We don\’t necessarily talk much strategy here at Pokerati, but I\’m gonna make an effort to occasionally chronicle my own errors at the table with the goal of not repeating them (often). I had a pretty good session of Pokerati 1/2 (no-limit hold\’em/PLO round of each) at the Hard Rock. In for $400, I had made a nice come back from about $80, rebuilding my stack to about $800+change — thanks to Katikin-on-tilt — when I got 6d 8c 9c Jd in the small blind. With about four limpers I threw in the buck.
The flop: 6-7-10 rainbow.
I tossed in $6 … had to build something. The cut-off, a solid player and the other big stack at the table with about $700, also mostly from @JaKatkin, called.
I know better than to bet the non-nuts in Omaha … and my instincts were screaming, \”That Ace is not a bad card for him!\” But I convinced myself it might also have given him something like A-10, which he likely wouldn\’t bet, but might call with.
The turn came another 7, to put two hearts on the now-paired board. He bets $20. I pot it for $82. Alarm bells go off for my opponent but he calls. I start thinking about the boats he might have. Not pocket 10s. 6-7 was a possibility, but I think he woulda raised me on the flop. Pocket 6s was a threat, but not a big one, because I had one. 7-10 was scarier, but same thing … I think he woulda popped me on the flop with either of those hands.
I\’m new to this whole reading Omaha hands thing, but most likely he had a flush draw and/or a pair and a gutshot. Maybe trips. Something like A-6-7-8, with the Ace-x of hearts. A-10-J-x with a bunch of other big cards also occurred to me, but then he folds.
It also occurs to me: I hope I wasn\’t being a bad grandson by leaving my 80-year-old grandmother at the airport by not leaving the game immediately when I learned she was still there after two canceled flights and possibly needed me pick her up and bring her back to my house for the night.
(Fortunately another young man from Texas was there and had been taking care of her all day after seeing her wander aimlessly near the gates, took her to dinner, called my parents and eventually got her on a midnight flight).
Knowing she was safe and that I didn\’t have to leave after this hand no matter what, but also that I might be due for a slight bit of bad-grandson karmic recourse, I\’m thinking: \”No Ace, no heart, no middley cards for a higher striaght!\”
The River: Ac.
I know better than to bet the non-nuts in Omaha … and my instincts were screaming, \”That Ace is not a bad card for him!\” But I convinced myself it might also have given him something like like A-10, which he likely wouldn\’t bet, but might call with.
So I cavalierly throw in a $100 bill. Before it hits the felt I\’m thinking: please no 7-10, please no 7-10!
My opponent insta-calls. Sure enough, he says, \”7s full of Aces\” and scoops a healthy pot.
I\’m not sure betting there was wrong, but not trusting my instincts was. And even if the right play upon trusting my read was to bet, I bet too much. I think something told me to bet defensively, and that\’s part of what was behind the $100 bill. I didn\’t wanna bet pot, because I couldn\’t afford a re-pot if he just happened to think I was bluffing. And if I checked could I fold to a much larger pot-size bet?
But with all that said, then the right bet there would been more like a thoughtful $50 bet. The smallness would scare him into just calling with a non-nutty boat. And if he pots it from there, I can fold. Right? Or maybe not. Maybe a confident $100 was the right thing to do because the same logic applies if he goes pot, but it stillgives me a chance that he\’ll put me on something like 10-10, 10-7, or A-7 and fold a baby boat with 6-6 or 6-7.
I was upset because I felt that the river mighta given him a better hand, and yet I still tossed in a bill with little thought. So after doing what I thought was a mistake that visibly cost me, even if it wasn\’t, and the game started to break, I didn\’t fight to keep it going. I had gotten all these chips from Katkin, after all, by getting my money in when I wasn\’t sure I was ahead, only to learn multiple times that I was, even after running turns and rivers twice.
Bottom line is I wasn\’t sure how to stay in control of the hand, and I didn\’t feel comfortable about my stack, nor my ability to protect it + I had a little grandma guilt, even though she was now safely en route from LAS->DFW, thanks to a nice young man from Flower Mound who wasn\’t her grandson playing poker just down the street. So it was probably time to go. Book a win, write off the leak, and maybe play again tomorrow.
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