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Don't blow your stack

Be careful... one mistake often leads to another

By: Miss Lonelyhearts

Posted: 05/13/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

You can't always play the same way, but when you mix up things up, make sure the decisions you make don't lead to future mistakes.

In poker, one mistake can lead to another. In a pot where you might have got off without losing a penny, making that first mistake (and everything else that follows) can end up costing you big-time. This week I played an interesting hand that illustrates this.

Every decision we make gives our opponents information about our hand strength. When I play in shorthanded online cash games, I tend to raise a great deal of pots. The problem many of us face is what to do when we get three-bet. If we are holding a huge hand such as A A or K K, the decision is pretty easy: We want to get our stacks in. With weaker hands, however, we can begin to make mistakes if we don't proceed with caution.

The first thing I think about when I get three-bet and am holding a less-than-premium hand is, am I going to be out of position if I call? The single most important part of playing poker is playing in position as often as possible. This allows you to have control of the pot.

This week I raised with J 10 of hearts and was three-bet from the small blind. I elected to call, since I would be in position for the rest of the hand. The flop was a good one for me, as it fell 9 7 3 with two hearts. I checked and my opponent bet. Now I had a decision to make. I could raise, hoping to potentially win the pot right there if he folded. But if he held any over pairs, he wasn't going to fold, so I would have to hit my flush or straight draw to win the pot. If I called and missed on the turn, I would be in a tough spot on the next street, probably facing an all-in bet with one card to come. So what should I do? Well, I decided to play aggressively and check-raised. Deep down, I knew what was coming, and sure enough he moved me all in. At that point I had to call, and he showed me Q Q. The turn and river were of no help to me and I got stacked for about $700.

My calling a bet pre-flop with a hand like J 10 suited was a bit loose, and quite frankly, a losing play in the long run. Since my first mistake was seeing a flop, once the flop hit me as hard as it did I was pretty much forced to get my stack into the middle as a slight underdog. I wasn't able to hit my draw and ended up losing my entire stack on the hand.

Any player who wants to get better should review each and every session they play. Try to honestly evaluate your play to find out where you made your mistakes. If you can find the mistake early enough, you will avoid getting into tough spots, potentially saving yourself from getting stacked like I did.

-- Marco Carreira is a professional poker player living in the Winnipeg area

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 13, 2012 B13

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