Now that school is back in session (I'm a graduate student), the vast majority of my poker playing will be on weekends. While I've been keeping records of my tournament play for the past couple of weeks to try to get a handle on some patterns, I experienced two recent runs that I think will be positive learning experiences for me down the line.
The first was two weekends ago (the weekend after Christmas), when I ended up on a dry spell. No matter what tournament I played (all at micro or low stakes), I could not seem to catch a break. Small pair? Either someone raised a large amount and I was forced to throw away the hand preflop, or I would limp in and be forced to throw the hand away when the board brought nothing but high cards. Never filled out a straight or a flush if I'd been playing with proper odds to draw. Coin flips all seemed to break towards my opponent. I remember starting to get immensely frustrated, and in retrospect that would seem to argue strongly for taking a break, no? I won/placed in one or two small table SNGs, but overall a went dry for a solid two days, the first time that has ever happened to me. I've read it's all part of the game. Not a part I can say I enjoyed much.
Then, this past weekend, I ended up with the best hour of cards I can ever recall seeing. $5.50 large tournament, $15,000 prize pool guaranteed (actual prize pool - over $28,000). 3000 in chips to start, 15 minute levels with five minute breaks after each hour. In the first hour of play, I experienced the following: 9 sets of pairs preflop, including three times with pocket aces and one time with pocket kings. Twice with my aces I had someone push on me (both times post flop); the first the flop came Jxx, and my single opponent pushed with J/Q unsuited. The second time the flop was 884, and my single opponent pushed with pocket 6s. I didn't make anywhere near as much on any of my other pocket pairs (everyone folded to me preflop with my kings, one of my two sets of pocket 9s lost to A/Q, my other set of pocket nines flopped a full house with 9KK and my opponent folded the instant I bet the turn), but between those two huge hands, my good reads and good cards, and my ability to keep my losses when they occur ed to a relative minimum, I had more than tripled my chips in the first hour. I was feeling really, really good about my chances to make a deep run. I was well over double the chip average, had no need to fear the blinds or take huge risks, and could use my position and chip stack to continue building. While I certainly didn't expect my rush of great cards to continue (or my good luck in not having my large pairs cracked), I was feeling confident.
Maybe too confident.
All that work and luck was completely undone by a single hand in the second hour. I'm holding J/9 suited in the BB, there was a single min raise a multiple limpers, meaning I had more than enough pot odds to put in the extra big blind with pretty much any two cards. The flop brought a J with no obvious straight or flush draws. I bet out (my tendency when I possibly, but not absolutely, have the best hand and I'm first or almost first to act - I'd like to buy the pot cheaply if no one else hit the flop, and will hopefully get some information based off of what subsequent people choose to do - call, fold, or raise) just under half the pot. I think 4 of the 7 people folded right then, with two callers. Flop brought another rag as far as I could tell, so I bet again (first to act now) more strongly now, about 3/4 of the current pot. Next person to act folded, final person left in the hand raised.
I don't really know what I was thinking at this point. I try to constantly remind myself not to overvalue top pair, especially with a weak kicker. As far as cards on the board went, if the other person didn't have a straight or a flush (neither of which was possible at this point, if I remember correctly), then only the other two jacks with better kickers, or a paired kicker, or a lower pair of pairs, or trips, could beat me. Still, that's a lot of possibilities, and my opponent was certainly telling me he had a good hand. He hadn't raised preflop (this person was not the minimum raiser), so I didn't put him on any of the premium pair or trip jacks. Still, if I had actually sat and thought, really thought rather than just blindly ride the wave of good fortune I had had up to that point, I think I would have folded at that point. Instead, I reraised, was reraised again all in, and like the donk I soon felt like I called. At which point my opponent turned over A/J, and all but just under $1000 of my chips was gone, just like that.
I managed to last until just after the second hour break - a couple of fortuitous all-in pushes that allowed me to double-up, a couple of all-in blind steals, but I ended up busting in 1407th place, well back off the money. I like to think I learned something from this (or relearned it as the case may be):
1. Top pair, weak kicker is a hand just asking for trouble. Optimally, I should have tried to keep that pot small, as my hand was relatively small. Even if the aggression by my opponent was a bluff with middle pair or top pair with an even weaker kicker, was it really worth my entire tournament to make that stand right there? Obviously, no. Small hand, small pot. I need to add that to my list of things to tell myself pretournament (something I had done with some success earlier, I might add).
2. Good fortune in a previous hand (or hands) has no bearing on the current hand. Just like all bad runs come to an end, so do all "rushes". Just because you are feeling lucky doesn't mean you are. I do believe that I let my optimistic outlook for my overall tournament prospects override my common sense on this hand.
3. One hand can make all previous work vanish. It usually takes many hands, and much patience, to build a chip stack (especially since my default style is pretty tight). Trying to focus and maintain that patience, while not losing all aggression or letting myself get pushed around, may be a tricky thing for me to balance.
Definitely a learning experience, and a harsh one, for this poker neophyte.
See you at the tables.
SGT RJ
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