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#1
04-27-2007, 10:05 PM
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playing without fear
Live $1/2NL game at Showboat casino.
Summary of first hand against villain: I flop a set, play the hand sub-optimally, and lose to 42o which makes a straight. I rebuy for $200 and buckle down. About an hour and a half later, I have A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] T [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] and raise PF and get 4 callers, including villain from first hand. The flop has 2 spades and I bet, getting everyone except villain to fold – he calls. Turn is an offsuit jack. I bet again, he calls again. The river is another spade, but it pairs the board. I bet again, he shoves. I think for a while, wondering if he has a boat. I couldn’t stand to give another $200+ to this guy. I finally call and he flips K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] and I rake the pot, stacking him. The moral of the story is you can’t play scared poker. Whether you’re playing above your bankroll with scared money, or simply afraid of putting it all in with the 3rd or 4th nuts. I almost folded the nut flush because I was half convinced that this maniac was playing garbage that connected in a big way. Don’t play scared. 
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#4
04-28-2007, 10:49 AM
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Re: playing without fear
Concur with you OP. Getting stacked in NLHE is just part of the game and happens to everyone at some point. Sometimes numerous times in a session even if you are a good player. Losing your stack does suck but it is part of the game in NLHE.
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#5
04-29-2007, 07:54 AM
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Re: playing without fear
[ QUOTE ]
The flop has 2 spades and I bet, getting everyone except villain to fold – he calls. Turn is an offsuit jack. I bet again, he calls again. The river is another spade, but it pairs the board. I bet again, he shoves. I think for a while, wondering if he has a boat. I couldn’t stand to give another $200+ to this guy. I finally call and he flips K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] and I rake the pot, stacking him. The moral of the story is you can’t play scared poker. Whether you’re playing above your bankroll with scared money, or simply afraid of putting it all in with the 3rd or 4th nuts. I almost folded the nut flush because I was half convinced that this maniac was playing garbage that connected in a big way. Don’t play scared. [/ QUOTE ] I have no problems with being scared. Fear can be part of a healthy response to stress. Let your fear stop you from playing a lot of big pots with Phil Ivey. Let your fear stop you from playing weak hands in early position. Counter a fear of paying off a better hand with a rational fear of losing a huge pot you could have had for a small investment. Counter a fear of playing for higher stakes with a rational fear of missing the boat and getting stuck at too low a level while the poker boom ends. The problem I see is not that you were scared. It was that you weren't thinking about the right things, at least from your description. For your opponent to fill up on the river, he would have to have a set or two pair on the turn, and probably on the flop. How likely was that, given that he just called twice? It's ok to be scared, but you can't let that stop you from seeing that his line looks a like more like a bluff, trips, or a lower flush draw than a full house. Other lines might make you worry about a boat, perhaps enough to fold the nut flush, but not this one. Bankroll considerations are not nearly as common as many people suggest. While bankroll management is a real issue, in hand discussions it is usually just an excuse people suggest or use for playing badly.
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#7
04-29-2007, 11:31 AM
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Re: playing without fear
[ QUOTE ]
pzhon, why do you think the poker boom is ending? [/ QUOTE ] If it's a boom, doesn't it have to end sometime? Maybe we should call it the poker expansion.
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#8
04-30-2007, 12:36 AM
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Re: playing without fear
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] The flop has 2 spades and I bet, getting everyone except villain to fold – he calls. Turn is an offsuit jack. I bet again, he calls again. The river is another spade, but it pairs the board. I bet again, he shoves. I think for a while, wondering if he has a boat. I couldn’t stand to give another $200+ to this guy. I finally call and he flips K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] and I rake the pot, stacking him. The moral of the story is you can’t play scared poker. Whether you’re playing above your bankroll with scared money, or simply afraid of putting it all in with the 3rd or 4th nuts. I almost folded the nut flush because I was half convinced that this maniac was playing garbage that connected in a big way. Don’t play scared. [/ QUOTE ] I have no problems with being scared. Fear can be part of a healthy response to stress. Let your fear stop you from playing a lot of big pots with Phil Ivey. Let your fear stop you from playing weak hands in early position. Counter a fear of paying off a better hand with a rational fear of losing a huge pot you could have had for a small investment. Counter a fear of playing for higher stakes with a rational fear of missing the boat and getting stuck at too low a level while the poker boom ends. The problem I see is not that you were scared. It was that you weren't thinking about the right things, at least from your description. For your opponent to fill up on the river, he would have to have a set or two pair on the turn, and probably on the flop. How likely was that, given that he just called twice? It's ok to be scared, but you can't let that stop you from seeing that his line looks a like more like a bluff, trips, or a lower flush draw than a full house. Other lines might make you worry about a boat, perhaps enough to fold the nut flush, but not this one. Bankroll considerations are not nearly as common as many people suggest. While bankroll management is a real issue, in hand discussions it is usually just an excuse people suggest or use for playing badly. [/ QUOTE ] But doesn't fear just cloud judgment? Why need fear to not play Phil Ivey, isn't it enough to simply understand that you don't have an edge over him? As for a boat being an unlikely part of villain's range, it's very possible that the villain slow played the flop, and was afraid of the flush on the turn to shove and just called hoping for the board to pair. Sure, it's not very likely, but also him shoving K-high flush won't happen all the time either. PS, I think the flop bet is a spew.
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#10
05-01-2007, 03:13 PM
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Re: playing without fear
Hey guys, thanks for the responses. This was my first post in this forum. You all seem like a friendly bunch.
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