Listening too much to the board

To be a great poker player, you need to be a great listener, and you need to act based on what you hear. The trouble is, there's more than one thing to listen to. My recent play has forced me to realize that I'm much better at listening to what the board is telling me than I am at listening to what my opponents are telling me. I listen to the board too much, and sometimes its mighty voice drowns out the voices of my opponents.

Last Friday night, I hit the felt on hand 7 due to this failing. I'd been dealt 6d 8h, and the flop came 8c 8s Ad. I got into a short raising war with one opponent, who went all in after my second raise. I knew I had a good hand, but his all in should have given me pause. I should have realized he either had my hand beat or was stone bluffing. Instead, all I listened to was the board telling me that statistically I had a hand which was very likely the best. I told myself my hand was the best, and called his all in without really even considering what holding might justify him betting the way he had. He turned over rockets for a full house, aces full of eights. My home-grown "percent at flop" calculator informs me that my hand was a 93% favorite, and could only lose to 5% of the other possible hands with that flop. That 93% is what I was listening to. Had I listened correctly, I would have known that my opponent's all in bet very likely meant that his hand was in the 5% that could beat me. Live and learn!

I reupped for the max at the same table, and played even poker for the rest of the night.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 114 hands and saw flop:
- 10 out of 13 times while in big blind (76%)
- 7 out of 15 times while in small blind (46%)
- 52 out of 86 times in other positions (60%)
- a total of 69 out of 114 (60%)
Pots won at showdown - 10 of 16 (62%)
Pots won without showdown - 5

delta: $-40,000
balance: $3,222,504