Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Refusing to think

Last night, I hit the felt due to my refusal to think at a crucial time. I'd hit a full house on the river, and let my concept of the value of a full house in general completely override any concept of the value of this particular full house in this particular hand. Actually, the refusal to think had actually started one street earlier, on the turn; if I'd been able to think clearly, I would have realized that I was drawing dead at that point, and would have folded before even seeing the river.

Here's the hand, in all its shameful glory:

Table 'Kiess' 9-max (Play Money) Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: neostreet (22600 in chips)
Seat 3: (38600 in chips)
Seat 5: (56850 in chips)
Seat 6: (52900 in chips)
Seat 7: (66013 in chips)
Seat 8: (87800 in chips)
Seat 9: (26600 in chips)
neostreet: posts small blind 100
Seat 3: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to neostreet [Qh 7c]
Seat 5: calls 200
Seat 6: folds
Seat 7: calls 200
Seat 8: folds
Seat 9: calls 200
neostreet: calls 100
Seat 3: checks
*** FLOP *** [7d Ks 4s]
neostreet: checks
Seat 3: bets 1000
Seat 5: folds
Seat 7: calls 1000
Seat 9: folds
neostreet: calls 1000
*** TURN *** [7d Ks 4s] [Kc]
neostreet: checks
Seat 3: bets 2200
Seat 7: folds
neostreet: calls 2200
*** RIVER *** [7d Ks 4s Kc] [7h]
neostreet: checks
Seat 3: bets 8200
neostreet: raises 8200 to 16400
Seat 3: raises 18800 to 35200 and is all-in
neostreet: calls 2800 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (16000) returned to Seat 3
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Seat 3: shows [Kh Ts] (a full house, Kings full of Sevens)
neostreet: shows [Qh 7c] (a full house, Sevens full of Kings)
Seat 3 collected 46800 from pot

I knew from the way seat 3 had bet that it was likely he'd hit trip kings on the turn; at that point, I was drawing dead. Unfortunately, I was brain dead as well! Not only did I fail to realize I was drawing dead, I bet the river mistakenly believing that my full house could beat any hand seat 3 had! I fully deserved to hit the felt, and with extreme prejudice at that :-)

One of the reasons I love poker so much is that it's such a humbling game. Sessions like last night's never make me want to quit; they make me realize how dumb I can play sometimes and make me want to play smarter oftener!

delta: $-40,000
balance: $858,038

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