A bad read

I had a short session tonight because of a bad read. However, I don't feel too bad about it. Reads will be wrong a fair percentage of the time; there's no getting around that. What I feel obscurely good about is that I stayed true to my read, right to the bitter end!

Here's how it went down: the player to my immediate left lost all his chips, sat out for a while, then replenished them. I mentally pegged him as a player willing to take big risks. I was playing very cautiously, but was getting tired of not getting to any showdowns. When the button came around again to the player to my left, I was dealt a K 2 offsuit. Eminently foldable. I should have folded, but wanted to see if I could catch a king, so I stayed in the hand. Obviously not the most stellar reasoning in the world, since even if I caught one I'd be a sitting duck for anyone else with a king, thanks to my weakest of kickers.

The flop came K 6 A rainbow. I had middle pair -- very dicey. Nobody bet until it got around to the button, who bet like he had an ace. My read was that he was bluffing, since I had him pegged as a risky player. It's the easiest thing in the world to bluff when you're the last to act and nobody has bet yet. The thing is, if you're bluffing well, there's no difference in your betting pattern from the way you'd have bet if you weren't bluffing.

The button made continuation bets, and I called every one until I was all in. Wouldn't you know, the button did have an ace; my pair of kings lost to his pair of aces. I started the hand with $1,465 in chips and ended it with felt. A very expensive middle pair! Very foolish of me, you'll say, and quite likely you'll be right. But that's okay -- I'm just getting some more "seasoning" in :-)

delta: -$2,000
balance: $281,858