Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Throwing good money after good

Everyone knows about throwing good money after bad. In poker, though, sometimes you end up throwing good money after good. The end result may be the same, but the motivation is entirely different. When you throw good money after bad, your initial investment was unsound, and you compound that error by continuing to back a loser. When you throw good money after good, however, your initial investment was actually sound. It's much harder to fold in that situation.

Last night, on hand 6, I flopped a king high straight. I bet $400 on the flop, and got 4 callers. I bet $1000 on the turn, and got 3 callers. On the river, disaster struck; the board paired, giving one of my opponents a full house. This opponent went all in; I called, along with one other player. The full house raked in a pot worth $107,400; I lost $34,500 on the hand and was crippled. I don't regret making the river call; I only regret not betting my hand bigger, which might have pushed that opponent off his hand before he got to the river. I got burned by being too cute, trying to maximize my profit by value betting.

Back to the drawing board.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 101 hands and saw flop:
 - 10 out of 16 times while in big blind (62%)
 - 9 out of 16 times while in small blind (56%)
 - 40 out of 69 times in other positions (57%)
 - a total of 59 out of 101 (58%)
 Pots won at showdown - 12 of 20 (60%)
 Pots won without showdown - 10

delta: $-31,354
balance: $4,638,662

No comments:

Post a Comment