Hands that play themselves

ACES......... FUUUUUUULL, Mike. If you've ever seen the movie "Rounders" you probably can't even think about this part without wanting to puke. The part where the hero, Mike loses his ENTIRE 30k bankroll on ONE HAND, ouch. The sad thing is, he was screwed WAY before the cards were even dealt. The particular hand he lost on, well he played it perfectly, no one could have gotten away from that hand without being cleaned out. HIS only(albeit HUGE) mistake was putting every penny of his bankroll on the table. When he decided to put all his eggs in one basket, he was screwed before he even shufflrd up and dealt.........

Setting yourself up for failure is easy to do. Often times in poker(or in life for that matter), your actions before the flop pretty much guarantee you're untimely demise. Let me explain using a hand I (mis)played recently........

I get J 9 suited in early position. I call, the guy to the left of me calls, and we go to the flop. The flop is J J 3. I bet out, and get raised. So I think to myself, "does he have the LAST freking Jack in the deck??" Surely not. I re rasise all in and he quickly calls and turns over A J. Well he DID have the last Jack in the deck, and a WAY better kicker, which he filled with on the river, not that it mattered.

So I'm sitting there steaming, thinking how unlucky I was to flop trips at the WORSE possible time. But I wasn't unlucky, I was stupid. I st myself up for failure before the flop even came out. J 9 suited isn't the worse hand in the world, but no self respecting poker player would play it from up front. So when I through my blind in, I was setting up a bomb under my OWN chip stack. When I hit trips on the flop, it was impossible for me to get away from that hand, but I shouldn't have been in that hand in the first place.

Renowned poker guru Brandon Adams did a very informative interview where where he said simply "you reap what you sow" in poker. Playing sub par hands pre flop leads to flopping second best hands that WILL break you. So true BA, so true............

Till next time,

JWC