Quote:
Originally Posted by wynner88888
I cannot believe what I just did..
$109 Winter Series deep stakes event on Pokerstars, just gotten into the money (300ish left). I have just under 1,000,000 chips, having played solidly and won a couple of coin flips. I haven’t been playing well lately but today I really knuckled down and felt as though I was playing solidly. Then I did this:
It folds around to the button, who raises to about 38000 (BB is 16000). I’m holding A2os.... I thought to myself when the cards were dealt that I’m folding this hand under any circumstances. But then I impulsively shove. Button is holding AQ and I’m out. I’m absolutely gobsmacked that I played solidly right up until just after the bubble, then for some reason I decide to risk and lose my tournament life with A2os.
I just needed to vent my frustration. I want to take the positive from this, which is that there has been a significant improvement in my game today than in recent weeks or months. I would also say that I’ve learned not to risk my tournament life with a weak hand, regardless of circumstances and especially when I’m deep stacked. But that’s so obvious anyway.
All I can think is that I subconsciously loosened up because I cashed. It’s not the first time I’ve made a mistake like this soon after cashing, but this certainly hurt the most because of my stack size, the fact it was a slow speed tournament, the fact I was really enjoying it and had a great chance to make some good money.
I don’t know what more to say. I’m very upset with myself.
I look at every tournament as a learning experience.
So first I deal with the pain. Shouting 4 letter words in my car with the windows rolled up usually does the trick. Experiments have shown that pain is reduced when cursing.
What I have realized over time is that when I say stuff out loud like "I can't believe I'm behind now" that I have to actually listen to my instincts. And act on them. When you thought to yourself that you should fold A2o in the BB to a raise from any position, then listen to yourself. It may not be the right play always but trust your subconscious that you will misplay that hand enough to make folding worth it.
Also, make a mental note that HU 3-bet shoving anything more than 25 blinds to a raise is likely risking too much for too little gain with any hand. And with AA you stand to gain too little for such a big opportunity. With 60+ blinds it just makes no sense. I have heard some expert announcers recently justify 3-bet shoving up to 35 blinds as +EV but unless you suck at post flop poker, I think it is silly.
I just punted a small tourney when I was tired because I acted too quickly. I'm trying to learn from that. But it is a slow process because when I am really tired I do make bad choices. So I am also working on not playing when I'm really tired...