Zero To Sixty

I took part in another Bodog $500 freeroll tonight, but I exited the tourney quickly. I hit one of those streaks you simply can’t do anything about–a run of playable hands that weren’t winners. In an attempt to finesse some chips out I even played aggressively, but my opponents didn’t back down. As a result, my stack dwindled quickly, even as I played fairly well. Here’s a good example.

With my stack at $1,000 in an early round and the blinds at $5/$10, I was dealt in the big blind:

This is not a bad big blind draw, and I limped in for $10. The small blind raised it to $35. That wasn’t a good sign, but with an ace in my hand, a flush draw, and a mere $15 to potentially snag $50 (close to 5 to 1 odds), I figured that it was a small price to pay to see the flop. Which came…

Bingo! Top pair on the flop! Now all I had to worry about is what the small blind was raising pre-flop. The odds were against him having KK or AA and him flopping a set. My best guess was that he had QQ, AT, or something similar. I also considered there being a small chance he had AK. Of all the combinations, the only one that I considered realistic and that scared me was if he had an ace and a higher kicker, as my kicker was a lowly 5.

Small blind came out with a modest bet of $50, which I expected. I wanted to test him immediately (unlike my performance the previous night, where my passivity cost me lots of chips), so I raised him another $50 to $100 even. The idea was certainly good, but I should have come in stronger. The truth is that I didn’t want to lose more chips than I needed to, but I needed to push him off the idea that I may have had a K pair, and I certainly needed to destroy any flush draw pot odds he might have. A proper raise here would have been $150 or so. That would have put the pot at $250, with him having horrible flush draw pot odds.

Anyway, he re-raised me, and since he did raise preflop, the flush draw talk is probably moot. As it was, I would have folded right there, but the raise was only $50, and a call was certainly in order to see the next card. I called.

A good card in that it didn’t change the balance on the table. There was still a flush draw, but I had top pair. Small blind ended matters right there, however, by betting the the pot with $365. I folded on the spot.

I lost $170, which took me to $830, not a horrible place but certainly not the way you want to start a tournament. All told, I believe I played this hand okay. Betting strong on the flop would most likely have gotten me re-raised and led to a fold–making me lose about the same amount of money. On the other hand, I am sure that doing that was a better play.

What followed were a number of hands that were playable, some even in the face of raises, but in the end poor flops and turn cards required me to fold with a loss. I did make a big mistake, however,  and it was the clincher: I called a $200 preflop raise with AT suited. When the T hit the flop, and I had top pair and Ace kicker, I couldn’t have been happier. I bet $215, and was aghast when the preflop raise fellow raised me to nearly all-in. I was clearly facing a higher pocket pair and folded. That took me down to a couple hundred bucks, and when I lost a good all-in to double my hand on a bad beat, my tournament was over.

So here I am at the end of day two with the same result: $0.00.

Tonight was my first attempt to earn money to start my voyage to $60K. I entered the Bodog $500 freeroll. First prize: $120. I started out well, and up until the first break I was near the top. I then hit a series of setbacks. These weren’t major setbacks but smaller ones. I would call them small mistakes. Some weren’t even really mistakes. Here’s a good example:

I was in the big blind with a stack of $8,470. Big blind was $100.00. I was dealt:

One player raised to $200, and here was my first mistake. With a crap hand, I called. So we go to the flop:

This was much better! I had top pair, and the possibility of a flush or straight was minimal. Granted, I had a lousy kicker, but there was already a second pair on the board. The only thing I had to worry about was a pocket pair Js, Qs, or Ks (and 9s!). I didn’t worry too much about a 9, as it was quite unlikely that anyone would raise preflop with a non-paired 9 in their hand, and the odds of a flopped four of a kind is astronomical. Still, there was that chance of the pocket royals.

I led out with a bet of $100, figuring I had the best hand at the table. Mr. “preflop raise” reraised me $100, and here is where I made another small mistake. At that point I should have re-raised something big like double the pot or just folded. With my strong hand, raising big was probably the right play. If he calls my big raise, I know he has a monster, and I can get out quickly after a check. If he doesn’t that means I won the hand. Instead, I called.

In my head I felt I had the best hand, and I reasoned that an extra $100 was a small price to pay to move ahead. This isn’t an unreasonable thought, but the reality is that he isn’t re-raising unless he is bluffing or has something substantial, and with what was showing on the table, it had to be a pocket pair of jacks or higher or, goodness, even pocket 9s. Still, I forged ahead. The next card dealt was:

I tend to be aggressive in certain spots and one of those is when I think I have the best hand. I still held out hope that was the case here, so I led with $120 bet. This was mistake number three. Leading with a check here and seeing how strong his raise would be was absolutely a better play. The raise should have been bigger and occurred on the flop. But here it was a mistake.

As it is, he re-raised me again a small $120. I called, which was clearly another small mistake. By now, he was making it clear that he had a big hand. A queen dropped, and he didn’t even bat an eyelash after I bet. So it is likely he had KK, AA, or 99. All of which blew me away. Still, I forged ahead. Next up came…

This was a total nothing card, but it made it clear that there was no flush and no straight in play. In hindsight, a spade here may have worked in my favor, as the flush draw may have succeeded in scaring him out, and his reticence to bet may have solely been based on worrying about the flush draw (although I think it more likely that he was slow playing me into death by papercut!).

At this point, it was down to my top pair and whatever he had in his hand. Only five hands beat me: Pocket aces, Kings, jacks, a queen, or some 9 combination. I very foolishly felt that it was unlikely he had any of these. I bet $440. Clearly I wasn’t reading all the signals over the past few cards. He definitely had one of these! What was I thinking? Any way, he raised the pot (now standing at $1,930), and I folded.

In poker terms it wasn’t a disastrous hand. I lost $960, which was significant but not overwhelming when you consider I started with $8,470. The trouble is that I had just played a few hands like this, and my stack, which was near $10K after the break, was now down to $7510.

Psychologically, these small losses did a number on me, and this is one thing I absolutely need to improve upon, because these small losses led me to just chuck the whole tournament a few hands later. Feeling depressed at my stack getting smaller, I was dealt:

This is an very good starting hand. In fact, it is the 22nd best starting hand in hold’em. I felt good about finally winning some chips back. Unfortunately, a fellow to my right went all-in before the flop. Now he had a large stack, so it is remotely possible that he was trying to bully the table (and I faintly tried to convince myself of that), but the reality is that he had a strong hand, and most likely an extremely strong hand.

However, I saw his huge stack (he had over $18,000 to my $7,000), and I could think of only one thing: Doubling up! All of the small losses had beaten me down, and–despite the fact that I still had a stack more than double the tournament average–I felt I had to make a statement. I simply wanted the death by papercut to end. It was all or nothing! In short, I lost confidence in my ability to put together some small and medium-sized wins to climb back into the upper echelons of the tournament.

So I went all in.

Everyone else folded and we were mano y mano. He turned his cards over, and–no surprise–they were big:

In head-to-head situations, pocket pairs are monsters. This was worse because we shared a queen. So even if I paired up with a Q that dropped, he would still win with 3 of a kind. So I had only three hopes: A king to drop or four hearts or clubs to drop. Needless to say, the odds of either of those happening were very very slim. Here’s how it played out:

Any hope of a flush was now gone. My only hope now was a K.

One last hope.

And I was out of the tournament.

One of the most important skills in poker is willpower and self-control. You need to steadfastly play the right way, even when you suffer a series of setbacks or you can’t seem to catch a break. Just when you try to “break the rules” or bend them to fit your circumstances is when you start to really careen out-of-control. That happened to me today.

So, as a result, my first step toward $60,000 ends with me not having actually moved at all.

My bankroll still sits at $0.00.