The Importance of Being Patient

I waited a couple of days to post this, and I am glad that I did, because there’s an additional chapter to the story that hadn’t occurred earlier.

I was playing at a $2/$5 no-limit table, like usual, and suffered a really terrible beat that risked putting me on a massive tilt jag.  It took a lot of discipline not to just donk off the rest of my chips . . . or resolve to give up poker altogether!

First of all, I had been playing my game really well all evening, and had started to build up a respectable stack.  I was suitably tight, very attentive to the play and to my opponents, and feeling really good about the session.  Then, along came the following hand.

I was under-the-gun and found Ace/King of clubs, a premium hand if there ever was one.  Like I usually would with this hand, I raised it to $15, and action continued to the player on my left.  He re-raised me to $50.  Now, he was also playing quite tight and I had a lot of respect for his game.  But I wasn’t going to surrender my nice hand before at least seeing the flop.  Everybody else folded; I called; and it went to the flop heads-up.

The flop was Ace-rag-rag, so I had top pair and top kicker.  There were no straight or flush draws.  Very, very nice.  I put out a $40 bet, and he insta-called me.  This confused me, but we went to the turn.

The turn was another rag.  I thought I still had the best hand, but his behavior was baffling, so I just checked.  He checked behind me; this gave me quite a bit of confidence.

When another brick came on the river, I put out a bet of $100.  He raised all-in, which was not much more.  I had him covered, so I called and turned over my pair of Aces with top kicker.  He turned over his pocket Aces, for a flopped set!  I was behind from the start.  Worst of all, I really couldn’t blame anybody for the hand.  I’m just not going to surrender Ace/King suited pre-flop; I think it was just fated for me to lose.  I lost everything I had won that session, as well as a decent chunk of what I had brought to the table.

I played on for a few more rounds, extremely tight, more as an exercise in forcing myself not to tilt.  But the cards didn’t break my way at all, and ultimately I just got up and left.  It was a truly horrible experience.

So that’s where it stood for a day or two, and I had decided to post the hand here as a therapeutic measure.  But tonight, the next chapter was writ; I’m glad I waited to post, because I see both of these hands as part of a matching set.

The theme of this entry is patience.  If I hadn’t had patience, what happened next probably never would have.  And if I hadn’t had a fundamental faith in my game – perhaps my best poker quality – it definitely wouldn’t have.

Another day; another $2/$5 game.  I sat down still dejected from the last session, with a rather fatalistic outlook on the world, and pretty much expecting to see my chip stack wither away either gradually or through one classic crash-up like before.

After a couple of rounds where I was starting to build my stack (like usual), and playing very carefully and (if I do say so myself) quite disciplined and good, I looked down under-the-gun and found pocket Aces.  I brought it in for a raise ($15).  The player on my left, somebody I hadn’t ever played with before but who I pegged as relatively tight, raised it to $50.  This seemed eerily like the previous day’s fiasco, although this time I held the Aces.  It folded around to me, and I said (to myself), oh, the hell with it, and I just shoved in my stack; around $500 (I had my opponent covered).  He insta-called, and all we needed now was a board.

It came Queen, Jack, and three rags.  I turned over my pocket Aces.  He turned over his pocket Kings.  I won a huge pot; even bigger than the one I had lost the day before.  All was right with the world once more.  My opponent got mad and left.

I never think it’s wrong pre-flop to shove with pocket Aces, in a cash game at least.  At worst, I am 80% to win.  I don’t feel the same way about Kings though; nor even (generally) about calling somebody else’s all-in while holding Kings.  I have some more thoughts about playing Kings, and I’ll post those some time.  But I did want to make this entry for the time being.