Key Hand #1
It's virtually the first hand of the night and after reading in "How To Play Great Poker" that you should always fold 78 in early position, I choose to limp with it in early position and it's limped or folded all round. The flop comes 3 4 5 and I check under the gun. Mid-position player throws in £11 as does late-position guy and, with the pot offering fair odds plus good implied odds it's probably worth a cheeky call, but as it was early days and I don't want to spew so early, I fold. As I plead for the 6 NOT to come on the turn - bosh! - the bloody six gets turned and placed neatly on the board, taunting me and pointing at me and laughing into the bargain! Mid-position guy throws in £30 and it's called and yet more chips go flying in when the harmless red jack falls on the river. I'm kind of pissed off when pocket 3s is shown for a set of 3s which takes it down. Yep, I woulda had the nuts and won a packet. Still, I tell myself not to let it trouble me and move on.
Key Hand #2
With that hand still lingering in my consciousness a bit and with it still being early doors I'm in the SB and look down at 7 J of spades. It's folded to the button who limps in as do I but then the BB elects to up it to £7. The button calls so I complete the betting as I feel kinda priced in. I elect to play my flush draw passively by just calling the small bet on the flop and I just choose to call the bet on the turn as well when a gutshot materializes. I then miss my outs and fold as another bet goes in on the river from the BB and I'm left feeling kinda stupid playing 7 J from the SB in the first place.--------------
As I muck more marginal-type hands and see that they would have hit beautifully, I start telling myself not to get frustrated and to just play my normal game; also, I tell myself I must get up and go for a stroll if I need to. Then I look down at QQ. I'm out of position but get chips into the pot - right up until that damn ace hits the river and I'm forced to muck when the villain reaches for his chips to bet. I just KNOW he had it! I tell myself NOT to repeat what happened at The Vic when I tilted after I lost with QQ when I was also forced to fold when overcards hit the board. Thankfully, I do start to feel calm and in control. I then win a nice £65 pot when I hit a 4-outer on the river to make a straight - and this is followed by my jackpot hand.
Key Hand #3
I've just changed seats to get myself on the left of a tricky American player who was on my immediate left and who seems to know what he's doing. About 30 minutes later, I have about £190 in front of me and I look down at AK in early position and throw in a £12 bet. (Standard at this table.) I get FOUR callers. The flop comes A K x and it's happy days. I make a £35 bet and it's folded to Mr Tricky American who just flat-calls. The turn is a jack and I'm pretty sure I still have the winning hand as he looks really reluctant so I throw in something like £70 which he also ends up calling. The river bricks so I throw in the rest of my stack which is about another 70 or 80 quid. He tanks for a bit so I'm sure I have him beat - and then I'm very pleased when he throws in his chips to make the call. I show him the bad news and he says he had A J. He goes very quiet for the rest of the session after this.
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With a £400 stack I then unfortunately go into results-orientated thinking mode and tell myself that it would be really nice not to fall below £350 and to go home with a £100 profit. So what happens? Yep, I let my stack fall to exactly that amount and at 11PM, after a 2 hour session, leave the casino with the £100 profit. What an arse!
Now non-poker players and results-orientated players may applaud a decision to leave while in profit but there is more to poker than this and I KNOW this is wrong and is something I've actually got to rid myself of when I start afresh in the new year. Results-orientated thinking of this nature will only make you a break-even or marginal winning player at best as it's a very conservative, safe and cosy mentality which Mike Caro has termed "manufacturing wins". I've said it before and I'll say it again: to "crush" or to be a "proper" winning player, you have to do away with any sort of stop-loss mentality at the table (unless the table is super-tough - in which case you should probably just get up leave) and that's another leak I really need to sort out if I'm going to be a contender.
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