Situational risk-taking

I didn't play poker last night since I was watching the Bruins win their first Stanley Cup in 39 years. As happy as I was for the Bruins, I did feel a bit sorry for Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo. I didn't see the first period, so I missed the first Bruins goal; I did see the other ones, though. Both the second and third goals could be described as "soft"; on the second, Luongo actually caused the puck to go into his own net (involuntarily, of course). It reminded me of the time I panicked when the PokerStars software put me all in due to an unluckily-timed click on my part, and how I both undid and redid the all in in my frenzy to undo it.

My plan to fool myself into playing tighter by pretending I'd already lost one starting stack worked pretty well. I hereby dub this strategy "The Phantom Felting". I'll try it again tonight.

The poker wisdom I'd like to impart in this post is about how different situations call for different risk assessments, and therefore may very well call for different decisions. On one hand, I'd flopped bottom pair, which I'd normally fold; however, since the player who was leading the betting was short-stacked, I felt it was worth hanging around in the hand, since there was a cap on the amount of money I'd lose. As luck would have it, I made trip threes on the river and won the pot. The short stack hit the felt, and bitched that the river card was a fluke. I didn't try to enlighten him!

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 122 hands and saw flop:
- 15 out of 26 times while in big blind (57%)
- 14 out of 24 times while in small blind (58%)
- 43 out of 72 times in other positions (59%)
- a total of 72 out of 122 (59%)
Pots won at showdown - 8 of 12 (66%)
Pots won without showdown - 9

delta: $25,500
balance: $1,824,072