Patience Really Is A Virtue

In the past week regarding certain activities that can become nerve-racking like softball and poker, I have taken a page from Texas Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson’s playbook in that I am trying to live in the moment, not reflect on mistakes, breathe through my eyelids, and that sort of thing. When Wilson is shown in the dugout during a Rangers game, he is sitting calmly on the bench, trying not to focus on what has happened in the prior innings but instead simply look ahead at what he has to do coming up. While this attitude certainly didn’t work out for me at last week’s softball game, I think it has done a lot of good for my poker playing the last three days.

Following Saturday’s win of $210 in Weatherford, Clint and I kept the poker high going by making a trip to WinStar last night with my brother, Bart. Clint logged a win, Bart a loss, and me, well, that is debatable. I profited $30 for the night, fighting and clawing my way out of a hole to do it, but after playing for four hours and earning a measly $7.50 an hour it might not have seemed worth staying up late, stressing over pot odds and putting up with the riff-raff that goes along with a trip north to Oklahoma casinos. For me, it was a lesson in how to manage a single buy-in with tight, patient play.

I bought in for $180 and did not have anything left over to re-buy with should luck not be on my side last night, but had I asked Clint for a loan I probably would have gotten it. However, I wanted to avoid that at all costs. So instead, I simply worked with the money I had and told myself if I went broke then I was sitting in the lounge waiting for the rest of my party.

After winning an $8 pot about thirty minutes after sitting down, which still didn’t put me above my $180 starting point, I didn’t win my next hand for another two hours. I simply folded hand after hand, occasionally seeing a flop when holding a pocket pair or an ace with a suited low card or unsuited high card, but never seeing it improve.

My lowest point for the evening was $70, which I hit a couple of times. At one point I made an all-in $53 bluff with king-high on the river into a $60 pot against a kid who had me slightly covered. He had called my continuation bet on the flop after I raised it pre-flop. We both checked the turn and I made my all-in bet on the river knowing it was the only way I could win the pot. My opponent thought for a good 30 seconds and finally folded.

The first time I was able to get back near even was with pocket aces against pocket kings. All the money went in the middle on the flop after raising it to $8, getting a call behind me from a guy with about as much money as me (which was $70 at the time), being re-raised to $30 from the small blind and smooth calling his bet in hopes that the player behind me on the button would call the bet as well. He didn’t call the extra $22 and when the small blind immediately moved all in on a J-2-2 board I called and had my hand win in the end.

Even though I had built my stack back up to about $150, that wouldn’t last as I continued my losing streak, which included one hand where I was dealt pocket queens.

I raised under the gun to $7 with the two red ladies, being called by two players, one of those being the player to my immediate left. He was a nice, older gentleman who didn’t talk much, but was pleasant when he did.

The flop came out as K-10-3 rainbow. I was first to act and bet $15 into a $22 pot. The man on my left called and the other guy folded. The turn was another 10. I decided I probably couldn’t beat what this guy was holding at this point and was ready to fold if he bet. I checked it and so did he.

The river was a 5 and I had a decision to make. The pot contained about $50 in it and my opponent had $45 left. I was sitting at about $90. If he had a monster hand and was hoping I would bet the river, he would have checked the turn like he did. But he would have done the exact same thing had he been on a straight draw or held a medium pocket pair just opting to take the free card. So I had to determine whether he had a big hand, a smaller pair than mine, or nothing at all.

My options included betting half my stack to put him all in with the hope he either folds and I win without a fight or calls and has a lesser hand, bet about half his stack and see what he does in return, or check it and let him decide what to do. Let us break down each preference and see what would happen in every possible scenario.

The first choice is to bet $45 and put him all in. He likely isn’t going to call for everything he has without at least a king, which beats me. The only way he would do that is a frustration call. Honestly, while this is the most aggressive play and aggressive play is a winning strategy, I don’t really like this move right here.

The second choice is to bet $20-25, leaving him with next to nothing if he calls. However, I doubt he simply calls for half his money if he has three tens or the king, which is what he would have to hold to make that call. If he had more money then calling $25 just to see what I have with a middle pocket pair is a little more likely. Yet, when it is nearly everything he has, he isn’t going to “keep ‘em honest” just because. So by betting $20-25, he is going to either fold with his lesser hand or move all in for the other half with his better hand. Also, I doubt he moves all in for his remaining money on a bluff because it is such a small amount he will likely think I am committed to a call. This seems a little better option than the first choice simply because I am going to get the same outcome, but am risking less money. I like this decision a little more than the first one so far.

Now for the final option: to check. This is certainly the most passive way to play the hand, but that was sort of the theme to my play last night. By checking, I am giving him all the power in the hand. If he elects to bet, I then have to decide whether he is betting his best hand for value or betting a bluff because it is the only way he can win. Checking results in me having to do all the work and it comes down to my feeling about if he has a hand or not, and this is all determined on how much he bets. However, not betting anything could result in him also checking and I risk nothing to see who has the best hand at a showdown.

Whatever option you prefer, I elected a check and make a decision should he bet. He did bet all of his money and after concluding he had the goods, I folded. He said he would show me for a dollar, which I was happy to pay for some peace of mind. He flipped over pocket kings, which means he flopped a set and turned a full house. Good fold and good play.

I only lost $22 on the hand, but it was a culmination of all my losing hands that should have sent me over the edge by this point in the night. Yet, I continued to be patient and keep up the C.J. Wilson tranquil attitude. My new approach to keeping a cool head while playing was put to the test on a hand that on any other night I would have brooded over for hours and possibly could have sent me into the normal tailspin of tilt that usually ends up in my complete demise and bankruptcy.

I was dealt the ace of clubs and five of diamonds on the button. It was $2 to call when it got to me and about six other players had limped in for the minimum amount. I decided to see a flop and watch what happened from there. At this point in the hand I had $98 after the pre-flop call. With seven of us seeing a flop there was $14 in the pot.

The flop was 4-6-7 with two clubs. I now had an open-ended straight draw, an over card and a backdoor flush draw. It was checked to the player on my right, who was an aggressive bettor that had been winning a lot of pots because he put players to the test for their chips and was not afraid to bluff with absolutely nothing. He bet $10. I decided to call this bet, figuring I would entice a player or two to come along with us, helping to build a good-sized pot should I hit my straight. Two players who had checked made the call and it was to the kid I had earlier bluffed with king-high on the river, who was sitting in middle position. He went all in for $35, a $25 raise. It now got to the original bettor. He re-raised the bet to $75. It is now on me and I have $88 left after my earlier $10 call.

Should I decide to play this, it is obvious I will go all in for my last $13. Although I had two people behind me to act, I really didn’t think they were going to make the call should I go all in because of their reactions to all the raising and re-raising that had taken place prior to my turn. So it really just came down to being up against the two opponents, one of whom had me covered. Should I beat the guy that had me covered but lose to the all-in player, I would have ended up with $106, resulting in a $6 profit of where I started at the beginning of this hand. If I won it all I would have about $270.

To recap, I have Ac-5d, the board is 4c-6s-7c and it is an all-in play for me with no money to pull out for a re-buy. What would you do here? We’ll have our answer … after the break.

Welcome back. After contemplating if I wanted to risk everything I had on an open-ended straight draw, I elected to fold. I took a lot of time to make the decision and was surprised nobody called the clock on me. Folding may be a weenie play to some of you, but I just couldn’t get myself to make the call getting 2-1 on my money with what could be only six outs if one of those two guys was on a club flush draw. I figured at best I had eight outs for my straight and an additional three outs should I pair my ace and it hold up, but that was best-case scenario.

Like I thought would happen, the two players behind me also folded and it was down to heads-up. The turn was the jack of clubs and the river was the five of clubs, giving me what would have been the nut flush, only losing to a straight-flush of 3-6 or 6-8 of clubs. The two guys both showed eights and no club, giving them both the same straight. One of the players held 8-6, which at the time of my decision was middle pair with an inside straight draw and I don’t recall what the other player’s second card was to go with his eight.

As I said earlier, this was one of those hands that usually I would go over and over in my mind second guessing myself about what I had done, knowing that had I called I’d be in the black and possibly winning more. But with my unworried outlook that didn’t dwell on the past, I put the hand behind me, moved on and focused on what was going on at that moment.

I’ve only played cards twice since taking on this new attitude, but I really feel like it helped factor into my profits for both nights. There were moments on Saturday that I could have said, “Oh, screw it,” and shoved out of frustration, but I stuck with it and continued to play as good as possible, not letting previous decisions influence current situations. We will see tonight how the C.J. factor works for me in softball as we play a very tough defensive team at the hottest possible moment of the evening.

Until next time…