Last night I played the EPT No Limit Hold’em tournament at PiNZ in Milford, MA.
I was out in less than an hour and that was with a 20 minute dinner break! Technically, I was out in a little over 30 minutes of play because I was busted in the last hand at $200/$400. What a donk!
I hadn’t been getting any cards, and in my last hand, I got a Pr Js.
I was the dealer. A few players limped in. The player in the cutoff bet $1200. I called, one other called, and another folded. The flop came 10 9 8 with two diamonds. Everyone checked and the cutoff bet $2400. I called because now I had an up-and-down straight draw in addition to Jacks. (Still solid play, I think.) Everyone else folded, so, it was down to the cutoff and me. The Turn was a blank. The cutoff bet $2400 and I called. (Questionable call. I probably should have bailed then since I knew the cutoff had Aces, and that put me on a straight draw only since I didn’t have any diamonds.) The River was a blank. The cutoff put me all in.
There was the broken straight and three diamonds on the board, and I still had Pr Js in my hand. Definitely time to FOLD!
I had invested $6K in the hand and had $2800 behind. Blinds were going to $300/$600 on the next hand. If I folded, I would have had a little over 4.5 x the Big Blind. I felt defeated. I wasn’t getting any cards and I was thinking that it was a real possibility that I was going to be blinded out of the tournament given the cards I had been getting and the skill of the players at the table. I hate that throbbing feeling of dread and sense of urgency that getting blinded out brings.
So, I made a choice based on my defeatist attitude. Better to cut my losses, get home early, and most of all have my “read” of the cutoff validated by forcing him to show his cards. I KNEW from the start that he had Aces. One thought I had was that I wouldn’t know for sure if my read on him was good unless I called. This morning, I’m thinking, so, why didn’t you even ask if he would show? Didn’t enter my mind last night. Also, had I given it more thought, he probably would have showed, one because he had Aces, but, two because I’m new to the group and I’ve seen other regulars show their cards to let other newbies know that they made a good lay down.
Had I folded on the Turn, I would have had $5200 in chips – a little over 8 x the Big Blind. Had I folded the Pr Js pre-flop, I would have had $8800 in chips – 14.5 x the Big Blind.
So what did I come away with?
- Follow your gut instinct (and don’t play it down just to prove your read is right). Trust yourself.
- Practice letting go.
- Keep fighting (and don’t take a defeatist attitude. You’ve come back from being way down in chips before.)
- I’ve got a good read on the cutoff and will use that when we meet again.