Polarized

On Saturday night, I hit the felt when I called a polarizing bet an opponent made on the river. A polarizing bet is one which indicates that the bettor either has nothing, or has the nuts. There's nothing in between. In such cases, you have to rely primarily on your gut to tell you whether to fold or call.

This is an excerpt from my June 9, 2014 post. That was in my cash game days, but the concept applies equally well to MTTs. Last night, on my final hand of the tournament, I got polarized. I'd been dealt A8o (ace eight offsuit), and paired my ace on the flop. An opponent bet big enough to put me all in if I called. My read was that he had a more ragged ace than mine, so I called. As I discovered to my chagrin, he had the least ragged ace you can have - pocket rockets. I hit the rail with 20 minutes left in the late registration period. Ouch!

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    87000  13000       6      44   12     -        0

delta: $-100,000
MTT NLHE balance: $42,477,268
2021 balance: $16,655,500
blue distance: $540,200
balance: $94,320,953