Wednesday, October 31, 2007

First of all, I want to apologize about last week's post. There were so many typos and it wasn't until today that I figured out why. Apparently there's some kind of conflict between Firefox text boxes and Windows Vista. Some of the characters I type just don't appear and sometimes they appear out of order. I thought I was going crazy but then I really got to watching and it isn't just sloppy typing.

Staying with the losing hand posts, here's one from tournament play. It's not so much a hand analysis as it is just a small scenario. I had 4500 in chips, never having had more than five thousand. Through auspicious folding and timely betting, I'd managed to hang around all the way up to 500 and 1000 dollar blinds, and survived one round. I was looking hard for another good Degree All-In Moment, but got 72 on the big blind, leaving me with 3500. I posted the small blind and then looked down at A8 offsuit. It was the best thing I had seen in several hands and I decided the small blind was a good place to go. The action made it all the way around to the chip leader who was right in front of me. He bet 5000 puttinng me all in if I chose to call. This is where I made a logical error. Somewhat earlier the big blind had been short-stacked, almost as severely as I was. Through a couple steals and a winning hand she'd gotten quite a few chips in comparison, about fifteen to twenty thousand. With my own short stack and the short stack I had it in my mind my opponent had behind me, his 3500 raise was likely just to push us around a little and steal the blinds if we didn't have premium hands. I called with my A8. When the big blind folded behind me I looked and saw her fairly large stack, I realized he probably had a legitimate hand to bet five thousand into her when she was in the big blind. I also failed to realize that there were still people playing poker at this blind level. With my own measley stack I was down to so few options it wasn't really poker, but for him 5000 was just a good opener. Sure enough, he turned over pocket nines. Five quick cards later and I'm out of the tournament in 8th place and, as it turns out, just out of the money since they all took a hundred off the top before I'd made it past the end of the table. Oh well, I'd have had to double up at least once to even think of suggesting a deal. In hindsight I pulled the trigger too quick. The gap concept seems to dictate an all-in bet with A8 offsuit in that situation, but the call was careless when I had at least nine more hands to hit something legitimate. There were two other things that caused me to call. The first thing is that with all that folding around almost to me, I'd had time to fall in love with my hand. I knew I was going to push as soon as it got to me and take my chances. When I got bet into I was already ready to leave the tournament with that hand. The other thing was that the player betting into me is a pretty pretty good player, and I knew for a fact that he was aware of the gap concept and would have expected me to fold anything but a very good hand to his bet, and he wouldn't expect a call with a middling ace. With that in mind I thought it was possible I might be ahead.

For The Greek, I'm glad to have you visit. I wasn't offended by anything you said in your comment, except maybe the snide bit about the rare occasion. I was under the impression that The Greek was Anthony, but maybe I was wrong. There are reasons why the losing hands are not as detailed, though I really hope the above hand satisfies you a little more. A losing hand often means a drop in my level of concentration and when I really screw up I'm often a deer in the headlights, and don't have a clue how I could have been so foolish. That really doesn't happen that often though. Most of the time when I lose money it's the simple things. Calling a raise pre-flop with a hand that I shouldn't have and not hitting. Calling the blinds with a hand I shouldn't have and hitting just enough to hurt me. Getting second-bested sometimes happens. Being outdrawn sometimes happens. I have a sense of pride in my ability to lay down a hand if I'm not getting the situational odds I need to call. That being the case, sometimes I'll call when I know I'm behind because the money makes it worth it, but I really don't get suckered in too often. The hand you mentioned was an exception since I'd have been better to fold but didn't and lost my stack, and the reasons for it were many. I was tired and not playing my A game. Our respective table images would indicate he was likely to bluff and I was likely to fold a sub-premium hand. Also I really just wanted that money. I hope all this explains why there aren't as many detailed losing hands. The hands I lose on aren't that interesting, and a lot of the time that they are I'm not even sure what happened after it's over since I've folded and my opponent has mucked. Where possible though I'll do my best to add more detail to the losers.

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