Raise or Fold:  A Year of Risky Business

Writing and playing poker as if they were activities worth doing well.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Bloodbath

Speaking of dying: I nicked an artery tonight and bled green all over the felt. A sample:
AA cracked by the K 10 offsuit that called a giant raise pre-flop.
99 cracked by A 3 offsuit (the case Ace on the river).
Trip sevens on the flop destroyed by a full house.
I finally grinded my way back to nearly even.

And then I flopped a set of Kings, and slowplayed them (one time, I thought, let me bet for value), and of course got horribly outdrawn to a straight and then a flush.

When my opponent went all-in, I should have folded. But I was frustrated from having been outdrawn so many times, for so much money. And the pot was huge. And I thought: if there's a 25% chance he's bluffing, and a 25% chance he's got an underset, then I have to call.

Which was absurd. I needed to fold there, and walk away with the remaining third of my stack.

The good news: I played beautifully until the last hand. I got my money in good and got very, very unlucky multiple times.

The bad news: I tilted, and I wasn't able to get away from a hand that was beat.

It doesn't matter how "unfair" the whole scenario was, from start to finish. I cannot even begin to consider myself a good poker player until I make those laydowns easily and without pain.

I let the past influence the present in a totally inappropriate way. I made a very bad decision, based in wishful thinking and emotion, and I got my ass handed to me.

That, I deserved.

All the crap that went before? Well, that's poker, folks.

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2 Comments:

Blogger bastinptc said...

And I am rooting for you.

9/29/08 5:59 AM  
Blogger PAPro_SandMan said...

Sounds like the story of my poker journey, or at least major portions of it... Once the true promise of sustainable profitability began to mesh in my mind, however, I got much better at playing with discipline for the benefit of the long haul.

Truly, some sessions need only be endured to work out the bad karma. Sometimes poker can be more about limiting your losses in the interests of the long term than about making headway.

10/7/08 5:11 PM  

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