it’s all about discipline really. that’s the deficiency in my game. i understand pot odds, i get the percentages, i know when to fold ‘em, i can even get a decent read on a player. but something happens when i see certain cards, i forget the rules i walked in with. even a quick internal pep talk during a bathroom break didn’t get it into my head, though it probably bought me a couple hands.
i was invited to a home game tonight, 14 players, $10 buy-in with 1 rebuy or add-on for $10. all but 2 added on or rebought, so there was $260 hanging out in the prize pot. after last week’s experience, i was hoping for something better than last place. sticking around into the final table was my first goal. i’d worry about higher goals once i got there. the final table was going to be 9, so i only had to outlast 5 guys, but my confidence level wasn’t there. i threw down my ten bucks and went at it. i drew 3rd position, which immediately put me into the big blind. nothing like paying to play right out of the blocks. everyone checked around to me, so we watched the flop (i so should have taken notes to make this report a little more exciting), and what happens but i flop a straight, 10 high. action is slow, so i’m certain nobody else is drawing anywhere close to the straight, but there’s a 10 and a 9 on the board so i suspect someone’s hanging out with mid-pairs. something tells me, even with no experience to draw from, that i have these guys beat, so i start pushing the bets. blinds were 5/10, and the action got remarkably heavy right away. these guys were going to call my every bet! turn and river were rags, and next thing you know i’m starting to build a chip advantage. 5 hands later, i’ve got 2:1 on half the table and 5:1 on some of the table. i push hard with a pair of jacks, and even harder after flopping the set. the guy everyone was scared to play at the beginning goes all in with me, and is stunned to see the 2 jacks in my hand, he’s beat, and has to rebuy already. it goes like this for the next hour, winning some small hands, even being a bit of a bully and 3x or 4x raising with a garbage hand just to steal the blinds, and it was all working! do i really have game?
it soon became clear that not only was lasting into the final table a given, but having enough advantage to simply wait into the money was quite possible. we hit the re-buy deadline, and i dropped $10 to get an add-on, just to build my advantage. i’m into the pot for $20 now. a couple short stacks from the other table fall, and there we are. 9 guys left. i outlasted the 5, and i’m looking around the table at one stack comparable to mine, a couple medium sized stacks, and 5 hopelessly small stacks. all we have to do is attack those 5 and i’ll be in the money… all i have to do is stay smart, and stick to my plan– always lay down the tempting garbage hands (A/K/Q/J/T with a lower card, especially when they’re suited), push the premium hands hard (even KK, much as it pains me), and trust my instincts. if i think i’m beat, i probably am.
one guy falls quick, and then the hand that probably turned the tournament for me.
i’m BB, raise 3x with KK. Yes, KK. UTG folds, next position calls, rest of table folds around. flop comes down AQ8, rainbow. that ace scares me. all he’s got to have is one ace, i check, he raises over the top (500 i think). so there i am, with a hand i need to push. i’m holding at least a 5:1 chip advantage, but i’ve let about 2000 chips slide off my stack in the last 10 minutes, and KK has fallen to Ax way too many times for me to be comfortable with this. i go in the tank, think for several minutes, and finally, with over 150 invested in the pot, pretty good pot odds, and a read on my opponent that i think my kings are good, and i let my fear get the best of me and laid them down. that was my chance, and i couldn’t take it. that was the start of my slide. fortunately, i had built up enough stack to watch another player drop (my brother!), and tightened up and watched 2 more fall on one hand, which burst the bubble and landed me in the money. i was at least guaranteed to make back my $20. played a few crappy hands, started getting those marginal tempting hands one right after the other, laid most of them down, then caught A8h, spotted a weakness in my opponents hand (knew he didn’t have face cards), and went all-in. he turned over a pair of tens, and i sat helplessly and watched the flop, turn, and river in succession offer me no assistance at all. 3 aces in the deck, and none of them hit. i even managed a flush draw out of it, and couldn’t catch a heart on the river.
i finished 4th place, and the short stack i laid my kings down to finished second, for $80. i think that hand ultimately cost me at least $20, if not 40. i got my $20 back, and pretty much got a free lesson in tournament poker. here’s what i learned:
1. discipline is more important than you’ll ever realize. so much of tournament poker is outwaiting everyone else. you can climb up 3 or 4 places in a few minutes by laying down the right hand, especially early when the blinds are manageable.
2. when you go in with a plan and don’t stick to it, you can’t expect your erratic play to help you win.
3. pushing the table around with the big stack is not the same as being loosey-goosey.
4. always play your hand the way you know it should be played, not the way you’d play it in a previous game, on a previous night. if it was good enough to play then, it’s good enough to play now, regardless of the board. the minute you start letting fear creep in and make you play hands based on bad beats of the past, you’re on tilt, and will be until you can forget it and move on.
overall, i felt pretty good about the game i played. i pushed when i needed to, i folded when i should have. with the exception of a few hands at the end, i played a decent game, one i’ll be able to live with, for the most part. next time, i can only improve. the cards may not allow me as good of a finish, but i can handle losing if i know i played a solid game.
