Do as I say, not as I do

I know it sounds cliche, but I love poker because you never stop learning. Sometimes, the things you learn, you have already learned, but you are too damn stupid to keep in mind at the most critical time--like when your tournament life is at stake.


Perfect example from Saturday night. Blinds are 100-200 with 25 ante. I am under 3K in chips (around 2400 or so), and on the button. Player UTG raises it to 600, no callers to me. I look down at A6 suited, and decide to make my move for all my chips. UTG player calls, has AK, I lose, and I'm out.



The player that raised UTG is a good player, solid, doesn't get too many hairs out of line. I KNOW he's raising with a better hand. WhatthehellamIthinking????? OK, at the time, I just smiled, said "I had to move, I was getting short-stacked," but in reality, I never had to step into that pot. It's been eating at me ever since.



If I fold the A6 there, I lose my 25 ante. That's it. I still have another 6-7 hands before the blinds come back around to me. It's the risk I take of not seeing a premium hand in the next 6-7, but for my tourney life? A6 suited? Ugh.



The worst part is, I know better. I've LEARNED this in the past. I failed to remind myself of that when I was making the decision to dust off my remaining stack in a spot I was hopelessly behind in. For the record, I did pick up a flush draw on the flop, but couldn't get there.



I am angry at myself for this, and no one else. I made the donkish play there, for no reason other than I had a suited Ace. No doubt I could have picked a better spot to play in, but I didn't.



Now, it looks like my shot at winning Player of the Year in the league have gone up in smoke. I basically have to win the final 2 tournaments, and have the points folks in front of me go into a tailspin. Not likely, but only 1 of the top 4 in points actually won points this month--problem was she won the tourney too, earning max points, and jumping out to a nice lead. Good job, Killer.



I now have a nice whole month to steam about stacking off with an A6, before I get another shot to play a league tourney. Might try to get in a game with Irish Jim on Wednesday, but if not, we'll see when we get the cards in the air next.



Played that bar league tourney on Sunday as well. They run 2 a night on Sunday's, but the Daytona 500 kept me from the first one. Finished 7th in the 2nd tourney, and here's the hand the busted me.



Blinds are 100-200, I'm in BB with AJ off. No raises to me, 6 limpers, I just check. Perhaps mistake number 1 right there, but I'm disguising my hand a bit (think Jon Lovitz "yeah, that's the ticket").


Flop: J-10-X, 2 diamonds. I bet out 800, all fold to the button, who is on a big stack of chips, thanks to some early hands. He calls the 800.

Turn: Brick (want to say black 2). I shove all in for 2375. He tanks and then calls. What do you think he had?


My run of thinking was flush draw, since he thought about calling my all in for a good bit. I then put him on a KJ, or QJ. That seemed more likely, after sitting with him, and watching him play. He rarely turned over big hands, and was more content to try and pick up pots with 2 pair, or even 2nd pair.


Man was I way off (and this was kinda good). He called me down with Q9 off suit, leaving him a straight draw with an over card. Turns out I was about 75% to win the hand with one card to come. He hit the Q on the end, giving him a higher pair, one of his 11 outs in the deck (any of 4 K's, 3 Q's and 4 8's). Whatchagonnado?
A big welcome to the folks from pokerwblogs who are coming over and checking out the blog. Neat to see the international traffic blazing through here. Wilkommen! (that's all I got when it comes to foreign language).


~M