Poker - It's a Mental Game

Lately, I've been playing quite well. I've been playing lots of little tournaments at the Hybrid Poker Club and getting lots of practice. Playing with the same people all the time has it's plusses and it's cons. I'm learning them, and they think they are learning me. I played a little $60 T on Sunday to get one last practice run in before the WSOP Circuit event in New Orle plaans. I played properly - didn't win, but was content with my play. I did a good job of collecting chips. My opponents kept thinking that I was sucking out on the turn, but in reality, I was calling on the flop with inferior hands that had possibilities and using scare cards on the turn to bluff at the pot and I was taking the pots down. In the end, I got all in with 88 and was called with 66 and a 6 hit the turn. No big deal - that's just poker. Sometimes people hit a 2-outer against you. Still I was very content with my play. Mentally, I felt like I was the best player at the table and that I was in control of the game.

Then I went to New Orleans and played in event #1 of the WSOP Circuit event. Again, I started off strong. I was steadily collecting chips. I was raising pots at the right time, and re-raising pre-flop at the right time and by the right amounts to win chips. We started with 10k in chips and by the first break I had improved to 16k on a rather tight table. No one had been felted at our table yet so it was a real chore to collect chips.  Then after the break things started to change. One guy who was very short on chips opened for a 3x raise. I held 88 and reraised to half his remaining stack with every intention of isolating the pot against him and calling his all in. That part of the plan worked beautifully. Everyone else folded, he moved all in. I called and he showed AA. Oh well. I could afford it at the time anyway. Moving on.

At the 100/200 blind level, I open for a raise to 600 under the gun with AK. I'm in seat 5 at a 9 handed table and the player in seat 7 reraises to 2100. He's been playing small ball lately and this is the biggest raise I've seen him make. This has me concerned that he has a big hand. Then all the shit breaks loose. The big blind sits in torture over what to do. He'd directly to my right and somehow he flashes his cards. I miss it, but the whole table see them, including seat 7 who is still in the hand. This is troublesome. I don't know what those cards are. He folded and it's up to me. Well, I feel like I'm in a bad spot here. If seat 7 has AA or KK and an A or a K flops what the heck am I going to do?  Maybe he's got a smaller pair, but he's been playing this small pot poker so now maybe he's picked up a bigger than normal hand. Well, I fold and decide to live to play another day.

My stack is steadily dwindling down and, in retrospect I can say that it affected my play. I started to play soft. Later, I open for a raise to 500 with QhJh. Seat 7 goes over the top to 2100. Crap. What the heck. This guy is started to beat me up. I decide to call this time. My hand has some possibilities. The flop come J rag rag rainbow. In this situation, I like to check call to give my aggressive opponent a chance to hang himself. So I check. He bets 1000. I call. The turn is another rag card. Here have some more rope... check. He bets a smallish bet like 2500. I call. The river is another rag and I think to myself, perhaps I should lead out with a bet here to control the size of the river bet and get into a showdown situation. Then I get all girly and scared. "What if he comes over the top? Then what'll I do?" oh crap. I don't really know that my hand is good enough to win with but I do have showdown value. I check. What? I was supposed to bet or move in but I checked? crap.  He goes all in. Well, our stacks are fairly even so one of us will either be out or severly crippled. Here's where I really go wrong. Talk about playing like a girl. I fold! What the heck? Why did I put all those chips in the pot? To fold? No. That's not my normal play here. Mentally, I went totally off my game and screwed up. No, I don't know what he had, but let's analyize the hand. He could have preflop raised with AK or AQ both of which I could beat or AA, KK, QQ, JJ, all of which I'd lose to, or a smaller pair which I probably beat unless he made a set somewhere along the way. His smallish bets on the flop and turn could have represented a monster hand and he was sucking me in to get me to contribute to the pot. Or they could have been bluffs. From the way he played and my read on the situation, I had put him on a bluff the whole time. If that's the case I should have stuck with that read on the river. Of course if he was bluffing his only move to win the pot was to go all in. Dummy! That was my cue to make a hero call. Why am I analyzing this hand of all the hands to death? Because I think this was the hand that made or broke the tournament for me. He bled chips from me in this hand and after this, I was just stuck and never could get the bleading under control.  Yes, he could have had a monster. In fact, after I folded I decided that he had JJ there and I was crushed all the way. Oh that made me feel better about the fold. But here in the aftermath, I really wish I'd played that hand differently.

I've decided that you can't play scared in a tournament. Every hand is a chance to collect chips. Either collect the chips and go on to win the tournament or lose all your chips and get the heck out. But don't let yourself get crippled mentally and in terms of chips and then try to just hang on by your fingernails through the rest of the tournament. I've got to buck up if I'm going to win in the next tournaments I play. I can't let people push me around. In fact, I think my best play on that hand would have been to check/shove the turn! If he did set up on the river, I would have eliminated that possibility. If I don't check/shove the turn, then I should have shoved the river. And if I didn't shove the river I should have check/called his shove on the river. Right or wrong it was a lost opportunity.

So, knowing what I did wrong in that tournament, I decided to play event #2. It was half PLO and half PL Hold-em. PLO isn't really my game, but I've had some practice lately and it's not too hard if you use your brain. Again I did well through the first 4 levels. Then I came to that fateful decision point. I was in the small blind in a limped pot with As8s. I raise the pot and get 1 or 2 callers. The flop is 567 rainbow. This is a good flop for me so I pot it. BB folds and the under the gun player repots it. Well, I aint going anywhere now. The bet is 2850 and I call. The turn is an A. This is a great card for me and after getting raised I lead out again with a bet of 3000. Ok, that's my mistake right there. I really should have potted it rather than making a bet that was less than half the pot. He glares at me, like how dare you bet into me when I just raised you. But he doesn't raise, he calls. I feel good about the hand until the river card comes off - an 8. CRAP. That puts 5678 on the board. So if he has a 9 or more likely a 4 he wins the hand and It's even worse for me because I have top 2 pair. I check (regretting that I didn't pot it on the turn) and he goes all in. He does take a little time before he shoves and that's a good move on his part. He could have two pair. He could have the straight. He could be bluffing at the river. In fact, it's very likely that he has a hand like 56 or 67 and flopped 2 pair. Well, Mom and grandma were done playing at this point and I decided to go big or go home at a decent hour. I called. There was enough value in catching a bluff or a weaker two pair here and if he had the straight then oh well that's just a crappy river card. Of course, he had 45 (another of his likely holdings) and he won the pot. The good news is, I could live with my decision on the river here and I got to bed at a decent hour. Oh, and surprisingly, the PLO portion of the game played better for me than the Hold-em portion of the game... go figure!

Well, next weekend I plan on playing a satellite to win my way into the $1600 main event. And I plan on keeping my head together so that I can win it. In the meantime, maybe I'll play the wild and crazy rebuy tournament on Wed night at the Hybrid for more practice. Two weeks ago I won $700 in that tournament by getting to a 3 way chop. And the more practice the better!

Come on loosey goosey players, I'm not scared and don't expect me to play like a girl. I'm going to play like a poker player! So you better have the goods or you're going to get busted by a girl!