You may have noticed a few new faces hanging around these parts … We\’ll be telling you more about our most recent friend-adds as soon as their criminal background checks come in clear. Donkey Bomber is, of course, Tom Schneider (high-stakes pro, PI-06 champion, WSOP final tableist, yadda yadda). For now, the story is that he lost a huge bet to me and was supposed to become my butler … but we renegotiated, and he\’s becoming a blogger instead. And though he\’s not yet aware of this responsibility, he is being charged with making me (and you) a better poker player.
Recently, Tom and I have been talking a lot about identifying the right time to leave a game. His \”winning wisdom\” rang true a couple weeks ago at the Batface homegame when I was up $100 at 12:30 when half the table (and more than two-thirds of the chips in play) were going home to their wives … only to finish down about $400 a few hours later. Also had to suffer the indignity of TBR telling me \”I\’m going to take all your chips\” and succeeding.
Anyhow, the concept of identifying this \”feeling\” — and then acting on it — is starting to sink in. Here\’s my report I sent Tom via email a few days ago after a less-than-dramatic bustout at one of my favorite local card rooms:
So I took note today … I was in a 2/5 game for $500. my stacks had dwindled below $300 when I first got the feeling that maybe I should leave. It wasn’t clear, but I took note that I was at least assessing the question. But I stayed … and it’s hard to tell you about a bad beat when I called a pre-flop raise of $20 with 48s … but anyhow, I got it all-in on the flop, and upon realizing I was ahead I did everything I could to look weak … I succeeded in getting him to call, and lo and behold he caught his 13-outer on the river.
Mathematically, over time, I played the specific hand and situation right. But on a more macro scale, it cost me $300 to set me up for the future.