Learn Texas Holdem

I probably should have spent more time with that title. Oh well, I already saved the file. In any case, I'm going to tell a little story with some rambling lessons mixed in. This was a few months ago. The reason I'm adding it now and not before is because I just realized that reading other player's stories is interesting, especially if they may play bigger games than you do. I was playing for about 18 hours online straight. I was up about $13k or $14k, playing some heads up $100/200 limit games. It was late at night, maybe 2 or 3 am. Lesson number one, is that after you are playing for that long, the quality of your play is next to nil. To make matters worse, online play, especially heads up or short handed tables, give you so many hands per hour that it can spin you out-of-control really easily. And the thing that happens when you play for so long is that otherwise stupid decisions seem logical. Any normal person would think that making that much for a day is fine, just go to bed. Well not me.

I was playing three handed $100/200 now, but the table broke and the guys moved to the bigger game, the $250/500. Since I was already up quite a bit and feeling comfortable with them, I decided to sit down too. The first 30k went really quickly in a barrage of 3 outers and missed big cards. In a game like that where every pot is either three bet or capped, it hurts when you are missing every flop. It is impossible to just sit and wait for a big hand, so when you aren't running well, it stings. Losing three racks in that game isn't a huge loss and I wasn't that worried, especially since everyone was playing so wildly -- even more so than normal. I knew, like many times before, that I could bring it back if I actually hit a few pots. When every pot is 10k, you aren't that concerned. Lesson number two, know your limits/weaknesses. One of my biggest strengths and biggest weakness, is my tenacity. I won't give up. That's fine, as long as I am thinking clearly. Obviously I wasn't then. It is important to allow yourself to get up from a table and leave. There will be times like this when you can do no right. My problem is that I won't allow myself to just accept defeat.

So I bought in again for another 30k. That didn't go any better. Raise, cap, bet, only to lose every hand. It didn't matter what the other two guys had, they would get me. I had another 15k or so left on the site, so I played that too. I played for about another couple hours, to finally get busted by my AJ versus his A4 (like a million times before). The loss was painful, of course, but what really made me sick was the fact that I had promised myself I would never do that again. I have a tendency to play marathon sessions and play the biggest games when I'm tired. Anyone can get lucky and beat me now and then, it's just that I don't need to make it easy on them by staying up all night. Lesson three is that you should stick to guidelines you set when you are thinking clearly, even if the game is juicy.

Lesson four, is that poker is full of negative reinforcement. For every time I've lost like this, I've had times when I've brought it back. I've played for 36 hours straight against a guy one time heads up to win, after being all-in. I brought it all the way back and won back my money, plus all of his. That's dangerous though, and gives you the idea that you can get away with this kind of stuff. The bottom line is you can't, especially when you are playing opponents at your skill level. And to finish up my tale of defeat, one of the smartest things I read was how Barry Greenstien use to go in early in the morning to play his regular stakes, because everyone else was usually up all night play. He was totally rested and would kill them, not because he was better, just fresh.