Stubbornness

Stubbornness in poker is a double-edged sword. If you don't have enough, opponents will scare you off hands too easily. If you have too much, you'll end up losing massive amounts of chips. Last night, I had too much. The thing was, all the times I stubbornly stayed in the hands, I knew in my heart I was beaten. I'm not sure what the name for such behavior is. Masochism comes to mind :-)

I hit the felt at the first table I joined after 45 hands. I reupped for the max at the same table, and went up almost $10K in 25 hands before quitting in disgust at the extremely slow play of one of my opponents. I joined another table for the max, and hit the felt again after 27 more hands. Not a good showing by a long shot. I'm definitely in a slump right now, but know that I'll break out of it eventually.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 97 hands and saw flop:
- 22 out of 23 times while in big blind (95%)
- 23 out of 25 times while in small blind (92%)
- 37 out of 49 times in other positions (75%)
- a total of 82 out of 97 (84%)
Pots won at showdown - 13 of 30 (43%)
Pots won without showdown - 15

delta: $-70,375
balance: $1,781,812

Stubbornness

Last Thursday's session was a winning one for one reason and one reason only -- I was too stubborn to lay down pocket queens. I had no real business staying in the hand, but I stayed in anyway, and won with them. That hand gave me lift; I drifted slowly down from that point on, but called it a night before I came back too far.

Here's how the hand played out:

my chip stack at the start of the hand: $38,000

my hole cards: Qh Qd

pre flop betting round:

I raised the big blind of $200 by $200
an opponent reraised me $1300
a third player and I called

flop: Jd 4h 6s

flop betting round:

I checked; the reraiser from the previous betting round bet $1,000. The third player folded, and I called.

turn: 7c

turn betting round:

I checked, and the reraiser from the first betting round bet $5,000. I called.

river: 5s

river betting round:

I bet $10,000, and the reraiser raised me $668 to go all in. I called.

The reraiser showed Tc Ad, for a high card ace. I showed my pair of queens, and won a pot worth $38,936.

my chip stack at the end of the hand: $58,568

I stayed in the hand for two reasons: 1. my queens were overcards to the board 2. the board never paired. My $10,000 bet was basically a semi-bluff. At the time I made it, I wasn't thinking in terms of how many chips the reraiser then had, but probably would have made the same bet in any case.

It makes no sense to me why the reraiser went all in when he did, on an ace high; he must have been on tilt, though I hadn't detected it. Be that as it may, I was happy to take his chips!

delta: $12,468
balance: $712,179