Where Did I Go Wrong
January 18, 2008 | Posted by admin On X-Mas I headed over to the local casino for a friendly game of Texas Hold ‘Em. In usual me fashion I did quite well for a little bit, then something went terribly wrong. The casino has 1-2 No Limit Games, $60 buy ins so I sat down at about 4:30 pm. By 5 I was up to $130, winning a whole 2 hands. The player across the table from me was playing loose, I watched him play a hand with A3 offsuit, the ace being a diamond. Flop came 3 diamonds. Turn was a blank. The guy was calling every bet. I believe there were 3 players in the hand, maybe 4. He spiked his fourth diamond on the river to swoop the pot. Before the river he had nothing and was fishing the whole way. The guy next to me commented on the play of this guy and how much it scared him to watch someone chase like that.
Now comes my hand. I was in the big blind. Picked up pocket 2’s. Flop came 6 8 2 rainbow. There were 4 of us in the hand. One guy bet, I called, the guy next to me folded and chaser guy called. Turn came 9. The original better bet, I raised, chaser guy moved all in. Original better folded. I thought about all the weird hands the guy had been playing and called. He had the straight. River was a blank. There went $130 in one hand.
So what’s the moral of this story? It’s simple. I underestimated my opponent. I saw the straight on the board and ignored the fact he moved all in. I could have been beat by higher trips or the straight yet I still called. Always be on your toes when you play cards. Always look for the tells. And play the odds.
There was about $10 in the pot preflop. The guy bet 8 on the flop with 2 callers so that’s 24+10=34. On the turn he bet $10. I raised it to $20. So that’s now $64 in the pot. Guy moved all in. That’s $84 plus the rest of my stack. I’ve put in $30, I still have $100. That makes the pot a total of $284. I have to invest $130 to win $284. If I’m beat I have about a 1 in 5 chance to hit my card on the river. Do the math. We’re barely above 1 to 2 not 1 to 5. I made a bad call simply based on the math alone.
So where did I go wrong? I ignored the tells, I failed to protect my hand on the flop, and I failed to get away from my hand when I was beat. That was my $130 lesson on X-Mas. To some that sounds like a lot to lose on a single hand, to others its not even a small blind, yet the lesson can still be seen in what I did wrong. Don’t make the same mistake I did.
Hope this helps you avoid losing a bad pot.
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