the $500 buy in at Harrah's in December. I was involved in pot where I was out of position and I had raised utg with xx (cards don't matter). I got called by a player who liked to see flops and play post flop, which is fine with me. Flop came out Q 5 6 rainbow. I continuation bet 1/2 the pot, he called. I decided that if he had q, he wouldve raised, and most likely he had a draw or middle pair like 99, etc. So turn was 8. I decided to check, see how strongly he bet, get more information and decide what to do. He bet 1/3 of pot and the way he bet, I sensed weakness so badly that I decided to shove for 90% of his stack, making it impossible for him to call with anything worse than AQ. He thought forever and CALLED with 77. I held 3 6 coincidentally. So, while I was angry that he could have made, what I thought would be an impossible call, it is my responsibility to know, based on the information I had on him, that if he was open ended, even if he had A7, he most likely was calling there. The truth is, sometimes, no matter how much information you have, there is no crystal ball. There are no steadfast ways to make such predictions. All you can do is compile an educated guess based on all the information available to you, and based on your skill and experience, hopefully surmise the correct prediction as to what your's opponents reaction to your action will be. Unfortunately, I lost that hand and busted. While I want to be mad at myself for busting, the truth is, that had I seen his hand, I may have shoved anyway, believing that he is not the type of player to risk his entire stack with middle pair and a draw with one card to come. Sometimes predictions are near impossible. However, each hand, as always, is a learning experience.

So those are the lessons I have learned in the past few months and I am excited to have more eye opening revelations about poker with each hand, tournament or cash game I play.

Hand histories from yesterday's event:

Bad hand #1: QJ os in bb with 4 players to flop, blinds 25-50. Flop is J 10 x. I check to see what action is, button bets. I really thought he had a 10 or pkt 44s or something, and the correct decision would have been to raise, but I just called, which caused me to pay him off throughout the rest of the hand. Turn is 10. I check call and river is K, and again I check call. I think the turn call was OK, but I def need to fold river bc I beat nothing. It was a relatively small pot, but more about mistake of not raising flop or folding on river. He had 910 of course.

Hand #2: Early, I limped with 35cc. Took the flop 6 way. I got a great flop. Q 46 with two clubs. Pot was 800 (blinds 50-100). Checks to me, I am in middle pos, I bet 600 (2/3 of pot). Get caller by big stack, who I believe has a flush draw also. Everyone else folds. Turn is 3 spades. I decide to check and he checks behind. I could bet there I think, but I believe check is ok also, in case he does have q or a set. River is 3h, which gives me trips, I value bet and he folds 8 hi flush draw. I think I played that hand well.

Hand #3 (not exciting). R utg to 350 with blinds 50-100, Ak ss. Mind you my image is super tight because I was very card dead, and playing a bit cautious b/c of my level of discomfort I described above. I get 7 callers. Hilarious. Flop is Q xx all diam I check fold. Guy who is very bad and major donk at tble, shows the nuts after betting pot. Hilarious.

Hand #4- involving ssame donk and a very very good player at table. Donk limps, good player raises out of blind to 500 (blinds 50 100) and donk limp/re to 1500. Obv aa or ak. Good plyr reluctntly calls. Flop is AKx. check, check. LMAO. Turn is A. chk chk. River rag. Good plyr chk, donk bets 600, good plyr insta muck. Hilarious. Now. As an aside, this was conversation I had with donk (he was on my left, nice guy but not smart plyr at all). He said to me about good plyr, "that guy is goin to get caught being that aggressive and making all these moves." My response was, I think he is decent player, just likes to see flops. So donk's response "well when I was full he didn't call." LMAO. Exactly why you are defined as donk- for comments like that. So then, about an hour after that conversation this hand comes up:

Hand #5- Our good/pro player raises to 1000 utg blinds 150-300. Previously, this good plyr ended up callin all in for a 1/3 of his stack a little while before and losing, so he has been playing much tighter and I gave him a pretty strong hand here. Donk on my left, announces in a loud voice (which is always great), RE raise, to 3k. Folds back to our good plyr, he looks at guy and re-reraises to 10k leaving himself 6k behind. Our donk, without even looking at good plyrs committed stack behind CALLS. I know what donk was thinking- I am goin to teach this guy a lesson on this hand. Problem is, when good plyr re re raises, donk should abandon lesson. But he's not capable. So anyway, flop is K xx. Good plyr properly shove and donk is now like, damn it, I am committed, and calls all in with AQ. Good plyr of course has set of KK. But good plyr obv had AA or Kk there with re re raise and pinned our donk as going after him, and unable to fold what should have been QQ, AK or JJ. In any case, that was hilarious. Five hands later, is my bust out hand.

Hand #6- My first mistake. AK sp utg again. Blinds 150-300. I should have limp reraised. My table had become kamikaze with a raise and a reraise preflop 3 out 5 hands played. The truth is, I was a bit worried to do that and while it crossed my mind, I decided because I had been playing tight, players might fold to me. Also, I would've had to commit most of my stack preflop (started hand with 18k so if I limp/reraised, I would have to shove or make it 8k to price player out)Negative on all folding to my utg raise. I got 5 callers. Flop is A A Q. Where am I going? So I bet 2200, which is about 35% of pot. Folds to very good player who smooths on button...DING DING DING, every bell went off in my head that he had AQ or AJ. AK he reraises pre on button and either AQ or AJ he just calls, and if he has Ace rag, I believe he raises right there to find out where he is at. Turn is J. So now I dont beat anything. I am perplexed, I do not know what to do and then...my brain shut off. I bet 10k leaving myself 4k and committed myself when he insta shove and I call and he turn over AQ. I mean, come on. So ridiculous. But had I bet 5500 on turn, or een 6500 i could fold when he shoves. It would have been super frustrating but at least I would still be in. I also feel like, it would have been the best fold of my life. But I didn't. Sigh. Oh well...there is always another tournament.

Ok, this blog entry is super long, so I will end it here. Will write more later- oh and one more thing, I cashed in $10r on stars and I was in the money in 30$ r last night- I had 9 bbs and ran Aq into AA and JJ, lol fun. But I made small profit, and nice to go deep on UB again.

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and Ace.