The second and, unfortunately, final installment of my 2012 WSOP trip report is now appearing in the September issue of 2+2 Magazine. As you might guess from the fact that this is the final installment, frustration is the guest star of this report:
“The frustrations with which I still struggle the most are my own mistakes. When I play a hand badly, I feel responsible for the misfortune that befalls me. Of course in some sense I am, but I also wonder, aren’t mistakes, like bad beats, an inevitable part of the game? Who can play high-level poker perfectly for days and days on end? I aspire to accept that mistakes happen just like every other kind of bad luck and are in some sense beyond my control. I’d like to accept them with the same equanimity that I now shrug off bad beats and continue to play my best going forwards.”
What’s your biggest poker-related frustration? Please leave a comment to let me know what you think!
Mine are petty, but you asked….
First was at a game with 20 or so – a tourney with 30 minutes of NLHE and 30 minutes of Omaha hi/lo rotating. During the NLHE stints, my stack would grow. During the Omaha they’d shrink. I VOWED that the next Omaha cycle I would simply fold. Ummmm, yeah. Down to last table, 5 left, paid 3. Did a good job of skipping until the last Omaha hand. Misplayed it horribly and went from a healthy stack to low stack. No moneying didn’t bother me, it was the foolish play in a game I KNEW I was playing badly in….
Second was my first game (well, only game as of yet) in Vegas. NLHE tourney at the Luxor. Thirty or so playing, and I did pretty well. Made final table with a decent stack, then decided to play as if I had never played before, including a play out of turn that announced I had crapola followed by CALLING the bet by the player who recognized my bad play. Busted out just outside of the money – but again the frustration was not the “dang – no cash today” but the outrageously foolish play.
Grrrr^2
Andrew,
Forgive the self-indulgence that follows.
Long ago, I was fortunate to be accepted in the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power Officer Program. It’s a small, exclusive community made up of very bright folks. Yet the greatest lesson I learned in my Navy experience was that people make mistakes. Even very smart, very well trained people make mistakes. It cannot be avoided. What matters is how you deal with those mistakes. It doesn’t always apply, but I find it helpful to view mistakes as a learning opportunity. This gives you a “positive” aspect to any mistakes you make, enabling you to attempt to avoid the tilting aspect of mistakes.
Thanks for another great trip report. Here’s to longer reports in the future.
“The frustrations with which I still struggle the most are my own mistakes.”
Who is I? or what is I?
IS your existing “I” is just silly and illusory construct of your human brain?.
Or is I just core thought about identity, censorship, elimination, quilt,ownership?
Is this the same I which indulges in fantasies and imagines itself
making decision ,dominating and controlling life?
Is your I before WSOP == I now?
Is Andrew Brokos before WSOP is the same Andrew Brokos now?
Or maybe I is just illusory self which wants to continue day by day pleasantly.
Therefore it is always engaged in ensuring one’s continuity.
LOL.
Maybe reality is more simple and trivial.
There is nobody who lives a life.
DEVILS Advocate.
In KQ7 hand
I get why re-raising to 31 might not be the best play but I don’t get why if you thought Villain was bluffing you didn’t call his shove? I mean KQ isn’t a bluff, and you are only crushed by J10s and you still have 33%. I am not saying I would be happy about flipping in this spot but with half your stack in the pot already. Just maybe you didn’t trust your intuition enough?
I thought he was bluffing with the initial check-raise. When he snap 4-bet shoved he changed my mind.
I think the book is worth a read.
http://books.google.ca/books/about/Streetlights_and_Shadows.html?id=9LpipUSwdqwC&redir_esc=y
Streetlights and Shadows: Searching for the Keys to Adaptive Decision Making
It actually suggest the best way to use Intuition is to accept it(trust your read) and then do a mental simulation of your “possible” action in your mind. If your action still feels right then do it. I guess the idea is that the standard action based on what you see may or may not be appropriate.
Anyways it is awfully alot like what you describe which is why I suggested the book.
Poker can be frustrating. That feeling definitely makes the good times seem great and the bad times seem horrible. For me, the most frustrating part of poker is the short-term variance at the tables, especially in tournaments. Getting it in good and losing stinks, but you can always be happy that you took your shot and you can always learn from it. All the best, man. Keep on the grind!
“I decided to pick a mark and try to take some chips off of him. My chosen victim was a Hispanic man in his early 30s who was sitting two seats to my right and seemed a little intimidated and amateurish.”
With this mindset it’s no surprise that your gut instinct in the KQ7 hand wasn’t reliable and perceived his check-raise as a revenge attack rather than a play based on strong cards.
I am not sure there is any strong correlation between conscious mindset and gut instinct.
I play NLHU 5 years at least -midlestakes.
I open 100% button most of the time.
I do not use HUD.I do not make opponent profiling,board analysis,etc.I do not enjoy NL holdem HU poker.
I am fu bored most of the time.I do this only for $$$.
In difficult spots I feel discomfort and in response to this “bad” feeling I click button which make me the most comfortable.
Latelly I started playing 6 max PLO exclusively because I enjoy this game.I lost a lot of money playing this game because of my gut instinct.
My hole(range) reading skills are OK.But my gut instinct fails me to read the table situation -dynamics and reactions of my opponents.
Because of this failure I started relying exclusively on my conscious logic(bet sizing,board,spr,profile analysis,hud,ev calculus,etc) with OK results.
Sorry, thought this was funny: “I open 100% button most of the time.”
By opening button I meant entering a pot first with a raise rather than a call.