Here is How you Lose Money..

Hello Again Everybody,


Well I played a short ( relatively ) session of $10-20 last night at Mohegan where I succeeded in butchering just about every hand possible. Needless to say I was a bit pissed with myself after. ( Actually I was playing very well till I went on mini-tilt for a short time when I was dealt pocket Aces two hands in a row and lost with both of them to the same fish who admittingly and willfully played every hand ) Anywhoo.. Here is but one example of How to Lose Money. It is a hand where at the time I thought I played fine, but after careful analysis of it, it was horribly played in just about EVERY way. Your homework assignment boys and girls... is to figure out just how MANY mistakes were made and to discuss them thourougly.


I am in 5 seat with (10c10d)Ad and just call after forced low to my immediate right brings it in for $3.


All fold to halfway decent asian player ( although when he's in he rarely folds ) with 7c showing who completes bet to $10. All fold ( including an Ah by a good player ) to a good/aggressive opponent in the 4 seat with Qs showing who makes it $20. Bring in folds and action to me and I make it $30. Asian player calls and Qs caps it at $40. I call.


4th

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Myself and Asian player catch rag and Qs catches the 10s. I am still high and bet $10. Asian player calls, Qs10s raises to $20, I re-raise to $30 Asian player calls. Qs10s caps it at $40 and both of us call.


5th

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Everyone catches rags. I am still high and bet $20. Both call.


6th

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Everyone catches rags. I am still high and bet $20. Both call.


River

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I catch a rag again. Still bet $20. Asian player calls. Good player mucks. Asian player turns over Jacks and Sevens and takes pot down.


Well there you have it. A very good example of how to lose money. I will let all of you flame away for a while. Then I will give you my thoughts ( or excuses at the time ) of the hand and I will list what I think are the many,many mistakes in the hand. I was very fortunate to only be stuck $340 last night as I certainly 'Didn't have it'!


CJ

You're right. You did play this hand poorly. It's a good example of how error in stud can compound. We warn about this in SCSFAP. I'll let others elaborate as to the specifics of the errors. But I will discuss the first one.


After limping for $3 (which is debatable) I don't think you should play after it gets raised and rereaised. It is very unlikely that you have the best hand, your ace is dead, and I'm assuming a $1 ante which makes for a small starting pot.

1. why call on third street? your hand is not a slowplay hand and with a dead ace you are pretty weak. you should probably raise here.


2. once the pot is raised and reraised you should definitely fold.


3.once another ten is shown you should be dropping. check and fold on fourth street. there is almost no chance that you have the best hand.presumably you are semibluffing on fourth but it is against players who will not fold. similar commenst apply for the later streets.


Pat

I agree this was not the spot to push -- probably should have raised hand up front, called a raise

(if it came) from the queen and check folded fourth if no improvement. Not very dynamic play, but if the Asian guy won't fold you can't semi-bluff -- and with an ace and a ten dead you are drawing slim. I think one of the keys to playing aggressively is being willing to fold fast when it doesn't work out. It helps me to remember the goal is to win the most money, not the most hands.

As commented on above, this hand was played terribly on all streets. Least bad play was 7th street, where a bet *may* have won the pot if neither other player made two pair. But, I see no reason not to raise coming in, and no reason to call once the pot is double raised.


When the 10 hits, I see no reason to keep playing. Maybe I might take off another $10 card, but that's it, unless I make a king kicker.


I see no logic behind your play here.

Hello Again,


I am surprised that there haven't been more flames sent my way on this one /images/smile.gif


Anywhoo.


As we can see, this hand was a disaster from start to finish. It was played foolishly right from the start. Let us examine from the top.


3rd

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I should have raised right from the top here. Under normal circumstances I would have. I really don't know what I was thinking, except to say 'at the time' I was waiting to see what the other Ace was doing. Again..Poor Poker.


When it was 2 bets back to me.. I should have folded. I was in a tightly structured game ( yes it was $1 ante Mason ) and clearly behind. But I didn't so I decided to re-raise to get heads-up. ( thinking at the time. erronious thinking also.. ) Again re-raising was a mistake cause the asian player wasn't going to drop. He played decent starting hands but when he was in.. well he was in.


4th

----


This is the part of the hand where I swear I must have been on something ( or not..see end of post ) I should have been bye-bye-birdie right here. Not only did the good player catch my card.. He caught my card that was suited to his door. So IF he didn't re-raise with a higher pair, he certainly re-raised with top Flush draw giving him something like AKQ10s. Which I am a dog against considering my cards are really dead now.


Now assuming that for some reason it would be correct for me to stay in the hand ( which it wasn't )... I STILL played it horribly. I then should have check-raised forcing asian player to call 2 cold. But what does brain-dead me do.. I lead out. Again.. bad judgement..


5th

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One thing I didn't mention in the original post was that both myself and asian player caught a Queen on this street. Well my bet on this street might have 'POSSIBLY' been the only good one of this enire hand given all I have represented earlier. I should probably have checked however.


6th

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Easy. I should have checked and taken free card. It would have been checked around..


River

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Probably the second worst disaster of this entire hand was my bet on the river. Someone who responded above thought this was my best bet in this hand, I have to respectfully disagree. Problem is.. that there is NO WAY both would have folded here. If Asian player folds, good player will call. Problem really is, Asian player would have called with only one pair anyway.. Pot was too big. So again, this was another twenty bucks that I flushed away. ( By the way.. Good player had pocket Kings )


Now that today is a new day, and I am over this mess. I am amused. I am amused cause I haven't played a hand this bad in quite some time.


Now some of you I am sure are wondering why I would even post suck a f*ck up such as this... Especially since I already knew what (and where) I went wrong with the whole hand already. Well there is a reason I promise. And perhaps I should even post this in the new Psychology forum. But... I have just recently quit ( or at least attempting to quit) smoking. ( and cold turkey too. no patches ) This was my first session of cards since doing so. I noticed that I played quite a few hands much too aggressively. I can't help but feel that this transformation taking place in my body has something to do with this. I am really wondering if anyone in the forum has gone through such an ordeal? If so how did they deal? ( not with the quitting part, but more in relation to the effects of your poker game ) I am really curious. Really....


Anyway.. Thanks for taking the time to read these posts.


CJ


P.S. - One more question. Who do you think played this hand worse.. Me or the Asian guy? That is something to debate.. /images/smile.gif

I didn't say I liked the bet on the river, but at least (I thought) there was some chance the other players would believe aces and fold one pair on the end. If the players were not that kind, then there was no chance. But player in the middle can't call with one pair, so it's just the last player who has to decide to fold. And, stranger things have happened.


River bet is not good, just better than all the other plays /images/smile.gif


Congrats on giving up smoking.

My answers before reading others.. which basically were the same:


"I am in 5 seat with (10c10d)Ad and just call.."

MISTAKE #1, ESPECIALLY WITH THE Ah OUT THERE.


* if ya ain't raisin', fold.


All fold to ... 7c showing who completes ... to a good/aggressive opponent in the 4 seat with Qs showing who makes it $20... I make it $30.

MISTAKES #2(call) & 3 (raise)

"...and Qs caps it at $40. I call." AND THAT COVERS BOTH MISTAKES


"4th

---

Myself and Asian player catch rag and Qs catches the 10s. I am still high and bet $10."

MISTAKE #4


after this, not only are you compounding your mistakes, but you're charging yourself bucks to do so.... hitting your head repeately on a wall is less painful (and probably less expensive)


Oh, and I have to give the Asian guy a better grade than you. I'm gonna assume he started with hidden Jacks (good hidden hand, plus Q comes out later elsewhere) and caught the 7 somewhere after 4th.. so he had a reason to still be in against the Queens (or better pair) pounding away...

You, on the other hand, faced with a Fold situation on every street, decided to bet/raise instead.. with the lowest pair.


....but you know all of this already, obviously...


To paraphrase Russ... hope you stop smoking crack before the next game

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