What Can I Say?

Dear Readers,

What can I say?  I’ve been running good and winning more than my fair share lately.  Since this blog is supposed to be about poker playing mistakes, there is less material.

Maybe I’ve learned from my mistakes and/or from blogging about them.  That would be nice!

Maybe I’m just on a short-lived run of good fortune.  A few nights ago I called an all-in bet on the flop by the same guy twice when he had a short stack.  I could afford to call; losing wouldn’t hurt me too much.  (Still, it would hurt.)  The first time I had flopped a flush draw against his top pair, and hit my flush on the turn.  The second time, he had flopped a flush draw again my top pair, and he missed.  In a $1 / $1 no limit game, these two pots totaled approx. $175, roughly equal to my winnings for the night.

Not complaining, just can’t analyze or vent about making a poor play.

Similarly with online poker.  A few mistakes here and there, mostly from being overly aggressive in some spots on Bovada’s Zone Poker 6-max tables, but more often than not, the aggression has paid off.  Overall results too good to blog about.

OK, how about this?  I did get into a bad mental state during a live private tournament last Sunday.  This is a league with the same 24 players each month, with funds being escrowed to send someone with the most points to next year’s WSOP.  Two of the players at my table – on the far end from me – were sitting next to each other and several times one would flash his cards to the other just prior to folding (always when the 2nd player was already out of the hand).  It’s bad etiquette, and the general rule is that if you show your cards to one player, you must show everybody so no one gets an informational advantage.

More than once, I asked to see the mucked cards that had been flashed.  It got under my skin and affected my play.  Tilting at the poker table is never good, and this time was no exception.  On one hand, both guys announced “fold” then both flashed the cards to the other and simultaneously mucked.  I said something, and (thinking the hand was over) reached across and flipped over one of their hands… and THEN realized there was still a player who had not acted yet.  It was horribly embarrassing – I pride myself on knowing and maintaining proper etiquette at the poker table as well as paying basic attention to what is going on.

Not long after, I played a hand very poorly (pre-flop limp, flop attempt to steal) that left me somewhat short-stacked.  And not long after that, I shoved with AT off-suit, one of the card flashers with an even shorter stack called me with QJ suited and hit one of his cards to win the pot, doubling up through me.  Boy was I pissed!

Nothing went right after that either, but the lingering takeaway was losing my concentration on the game itself and getting caught up in the game-within-a-game.