O-Poker

I am extremely busy at work today, so I will make this quick.

I was skimming through one of my old poker books, Poker Nation, this weekend and came across a story that was a great reminder of what separate winning sessions from losing sessions. I'll para-phrase it below.

Setting is a live NL Cash game. The author bets his 33 and is called by 2 players - one of which is eating his dinner at the table. The flop comes JJ4. 33 bets, Player 2 raises and the guy eating his dinner makes a large re-raise. 33 folds and Player 2 folds J10 face up. Everyone at the table is stunned. No one can believe that he made that lay down. The guy eating his dinner reluctantly shows KJ and that Player 2 was way behind in the hand. Player 2 says he laid the hand down because the guy eating his dinner must have had a great hand to take his mind off his dinner and make a big raise. He was right and saved his entire stack.

The author goes on to say - Sometimes a winning session is not about how many big pots you win that night, but how many big pots that you don't lose.

This couldn't be truer, especially in the context of the person you are playing against. I always find myself asking why a guy is going all in. If he/she is a very tight player and makes a huge re-raise, I will lay down some hands that I may not against others. There are plenty more hands to come and bigger pots to be won.

cmitch