Poker – How to Lose

I have been meaning to write more about poker. And with the Chumash tourney just two days away, now seems like a good time to start. But how to write about it, troubles me. I don’t like detailing hand histories. I enjoy reading them but I prefer writing about the concepts involved. And I have read many blogs in which the authors only write about their successes. I tend to only want to write when I am upset or something is just eating at me (I think I’m getting better at simply writing, though.) Anyway, here it goes…

About a month ago, I was playing 3/5NLH, lower that my current regular spot (5/10NLH), at Commerce. It was a Wednesday night but the action was still quite good. You can always find a game there. I got there around 8:30pm and was in a game just before 9pm. The buy-in is fixed at $200 for that game and it tends to be pretty loose. But that’s the kind of action I like. I can try to pick some spots to limp with marginal starting hands while I look for some monsters. Nobody notices just how tight I am in that case and they’ll usually give me action when I do finally come in for a raise.

On this night, I was getting really cold cards but still finding a few to play that didn’t pan out. However, I managed to maintain my stack until a small rush hit me and I got up to around $250. Then a big hand just happened. It was one of those situations that anyone would have played the same way.

I found JJ under the gun and made my standard opening raise to $15. Very often, in this position, I won’t get action because no one else has committed anything to the pot. But this time, I got two callers from MP and the button. So now I have no position and need a small or otherwise favorable flop. That’s exactly what I got: J-5-5. With a monster like that, I just had to check and hope the aggressive player on the button would make a play at the pot. MP checked and the button did bet.

He put out $50 and I had a decision to make. Do I smooth call and hope the MP calls too? I looked at her and figured that she wasn’t going to call anyway so I might as well raise right there. I only had about $215 behind so my raise to $150 left me pot committed. I new I was only likely to get called if the button was holding A-J or A-5. But there was a flush draw on the board. So there was an outside chance of being called and having him drawing dead. In any situation, I want action.

Instead of folding or just calling my raise, the button moved all in. Of course, that is smarter than calling. He would have been committed to calling an all-in from me on the turn so he might as well get it in right there. I called and turned up my hand but he didn’t reveal his right away. The turn brought another 5 and I immediately had a bad feeling. One look at his face and the apologetic expression on it and I knew…He had it. He turned up A-5 and the table let out a collective, excited gasp followed shortly by an “OMG” sympathy response for me.

The button looked at me as if to say, “Sorry.” We had had a friendly rapport up to that point, so he felt bad. I reached into my pocket for 2 C’s for a re-buy. As I did, everyone continued to look at me with sorrow and empathy. But I wasn’t thrown. My read was correct. I was most likely to get called by a hand that had an out. As unlikely as it was, it could come. I looked around that table and said, “You all look so upset. Its OK. I got the call I wanted. Good hand.” And I meant it.

The point of this story is that losses happen. I could have treated it like many do. I could have cursed the poker gods and blamed fate for me “never catching a break.” But I know better than that. Throughout that night and every night I play poker, I get some breaks, too. Its up to me to maximize those that are in my favor, minimize those that are not, and understand “the breaks” are not the cause of long term wins and losses. Don’t lose your head when you are running bad and play your best until things swing back in your favor. That’s the way to handle it.

Side story: In the story above, MP was played by a nice woman who happened to be there with her friend, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was playing at a different table. He came over and told her they had to leave. I said, “Quick. He just sharted.” He pretended to not hear me. Now that he’s got an Oscar, maybe he can afford to play in the top section where they won’t let on to having seen Along Came Polly.

SEEYa