Not a believer

Whenever I'm at a table where one of my opponents has a huge stack which dwarfs the stacks of everyone else at the table, I have the hardest time believing his bets are not bluffs. Last night, I hit the rail as the money bubble approached, directly as a result of this disbelief. The thing is, often enough the bets are bluffs, so I don't reproach myself for my failure to believe :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE   174000  26000       6      61   18    23        0

delta: $-200,000
MTT NLHE balance: $39,450,768
2021 balance: $13,979,000
blue distance: $200,000
balance: $91,644,453

Not a believer

Last night, I made it to station 2.125 again, but no further. The reason? I just wasn't a believer. Specifically, I didn't believe that a big stack who had been bullying the table had hit top pair on a flop where I'd hit middle pair. The top card of the flop was a king, and the middle card was a queen. I had a pair of queens and thought it unlikely that he had a king. I was wrong, but glad that I had the gumption to go with my read :-)

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE   174000  26000       6      73   21    30        0

delta: $-200,000
MTT NLHE balance: $33,429,768
2021 balance: $10,008,000
blue distance: $979,000
balance: $87,673,453

Not a believer

One of the hardest hands to credit is a flopped flush. You know they happen, but you also know they happen very rarely. Last night, one of my opponents flopped a flush, but I was not a believer. I'd flopped a stealth two pair, and my opponent bet small enough to keep me in the hand all the way to the river and to showdown. I didn't hit the rail on that hand, but my stack took a huge hit, dropping me down to Caboose Boy. I lasted one more orbit, and that was all she wrote.

style flavor buy_in  entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE   174000  26000       6      68   18    47        0

delta: $-200,000
MTT NLHE balance: $27,972,768
2021 balance: $4,601,000
blue distance: $400,000
balance: $82,266,453