Poker Entry No. 1 Updated

Since I haven’t played cards very much lately, I haven’t had a reason to post anything new on this blog. So I decided, since the game of poker can always be improved upon by a player, I would go back to poker posts on my other blog from several years ago and post them here. However, in addition to the historical posts from 2004 and later, I will also include my thoughts about the play of my past self from the current self. The present day commentary will be in parenthesis. I have also fixed grammatical errors and made a few style changes. So let’s begin.

Our first entry comes from October 5, 2004 and is labeled “Poker Entry No. 1” (real original Matt). The date of the actual game was from September 25, 2004. There were 30 players at an entry fee of $30. Rebuys were not allowed and I ended up placing 17th, resulting in no money won.

Begin original text:

I played great in this game (Why don’t you let the experts decide that). I was playing tight, but aggressive. I hadn’t lost a showdown for two hours. After a while, I had a lot of table respect. However, I made one mistake that led to two more mistakes.

First mistake: I had 8-7 suited. I had limped in to see a flop. The flop was 10-6-5. There were two spades on the board. I didn’t have spades. The big blind checked it. I checked. The old man behind me checked (Got a free turn, so I can’t really criticize that; a bet might have won the hand there since nothing higher than a ten was showing, but I can’t criticize the timid play with nothing but a draw at this point). The turn was a queen. Big blind checked. I started to think about my options. I could check and hope to see a free card, however, if I didn’t get the straight I was probably going to lose (You think Captain Obvious?). As I was thinking, the old man behind me wasn’t paying attention and thought it was on him. He said check. The dealer asked if he could proceed. I said I hadn’t decided what to do. I chose to take a stab at taking the pot down right there (I approve). I bet $4,000. This was about four times the amount of the big blind (From deducing what the big blind is and how many players there were, I am guessing the pot had about $3,500 before the $4,000 bet). It also left me with about $15,000. The old man called. I put him on a flush draw. The big blind folded. The last card was a blank. It helped neither of us, if I was correct on his flush draw. I knew he hadn’t made his hand, but I was too scared to bet half of my stack, which is about how much it would take to get the guy out if I was correct (It is going to be pretty hard for someone to call a second bet with nothing once the flush doesn’t come on the river, even if they do have a high card; plus, betting is the only way to win that hand with eight high). I went against my better judgment and didn’t bet. He checked also and flipped over A-8 of spades. He was on the flush draw, just like I thought. This burned me up that I went against my first thought.

Lesson #1: Trust your judgment. Your first thought is usually the right move.

Second mistake: I have J-10 offsuit. I usually limp with this hand, but the blinds were $1,000-2,000 and I only had $15,000 left. I also was steaming a bit from the previous hand. I wanted to play it so bad, but I went against my first thought and threw it away (That was the best play you could have made). A pair of jacks would have taken the pot. I was not as upset about this mistake as I was about the first (I wouldn’t call this a mistake; you made the right decision to fold).

Lesson #2: Don’t let past hands affect your play on a new hand (Again, made the right play; calling or raising would have been unwise with so few chips left).

Third mistake: My final mistake sent me out of the tournament (usually how it works moron). The guy after the big blind went all in pre-flop. I had a feeling he was pretty confident with his hand. I looked at my cards and saw pocket jacks. Usually I am fairly excited when I have pocket jacks. It is a good hand and mostly has to be outdrawn with a queen, king or ace to be beaten. However, for some unknown reason I wasn’t too thrilled about having it (Maybe because your tournament life depended on this hand). I pondered the call, because the guy went all in with more chips than me ­– about $7,000 more. I had a feeling I was beat, yet against my better judgment I called. The guy flipped over kings. I had to outdraw the guy and I didn’t (Can you really consider this a mistake when it was probably the only thing you could do; are you going to just sit around and be blinded out waiting for aces to come).

Lesson #3: If you know your beat, and you don’t have many outs, fold the hand (Not necessarily true).

Three times I knew I should do something and I went against that feeling. That is why I lost the tournament (You really only lost because the first mistake led to circumstances that forced the other plays and shouldn’t be considered mistakes).