TalkFlop.com

Lately I’ve been playing pretty tight at the tables.  I’ve hit a pretty bad run of cards and if I’m being honest with myself have begun to play a bit scared.  Never a good feeling.  I try not to watch hands where I’ve already folded but I simply cannot do it.  I watch every hand and find myself (more often than not) saying “Man, I wish I would have stayed in for one more street.”  Here are just a couple of examples from a recent game:

Hand #1

The under the gun player folds and the next player raises to $400 early in the tournament.  I look down and see a nice looking King Ten suited and think for quite a while before throwing my hand away.  I figure that against an early position raiser I’m most certainly behind – potentially crippled.  Of course, the flop comes out with three clubs including the Ace.  I could only sit and watch as the pot was pushed to someone else after I’d laid down my nut flush pre flop.

Hand #2

The second time I had the deal I look down and see those beautiful bullets.  It’s music to my ears when the under the gun player raises.  It’s folded around to me and I make a decent size raise which he calls.  At this point I put him on a middle pair or AK.

AA on button, raise, called by one player.  The flop comes 224 and he moves all in.  I fold.  This is a pathetic play and I realize it even before he turns over QQ.  Playing scared sucks.

I’m happy to say that the next time I sat down at the table I did NOT play nearly this scared.  It’s very important to look at your game objectively.  Gotta plug those leaks whenever you can!

See you after the flop.

Early in the tournament and I look down at wired tens.  I raise to 3 times the big blind and I get called by the button and we’re off to the flop.

Talk about a beautiful flop for a pair of tens.  I put in a standard continuation bet hoping he’s got something like A9 and was just calling on the button with position.

That card potentially made a straight but it’s highly unlikely that he was playing 58 to a raise (even with position).  I make another bet and he raises.  I think for a minute and then call.  I’m scared that maybe he’s got a set but it still feels like an unpaired ace.

I’ve got an overpair to the board with my pair of tens and I was raised on the turn.  This card actually scared me a bit cause after getting raised on the turn I started thinking about a possibility of being up against a set and he very likely would have called my pre flop raise with a small pair like threes.  Even with that thought going through my head, I figure that the 3 on the river didn’t help him so if I was beat before I’m still beat and if I was ahead before I’m a winner.  The raise on the turn really scared me so I decided to check and see if I couldn’t win at showdown or call a smallish bet on the end.  He made a small enough bet that I was getting pot odds to call and he rolled over pocket aces to take a nice size pot.

Looking back I’m not sure what I could have done differently.  Raising pre flop with tens is the obvious play and making a bet after flopping an over-pair is a no brainer.  I got raised on the turn but with the exception of a set I didn’t see how I was behind.  I suppose I should have started thinking about a big pair at this point but I just didn’t.  I like my check on the river here because if I’m beat I’m REALLY beat and I’m going to get raised anyhow.

See you after the flop!