It's been nearly two weeks since I played poker and I am still haunted by a hand I misplayed at a home game in Benbrook on St. Patrick's Day. This is an example of not paying attention to the amount of money in the pot and only focusing on the opponent's bet size.
It was a $1-3 game and I was the big blind with 7-6 of hearts. I ended up calling a raise of $10 from the button and going against two opponents (the other being the small blind). $30 was in the pot. I was second in chips among the three of us, with the button having about $75-100 less than me and the small blind having about $100 more than me.
The flop came out 8s-5d-2c and it went check, check, and the button bet $20. The small blind called and I passively called with my open-ended straight draw (probably my first mistake for not raising). Pot now had $90.
The turn was the queen of diamonds. Again, the small blind checked and I checked (possibly my second mistake in not leading out). The button bet $50 and the small blind folded. I called (again, another mistake in not raising or folding). Pot now has $190.
The river was the jack of diamonds, making a back-door flush and straight possible. I checked, with the intention to fold my seven-high hand when he checked behind or raise if he put in another bet and try to scare him into thinking I rivered a big hand. He bet $75 and I almost immediately raised it to $175. The biggest mistake of the entire hand was not waiting a little longer to calculate what was in the pot and going all in (which really would have meant I was putting my opponent all in since he had less money than me).
At the time of my raise, I made it the amount I did because I wanted him to think I was making such a small raise because I had a hand I knew to be best and I wanted him to make a crying call, which was reverse psychology because he would know I was doing that and he would make the "correct" play, which was folding and saving $100. He ended up turning his cards over while thinking and showed me A-Q for top pair, top kicker. He took so long that the clock was called by another player at the table. He ended up being counted down to 10 seconds and finally threw in the $100. I didn't even show my hand and said it was a good call.
I am 100% sure that had I put him all in for the additional $75-100 he had behind the $100 raise he would have folded. I didn't take my time and factor in how much was already in the pot after his river bet and my raise. It was only $100 to call and there was $440 in the pot after my raise. There was just too much money out there to fold for $100. However, if I had gone all in, that would have resulted in him having to call $175-200 to win $515-540. That is a little tougher to do, especially considering he was having such a hard time calling for such a little wager.
I wanted to type this out as a lesson to myself that I need to take a little bit longer before making my bets to actually calculate what is already in the pot and how much my bet is in proportion to the pot. It is also a lesson in controlling my emotions after a big loss because this hand sent me into a downward spiral of depression that resulted in only winning $65 for the evening, which I was up about $450 prior to this hand.
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