Learning All The Wrong Lessons

[Al Mirpuri]

I have just finished 8th out of 81 players in a small no rebuy no limit hold'em tournament. The tournament is inconsequential and I played it after my cash game session had ended because I needed to kill some time and perversely because the site adds money to the prize pool there is value in it but in terms of money it is not going to get you rich if you win it.

Anyway, I played a near perfect tournament. I have won numerous tournaments and placed and all that but I think I made no mistakes in this one. The only play that could be thought of as a mistake is that on the very first hand after a player had limped I put all T1500 in the middle with Ace Queen offsuit, a pair of Fours called allin and so did the limper with King Ten offsuit. The flop missed us two drawing hands, the turn hit the King and the river hit my Ace. After that first hand, I decide I do not need to play another for a long time as I had an M of 151. I win another key hand much later when the small blind raises first in and I go allin with Ace Ten in the big blind he calls with Ace Two and my hand holds up.

Anyway, the reason for posting is this: I folded three dominated hands and all three would have won. The hand that I got knocked out on was King King which I raised allin on the final table with two limprs in the pot a player reraised allin and we got heads up, he had Ten Nine suited (!) and hit two pair (one on the flop and one - I saw it coming just like TJ saw that nine - on the turn). Three dominated hands would have won and a dominating hand lost. It is easy to see how beginning players learn bad habits and weak-minded regulars justify their bad plays.

Why play well when playing badly gets the money? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]