It has been tough these last few outings at the poker table. I’ve played in a few tournaments this week (two with 300-400 entries and one with 70 entries) and haven’t made a deep run or cashed in any of them. It has been kind of frustrating but I keep reminding myself that this is not going to be an overnight process and it takes time to improve my level of play at the poker table. Today I entered the $245 buy in WPT event at Derby and I was determined to build a good stack early by playing smarter hopefully aided by catching some decent hands. Lately I haven’t been able to build my stack early and had been forced into push or fold mode due to blinds and antes creeping up on me. We started with 15K in chips and I started out slow early due to not getting many playable hands in position. I maintained my patience and focused on developing my reads and learning the players around me.
A few hands before the first break I picked up KK in early position. I raised about 2.5 times the BB and got 3 callers which was not what I was hoping for. The flop came 334 which seemed to be a great flop for me as long as no one called with A3, 33, 44. Those were the only hands I was worried about at that point because I was pretty sure someone would have re-raised me with AA. So I bet the flop into the 3 callers. I think I bet about 1/3 the pot or so. One player calls then the next player to act raises to a little over 2K I think and gets called by the player to his right. I’m still pretty sure my hand is good and I want to isolate or win the hand now. I had about 13K behind and I thought a shove would only get called by hands that have me beat but a re-raise to about 6K should isolate one player or get both players to fold. Just in case one player was hanging around with one Ace in their hand hoping to hit it. The raiser folds but then the other player called. I have to say I was surprised by his call and decided that I had to shove no matter what card came next. Hmmmmm…a J pealed off on the turn and I shoved it all in. The guy thought for a few then called and tabled 88…WOW! He must have put me on top pair (a four) or a straight bluff. River was an Ace and I busted him. One player said he folded QQ (good fold by him). At the first break I was at about 36K which was a nice step up from the starting stack of 15K and comfortably above average. I caught a few more good hands by hitting some flops and build my stack up to somewhere in the 50K range. Now I am the chip leader at the table. This game is easy LOL. I wanted to avoid the other big stacks at the table. A lady was just seated to my left with about 70K, one guy had about 40-45K, and there was quite a few players with around 20K. The lady was playing a lot of hands and calling all ins with VERY marginal hands but she was getting lucky. She was the one player who could bust me at the table so I didn’t want to play a big hand with her unless it was a VERY good hand.
Then this hand happened…I’m in the small blind with K10 off and it limps around to me (3 or 4 limpers), so I limp also and the BB checks. Flop comes KJ10 rainbow. I check and the lady to my left bets 1600 and is re-raised by a guy to 3500. I think my 2 pair may be good here so re-raise to 8K. The lady (BB) folds and the raiser calls. Uh oh is what I am thinking at this point. Yet the siren in my head did not go off that he HAS to be calling me with an extremely good hand. I should have shut it down once he called my re-raise because not many players are calling that bet with less than 2 pair not to mention he had only about 40K starting the hand so he might have been saying to me that he was going all the way with this pot unless it blatantly got ugly from his perspective. I should have paused here and thought to myself about what hands a player would limp with in middle position. If I hand of done this I could have got away from the hand early or played it differently. The turn brings a 7 and I decide to bet again thinking that (or more hoping LOL) that he unlikely floated my bet and would fold here. He insta-called my bet. Needless to say all kinds of confused thoughts are going through my head and I know that I am in trouble, yet I don’t raise the red flag or turn on the siren in my head signaling me to give up. HE HAS A GOOD IF NOT GREAT HAND FREDDIE!!! The river brings another 7. Well this didn’t make my hand better, but I manage to convince myself to bet AGAIN SMH!!! I bet 12K and he shoves for 24K and change. Now the pot is huge, something I didn’t want to do with less than a great hand against another big stack, and I am in a very bad position. I tank for a few since we are now on break there is no rush for me to call and manage to dig the hole even deeper and call. Player shows 10 10 for a boat. What was I thinking!!! There were so many hints in this hand where I should have came to the conclusion that he had a monster. Many players limp with 10 10 in middle position instead of raising then potentially getting re-raised and facing a tough expensive call. His re-raise on the flop should have signal at least 2 pair if not a set, KJ, 10 10, or K10 (same as what I have) since I’m sure he would have raised originally with AQ so it was unlikely that he had a straight. I could have called his re-raised on the flop to see If I would improve, but I could have also folded and waiting for a better spot to play a pot against him. Even though laying down 2 pair sucks, I know that in some situations, when taking everything into account, it is the higher value play. I could have lost only 800 or 3500 that hand instead of almost 40K and waited for a better spot to chip up. Yet I decided to continue to dig a hole deeper and deeper for me to get out of and getting out of that hole would not be easy. Needless to say, we come back after break and I pick up AK on the cutoff and shove for 14K after a few limpers (blinds were 500/1K/100). I get called by 10 10 (again LOL) and whiff! Busto!
It is amazing how quickly I went from 2nd in chips at the table to busted in a few hands. I wouldn’t feel as bad if it was a cooler or If I got sucked out on, but the situation could have been avoided by slowing down, rethinking the action in the hand, and making a better or well thought out decision as far as my course of action in the above hand. Sometimes I move to fast at the table, for whatever reason, and I need to learn to slow down and take my time thinking about my course of action or line I’m going to take. I’ve learned a lot while playing more consistently over the last 6-7 months. I’ve played more poker during this time period than I have played previously combined. My game has gotten better but as I know it isn’t anything that you ever perfect. It is a game that is ever changing and it requires non-stop learning and evolving with it. I’m in my toddler stages of learning, as far as I’m concerned, so I have a lot more work to put in at the table. But, I have shown myself flashes of good play that have motivated me to continue my learning process in this game. I know that I will continue to learn and play better by more consistently making better decisions and slowing down my actions during play. I understand that I will continue to make some mistakes, but as long as I keep those mistakes small or to a minimum, I know I will be on the winning side overall.
Poker is a tough game, but I’m determined to improve!
Fred
