PokerPlasm.com

You’re a few hands into a 100-player tournament. The field is full of fish, and your table is an aquarium of guppies with you trying to play the role of shark. You’ve picked up several pots in rapid succession, and with your momentum as high as it can get, you pick up pocket aces. You play them strong.

Three players call your (huge) 5x BB raise, and the flop is a K, T, x rainbow. With good reason to believe you have the best hand, you bet big, the size of the pot. Two of the callers fold, but one hangs in there with a grim look of determination. You’re all set to reel this sucker in.

On the turn comes another ten, making it K, T, x, T.

You stop and think. Why would this guy have called you before and after the flop? You don’t have him on KK. One king is a good possibility. On the other hand, did this jerkoff really call your pot-sized bet with a fucking ten?

A bet of half the pot is probably called for here, maybe a little more. You can’t throw caution to the wind with these fish though. Some of them nip back.

So you bet the pot, or half the pot, and the fish immediately says, ‘I’m all in.’ He can barely contain his excitement.

So what does he have? If he had just a king, he’s not going all in here, not this fish. Nor are straight or flush draws likely. It’s obvious the guy has a ten.

Unfortunately a little voice in your head distracts you. It says, ‘Screw this idiot! This was my hand to win! I’ve got pocket aces! Sure it looks like he has a ten. Ok, he almost definitely has a ten. But he could have something else. Or I could catch another ace.’

So you call, and grimace in disgust as your opponent triumphantly turns over his magnificent ten. On the river, he catches a fourth ten, and you’re out of the tournament. No more fishing for you.

The tragedy here isn’t that the bonehead called your pre-flop raise with T9o and then called a pot-sized bet with middle pair, nine kicker. The tragedy isn’t that you had pocket aces and lost the hand (it happens) or even that you went out of the tournament with pocket aces (often that’s the best way to go out). The tragedy is that you played the hand and had your opponent read perfectly, until you made a call that you knew was bad. You put all of your chips in the pot, knowing that you were far behind. You could have gotten out of there, down a bit, but with plenty of chips left and plenty of hands to play.

You might as well have taken your chips into the bathroom and flushed them down the toilet.

What happened here? Were you blinded by your pocket aces? Pocket aces and pocket kings can blind a man. It happens to the best of us. We forget that once the flop comes, sometimes all we’re left with is a pair, and that’s often not good enough to win the hand.

That’s partly what happened. But what really caused you to lose your chips was not the mesmerizing aces in your hand. It was the pride in your gut. The sin of pride. The fish you were chasing turned around and chased you, and you felt the sting. You felt the need to take a stand, when you had the chance to escape, and stalk the fish later. Had you been patient, he likely would have been yours. But your pride got in the way. You just had to win this hand. You threw everything you had into this battle, knowing that it would likely cost you the war.

You should feel a great sense of satisfaction when you have the ability and discipline to throw those aces awa, some players never can. Nevertheless, had you mucked them, you were guaranteed to lose the hand. By staying in, you had a small chance of winning.

That’s not what poker is all about. Poker is not about winning individual hands. It’s not about the number of hands you win or the fashion in which you win them. It’s about the amount of money you win. In tournaments, it’s about survival. Sometimes, just two or three winning hands is enough to win a tournament. But you won’t win those hands if you busted out three hours ago.

Never let pride get in the way of the cool logic you apply to your game. Don’t let the sting distract you. Don’t let those attractive but unnecessary pots tempt you. And when the tables turn and you know you are suddenly behind, continue to play your smart, superior game. Relax, control your emotions, and make the correct play. The mistakes of your opponents will catch up to them, and since you’ll still be around, you will be the one to capitalize on them.

Grifter Jim is a senior writer for PokerPlasm.com.