Well, I managed to last all of 26 minutes in the Heads-up shootout today. I grossly misplayed a hand early on, got my stack crippled, but managed to come back when I got exceedingly lucky to make a straight to pull back to even . . . but I was simply outplayed. It was stupid, too. I'm pretty disgusted with myself.
Here's how it went down:
Blinds were 15 and 30. I was on the button Ah-Td. I raised it to 3x the BB. He called, and the flop came Qd-Kd-2h. We checked it (I was going to make a play at the turn, regardless) and the turn came the Th. He bet 80, I raised him to 240, and he came back over the top of me for 500. So here is where the smart player lays it down and figures he's probably beaten . . . but this guy was making these huge raises on the turn the entire match, so I could push or fold, and leave myself with a very small stack. I figured the best shot I had to win this hand was to push and get him to fold a little king or a stone bluff.
He thought for a long time, and eventually called me . . . with Ts Qc, and I was done.
I played a LOT of heads-up yesterday, to get warmed up for today, and I
played very well -- I won 75% of my matches, and felt confident going
into play this afternoon, but the truth is, I was very distracted from
the moment I sat down. I've been thinking a lot about the people who
are suffering down in the Gulf Coast, and all the refugees, and just
before the event began, I heard that they've found e.coli in the water
in NOLA. That's really not good, and I'm sure it's just the beginning. I'm not excusing my shitty play, but I'm profoundly
upset about the aftermath of Katrina, and I am even more outraged at
how poorly the federal government has handled it. I know this doesn't
have a lot to do with the nuts-n-bolts of playing poker, but it brings
up an interesting topic: if you're in a funk, you just don't play in a
cash game or SNG. But if you're registered in a tournament, you've got
to show up and play, right? You've got to just suck it up, do your best
to focus, and play the best you can play.
It's easier said than done for me, which is annoying, because if I was
supposed to work on a film or TV production today, I would have no
problem setting my grief and anger aside until the end of the day
(probably to resurface when I'm on the 405 at rush hour.) But today,
sitting in my office playing on PokerStars, I wasn't able to do it.
(Busting out of the) WCOOP Event #3 -- NLHE Shootout
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. Hey, Wil. Tough break on that hand!
But, on the bright side, you stuck to your reads instead of flip flopping. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. That's poker.
Do yourself a favor and try not to beat up on yourself so much. I know it's hard when you make a bad call, but simply recognizing what went wrong and working on your game is enough. You don't need to kick your own butt from here to Egypt because of a bad call. It happens. Give yourself a break.
3. I am actually getting pretty tired about people blaming anything and everything on this hurricane. Sure, you probably feel for the victims, but how much has it really affected you personally? Are you playing your tournements from a relocation shelter? I didn't think so.
Without getting into too much of a political debate, how much more do you think the federal government could have done.. RIGHT AWAY? I blame the people who didn't get out and who still REFUSE to leave the disaster zones. I blame the people in the LOCAL and STATE governments who wouldn't give FEMA the authorization or authority to do what the needed to do quick enough to start the relief effort immediately.
Good god, support the relief effort, go down there and do something about it in person. Give some money or your winnings to it, whatever, but don't use it as an excuse for playing poorly, especially when it probably affected you just as much as the guy you're playing against.
Posted at 8:12AM on Sep 8th 2005 by ContactFlush
4. The smart player has to vary his play. I think you only had two moves in that situation: all-in or fold. At least you didn't call. You say he had been betting heavy on the turn all game, so his bet didn't necessarily mean much. If there is any time to represent a straight that would be it. Had he seen you bet on a straight before? If this all-in was different than how you had previously played strong hands he might have put you on the bluff. On the other hand, if he was a weak player he might have put you on a pair of tens.
5. ContactFlush: Nice job with the Republican talking points, maybe you should submit your resume to Rove?
Posted at 4:18PM on Sep 8th 2005 by Gene
1. I can feel your pain Wil. I've had a couple of bad runs as of late myself. I have just started to learn this dang game so I can have fun on the $5 and $20 tables on the Katrina Benefit that you helped to set up. Well, that and I wanted to be able to follow your blogging better (at least with respect to the poker blogging). Sadly I must now admit that I can feel you pain with losing hands on the river etc.
I've been working on it, but since I've only been doing this for about 3 days now, I'm still playing way too many hands (48% overall) and I can't help but call with a face card in the small blind. Is that bad?
At least when I go to showdown, I am at 44%, not too bad for three days work, I just means that I am ever so slowly bleeding myself to death!! ;-)
See ya at the Katrina Benefits (enjoy my $.02)!!
Posted at 11:12PM on Sep 6th 2005 by Budohorseman