COULD OF BEEN...

3-31-2010

I had a pretty good time this weekend. I met a pretty cool guy who is an actor in the play Wicked that is playing downtown. He says he is good friends with Taye Diggs, star of Private Practice on ABC, so that lead into other conversations about golf, the health care reform act, Tiger Woods and being happily married. Playing poker though, I made FIVE bad plays in six hours and they are living with me as I write this because they were embarassing.

So today I am going to talk about what could have been. We go into our sessions looking to come out on top with a profitable session, some come in to play for fun, and others just want to make people fold to bluffs. My goal is to win but to win through a correct process. That process involves thinking the hand through, making the right decision, pre-flop, during the hand and on the river. If I can do that, I should be able to leave with a profit. Or leave happy with my play.

One way to leave a session saying I could have been up so much money is playing a hand in this manner, I am early middle position and I look down at K 10 off and limp in, four people follow suit. The flop is K 7 2 with a flush draw, under the gun bets, I call everyone else folds. The turn is a 10, but completes the flush. UTG bets quickly, I DO NOT think the hand through and call. The river is a blank and he fires a big bet in, I DO NOT think it through and call. He shows a Jack high flush. "CRAP"!

Let us break this hand down. K 10 early middle position...should have folded. Since we played it, we go to the flop and get a bet into you, there are a few things we can do here, fold-10% of the time(We are out kicked, he is betting into three other guys so he is pretty strong, he may have two pair or a set already and wants the flush draws gone), Call-50%(We have a weak kicker, we want to see how the two behind react to the bet, we are looking to hit our kicker or another king) of the time, Raise-40%(Get heads up, we feel like we have the best hand because it was a limped pot, find out exactly where we are, if someone re-pops we are beat) of the time. The turn brings the 10 completing the flush. We are heads up and the player is playing FAST, he has his chips ready before the card comes off and when it hits he fires, no contemplation, maybe making it look like he has the King, he may not have seen the flush, or he has the flush and is being sneaky. Well we know he had it but I did not think it down because he was playing fast, his comment after was you didn't think I had the flush huh? I was playing it like I wasn't. He was being very respectful but I was not going to give him the satisfaction that I had played this hand as bad as I thought I had.

I made several other bad plays and wish I could have taken them back, but this is my forum to get it out and try to make myself get better. My point is, take your time, don't play fast and don't walk away telling yourself "could of been..."

You all stay nice as rice and mello as Jello!