Lessons Learned

Sometimes you have to sit back and take the lessons and move forward from there. Tonight was one of those nights.

I played in the poker tournament tonight at Jokers and was doing well. I guess as well as could be expected. I wasn't getting the cards tonight. I was hanging in there though and almost got to the final table. Whenever I tried to play a hand I would raise appropriately and then most everyone would fold. I was not getting anyone to play back at me tonight. Most of the people at the table did not know me very well so I know they did not know about my game and how I play.

I made it down to 12th place tonight. Not bad for tournament play but I didn't make my first goal of getting to the final table. Tomorrow is another day and I will play in the tournament in the afternoon.

The hard one for me was after the tournament they got the live cash game up and running. I was thinking about playing and when I was asked and I was near the starting time I figured yes, lets do this again. One of the regulars asked me about playing in the live cash game and I started to say that since I started I haven't........He stopped me and of course I stopped myself and we both said don't jinx yourself.

I had ample opportunities to walk away from the table tonight with a profit and in the least break even. You can see this one coming. I kept sitting there hand after hand and kept right on playing. Knowing I was going to hit the big one. I was able to make it back each time, 3 times to be exact and as I said I could have walked away. I didn't and lost the buy in tonight for the first time. Should never have said that.

I had AK twice tonight and I won a big pot with that and then turned around and lost with AK to a set of 10's. I didn't see that one coming. I had two pair with AK and lost my whole buy in.

What did I learn from this experience? I think I am going to step away from the live game and just have fun with tournaments. I do better and there is less stress for me. Lower buy in and I have been winning at a rate of every 3 or 4 tournaments. I will do some more reading and studying and then go from there. One thing I won't do is dwell on the cash game.

Have a fun day......