How to Lose a Tournament in One Easy Hand
Thursday, October 15, 2009
First off, the new HighOnPoker.com (not currently visible at that address) is coming along nicely. I'm no pro when it comes to web design, but I'm a tinkerer by nature, so I've been playing around with my new template html code and tweaking things here and there, even though I have barely an understanding as to what I am changing and why. It's a bit of a try-this, try-that approach, but I love every bit of it. The way things are going, the new HighOnPoker.com (all the same content, but now with more .COM!) should be ready for its debut by next week's debutante ball.
In other news, I decided to play the Mookie last night, a weekly Wednesday blogger tournament at 10pm EST. I was broke on FullTilt so I decided to float around the webs looking for fellow bloggers who could lend me a dime (I have money coming into FT today, but that would be too late for yesterday's tournament). All I can say is that I am not the only broke blogger out there in online poker land. It seems like a lot of my contemporaries withdrew their bankrolls or have otherwise depleted their ammunition supplies. Thankfully, I eventually found someone who actually could help me out, Julius Goat. Another special thanks to Woffles, who amazingly was also willing and able to help out (one of the few non-broke bloggers I spoke to yesterday), but was unavailable, since he was at his office at the time.
Of course, I should've just saved the $11 and 2 minutes. In the first hand, I was in the SB and BuddyDank in MP min-raised. I held 45o, a donk of a hand, but since I was in for 15 already and only needed to call 45 into a 165 or so pot (there was one caller in LP), I called, expecting to fold on a crappy flop. The flop was 456 with two hearts, so I flopped bottom two, which was not bad in this situation. I checked, probably an error, but after Dank bet out, I decided to just call with my two-pair. The turn was another 5. Sweet! Suddenly the flush and straight possibilities didn't scare me as I had an improbable full house. I checked again and Dank bet. I min-raised this time, hoping to keep him in the pot but build it while he was either still flush drawing or, conversely, still not fearful of the flush (i.e., if the river was a flush card and he didn't have the flush, he would check or fold). He called. The river was a 9 or something. I took my time. We had about 1900 left, so I bet out 800, thinking that would entice a call from some weaker hands, since I was not forcing him all-in. He pushed and I figured I got him to push with an overpair or even a straight or something, but after I called, I learned that I was behind the whole way to his 66 (flopped set, turned better full house). "This game is stupid anyway." And then I made my exit.
What's the lesson here? It could be that I need to consider superior full houses before I ship it in. It could be that sometimes you just face coolers and have to live with it. But to me, the lesson is that you should not play weak hands preflop because even when they hit, they can be vulnerable.
I learned something else, too. After that hand, I was steaming so I shut down FT. Yet that wasn't a hand worth steaming about. In contrast, when I play live, I rarely am bothered by bad beats or coolers. I think I am more conscious live that if I act upset, others will pick up on it and attack me more. I usually give off a tongue-in-cheek, "This is Bullshit!" just to show my live audience that I find these things humorous. It usually gets a chuckle and people are focused on how relaxed I am about losing a hand rather than the fact that I lost.
Two times ago, for instance, I lost a hand when my opponent hit a one or two outter. Of course, the money went all-in preflop on a cointoss, but I flopped a strong hand and by the river, I was nearly a lock. Nearly. When my opponent hit his out, I barked, "This is Bullshit!" All the while I was smiling and clearly play-acting that I was upset. One of the guys across the table mentioned later that most people would've been a lot more upset about the hand. True, I suppose, but what was there to be upset about. No matter how it ended up, when the money went in, it was a cointoss. Everything after that is style, not content.
If all goes well, I will be heading to the Tuna Club tonight for their $20 Rebuy tournament. I don't have nearly as much success in that tournament, as compared to the weekly Sunday freezeout, but I've been hot, so I'd like to get in there and mix things up. Wish me luck.
Until next time, make mine poker!
posted by Jordan @ 10:13 AM,
