Hands that can change your poker life forever....

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
This may be the best argument for playing limit. Your 'life' doesn't swing with the turn of a card or one hand or even one session.

[/ QUOTE ]

It should never happen playing any form of poker, with the possible exception of big money multi-table tournaments. Even then, the life changing part should only be a positive one when you win, not a negative one when you lose.

I forget who originally said this, but the following quote about trading (in financial markets) could be applied to poker as well:

"Trading is like driving. If it's exciting, you're doing it wrong."

[obsidian]

I think most people on this forum have a better understanding of bankroll management than yourself.

[Lestat]

Here's a hand that changed my poker life very early in my poker career.

There were 5 of us on the river in a very small pot. There was a str8 on board. Someone bet and everyone in front of me called. I called too, because... Well, I had a straight along with everyone else!! Turns out the bettor had the one card giving him the top straight. Here I called in a 4 big bet pot to to get 1/5 of it!!

That changed my poker life forever, because I started to understand the importance of considering pot ODDS!

Fortunately, I've never been even close to being one hand away from broke. So no hand has every changed my life in the way you're talking about.

[mike l.]

i can think of 5 "life changing" sort of hands off the top of my head.

1. a long time ago, less than a year after i started my hold em career. 10-20 horseshoe not very good game i had Ahxs in mp. someone may have raised. i was in there. one of the blinds was in there. the board by the turn was KdQdJhTs. i naively decided well gee i have the nuts i guess i want to get all my chips in there. we went like 20 bets on the turn until i was all in. then my cowboy opponent flipped up Ad4d for the freeroll and drawled "put a diamond up there" which the dealer did in short order. fortunately at the time i was too naive to know it's not normal to get up and leave the game and wander aimlessly around downtown on the verge of tears, but instead the play is to sit there and tilt away everything youve ever owned or loved. but dont worry, i got plenty of practice doing that in the next couple of years.

2. ive told this one before. it was my first time playing 60-120 and i was really stoned from hanging out with tommy and rick upstairs at the commerce. playing black chips for the first time was heavy. i had K8o in the cutoff and openraised, the bb, a fat freaky looking guy who looked like he was there for the tournament called. the flop was QJ8. he check called me. the turn was another 8. he checkraised me, i 3 bet, he 4 bet, i 5 bet, he 6 bet, i became very certain was beat and felt silly and called. the river was a nothing. he bet and i called and he flipped up 85o and i won the hand. i realised at that moment that i was finally playing with people who thought and played the way i thought and played: like a sick twisted maniacal pos.

3. i had A5s playing 200-400 last year. the board by the end was A54-6-6 and i lost to A9o utg limper high limit regular after putting in like a million bets on every street. it was like an $8000 pot. had i won that who knows maybe i would still be playing higher and not 12 tabling 2-4 online trying to make $50 an hour...nah id probably still be broke.

4. about 5 years ago i was playing 40-80 and was on a 40 hour bender that was just sick and very tilt heavy. i raised preflop and this other guy (a guy who at the time was running so red hot and confident for months and started playing higher and higher, but i saw him last month struggling in a 20-40 game and smiled a sick vengeful smile inside). anyway he reraised me and i had A4 and he had AT and there was some betting and the board was ragged maybe Q high and i called him down and he showed his hand, and ill never forget the child in me that showed my hand and cried out "god, cant i win a fuucking hand here!" while the rest of table quietly giggled. i lost $10,000 for the first time that session.

5. playing 30-60 at commerce a long time ago i had TcTs and raised preflop and bb 3 bet and some other guy was in so 3 way action. the flop got checked around and by the turn the board was Jd8d7d2d. bb bet, next guy folded and i didnt do anything. literally about a minute and half passed. it was eerie. as the time passed i was actually thinking in my head "wow this is amazing no one is complaining i could just sit here like this forever." i think i said time once or maybe twice, softly. i was thinking and thinking, but really i wasnt thinking at all, i had no idea what i was going to do. then out of nowhere i sighed and said calmly i raise and stacked out 3 stacks of four and the guy laughed and said "bravo man you got it, you deserve an oscar for that one!" and threw QdQh into the muck. it was at that very moment i realised i was the greatest limit hold em player ever.

i lost around $3000 that night.

[STLantny]

Basically reading Mike's post are going to be the hands that change my "poker career". Thanks.

[calmasahinducow]

That was an amazing post...

[SA125]

n/m

[James282]

My Bankroll at the time was 350 dollars. I was playing 3/6 and kidding myself. I was playing in a 30 dollar tournament on Party and watching game 7 of the ALCS between Boston and NYY. The site crashed in the middle and when it resumed the tournament was still on but most people were missing. I was so engulfed in the Sox Yanks game that I wasn't paying attention, when I raised the CO with K8s. The button, who was an idiot, cold called, and the big blind called also. The flop was 7s6s3d. The big blind pushed, I called all in, and so did the button. Turn is a 3, river is an 8 off suit. The bb has 76h and the button has ATs. I triple up, and go on to with the tournament for 3000 dollars. Aaron boon hits a home run to left field off of Pedro Martinez and my whole apartment wanted to committ suicide. I was on cloud 9 - and started to play and lose at 5/10 and 55 dollar SnGs. I figured it out before the 3k ran out.
-James

[Lawrence Ng]

Dec. 18, 1998.

My first ever time playing in a cardroom. My first time ever playing limit hold'em and it was at the 10/20 level.

I played 6 hours. I had AA 7 times that night, 4 times I flopped a set - I won. 5/7 AA was 5 way action or more - I won. I didn't lose once with AA.

That night I won $2300 and fell in love with the game.

The next week I lost $3000.

The next month I lost probably $5000.

By May of next year I was down over $10k.

The game is a bitch.

Lawrence

[SA125]

There was no one hand for me. My turning point came when I realised I was finally on the path to getting it.

I was sitting next to an old lady fish playing over her head and kept standing by her, encouraging her "It's okay. It's your money, do what you want" (because that's what she was mumbling) as she was ridiculed from all parts of the table when she got hot.

She went to the ATM and I told a young guy across from me she had cracked twice "Trust me. You don't want her to leave."

When she lost the 2 racks she had, plus about the cash for another, she got up and left because she didn't want to hear anymore. I asked the young guy across from me "Happy now?"

That's when I knew I was seeing a poker table the right way. Old lady or not, she was in the game and I went from mumbling ridiculer to encouraging defender.