Do Over

You know those times when you just aren't making the right decisions and you try to over correct and just make things worse? After you do something, or in may case multiple somethings, you're like "I didn't mean that, can I get a do over?" Isn't that a Mulligan in golf? Well that was me Friday night at Kaj's home game.

We started the first game with 14 and I was able to hang in to the final four with nothing spectacular to report. With the top 3 paying (170, 80, 30), I proposed a 4 way equal chop (70 each) so we can get to the next game since none of us had much left compared to the blinds. Kaj, the chip leader, negotiated it to 100, 60, 60, 60 and we agreed. This worked out well for the married couple that was left with Kaj and me. Even if they took 2 and 3rd, they wouldn't cash as much do to the original payout structure. I was third in chips, so I was still getting double if I maintained my spot and better than getting busted.

The second game started out with 12 of us all sitting at the same table. We adjusted the blinds in the second game to reduce the luck/shovefest that the 1 game became when we reached 6 handed. Even with the lower structure, the action got lively in a hurry. We lost Bobby, our great host first. I've been there and man does that ever suck.

OK, on to my downfall. We are down to 11 (that's funny to say with one table playing) and it's level 1 with 25/50 on the blinds and I think I still have about 2300 of my 2400 starting in front of me. I have A,K off suit UTG, and in the interest of trying new things, I limp. Everyone follows until the 8 seat raises to 300, button folds, small blind calls and big blind folds. I see alot of potential out there and try to represent a really good hand with the old limp reraise. I now make it 1000. This convinces all of the limpers to fold, but the initial raiser and caller come along. OK, I've really got to hit this flop or else I gotta believe I'm behind, even though these are both loose players one has to have a pair. It comes something like 6,6,4 and the small blind goes all-in. I make a huge mistake and fold immediately. I didn't take any time thinking about this decision. As soon as I heard "all-in", I mucked and didn't hang around long enough to realize that was only 450. This was not smart on my part. I thought he had me covered and I was also too worried / busy thinking that the 8s was going to push no matter what and she would show a high pair to beat us both. Obviously, with the small bet, she calls the SB's push and he shows K,Q suited and she flips over A,X with none matching the board. I groan out loud and everyone starts asking me what I folded. Most of the table put me on Queens or better and had already expressed shock when I insta-folded. I told them it wasn't near that good, but I still had these two beat by a mile, especially since the SB was crushed. Well the board double paired and it turns out I would have had to split, but it still would have been a nice pot. Nice read there Brian. I've to to get better at not playing different crowds the same way. This game has a little different style of players than the ones in my neighborhood.

The next hand I get A,Q suited in the big blind and come over the top of 1 raiser for all of my chips because I'm still on "bad read tilt." You know nothing cures "bad read tilt" quite like a double dose. I thought Lee was just picking on me because he knew my head was still stuck in the last hand. That was not the case and he knocked me out with his pocket Queens. 2 hands, too many errors and I hopped on my motorcycle and head back to the house.

This is where my reliance on the displays in online poker is hurting my live game. If I had seen the betting amounts and pot in dollars and the chip stacks easily displayed, I would have played it different preflop. I had plenty of chips left and could have just called and seen a flop and then bailed. I just felt that since my chip stack was half of the starting amount, I was in desperate mode. That and I didn't want to look like a wuss again. Yeah, that's a GREAT reason. In reality, I still had plenty of chips left and a better knowledge of some of my opponents at the table. That's OK, as long as I'm invited back, I'll try it again next month. The good news is I still walked away up a Jackson for the night.