Patience, young one

A lot of hot-headed young players (myself included) have a lot of trouble being patient at the table. They want to get into as many pots as possible with each other and tangle with other players hands. Often this will result with people playing marginal hands in unfavourable positions.

Yesterday at Terry's homegame I decided to take it upon myself to be as patient and smart with my chips as I could, and play a squeaky tight game (which goes against my general loose-aggressive image). I'll admit it was made easier by the poor quality of my cards, but I did find myself folding mediocre hands that I might often play aggressively in late such as QTs, JTs, A9s, and pockets below 7. I ended up being simply blinded down about 750 chips after around an hour's play.

However, the thing about patience in tournaments is that after all that is said and done, one hand can ruin everything if you decide you don't "feel" like playing patiently anymore.

After doubling up with a well-timed two-pair with A3os on my BB, I found myself looking at two 4s in the small blind. Terry's son was at the end of the table and raised the pot to 800, which was 600 over the blinds. I decided to make the call out of position because I felt that Terry's son (being a tad new to the game and known for his penchant for chasing straights and flushes) could be outmanoeuvred postflop by a more experienced player such as myself.

The board brought a 2, a 6 and a K. Noting my opponent didn't immediately look at my stack but rather focused on the board, I had put him on either a pair less than Kings or a large Ace such as a Jack or Queen that missed the board.

What happened next made all my patient play come to naught. Thinking that he would call any draw with whatever small amount I would bet, I figured the only way to play him off his hand would be to go all-in, which was 3325 into a pot of roughly 1800. It's a risk I often take when I sense a player is weak or hesitant, a massive overbet of the pot to simply take it there and then because they do not want to be out of the tournament and they cannot take the risk.

So I made the move and after thinking for maybe 20 seconds he made the call with his pocket 7s which were of course good enough to win him the massive pot.

The point I'm trying to make is that the stupid impatient move that I made at this point was enough to knock me out of the tournament and into my car berating myself that I'd made such a retarded move. When you play patient and tight, don't let boredom, frustration, or any kind of goading let you get more involved in a pot than you really should be. I originally called with my 4s thinking that if I made a set I would be able to double up. But after I missed my 4, and the board brought two overcards (one of which I wasn't worried about unless my opponent had 2 of the same in his hand) my original tight plan went out the window and in a moment of recklessness I lost all my chips and was sent to the rail.

Don't be a noob like Stylez, stay cool as a cucumber at the table and watch the pennies roll in.

Anyway, I'm off to play poker with this hot bitch:

STYLEZ OUT
PEACE