240 entries, $35 buy-in with multi-rebuys. My friend (who is the often spoken of points leader in my online league, hereafter known as Cali) and I ponied up our dough and drew random cards from two different ladies checking people in. Naturally we drew seats right next to each other at the same table.
I had a great time in the two hours that I played, especially enjoyable was being able to chat with Cali about the various hands that unfolded before us. To avoid getting a nasty stare or a punch in the throat, we chatted under our breath, and in a kind of code speak that only friends who have been playing cards together for over 5 years can understand. Good times.
Then I donked out in a major way - not because my decision was horrifically bad, which it was; but because I wasn't employing the necessary "situational awareness" ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED to play poker. I wasn't focused, and I was preoccupied with my chip stack, which I thought at the time was low. In hindsight, I needed to be patient. My stack was just under x20 the BB after the break. Not great, and almost about short stacked, but not nearly critical. When I looked down at a beautiful suited Big-Slick, I over-bet; then called a monster raise.
I wasn't paying attention to the size of the raise, it was made by some guy who had just lost a big pot. I thought he was all in, but he still had plenty of chips to hurt me. If I had merely taken the time to turn my head, to look at the chips he put forward; I might have had the common sense to lay down my over-bet. Instead, I passively and stupidly called. Then, when a raggedy flop came, I compounded my mistake by going all-in. He turned over aces.
I'm not going to dwell on it, but it was three really bad decisions. The good news is (for my education) that all three of my mistakes could have been avoided if I just had a smidgen of patience. Patience to recognize that I was in the Yellow zone, not the Orange or Red zone. Patience to stop and think about what kind of bet would have gotten the job done - I was in early position, a raise of 3x the BB (instead of my stupid x6) would have had exactly the same result. Patience to stop, look at the raiser's chips, and ASK him how much he had left; this FOR SURE would have given me all the information needed to make the obviously correct decision; so the disastrous post-flop scenario would have never even happened.
More good news, from an educational standpoint, is that after I left Cali went on to finish 11th out of 240 players. Holy shit.
Amazing, amazing, amazing. And when he called me he sounded disappointed that he hadn't finished higher. I have to laugh at that, because I think he is genuinely unaware at how hard it is to do something like what he did.
Needless to say, Cali hopes to make this tourney a monthly event. Hopefully, God willing and wife permission giving, I can join him most of the time.
Cali's high finish gives me hope, because I know when I am paying attention, I can play just about as well as he can. (I've given up thinking I'm better, the numbers don't lie.) And I know if I can focus, and reign in some of the aggression that I employ online - that a much higher finish is definitely in the cards for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment