Wednesday, December 26, 2012

My Very Own Flawed Decision

Thanks to Dr. Phil for his post about flawed decisions.  It makes me feel a little better about my own stupid move last Sunday in the Crazy Moose deepstack.

I was rolling along with no trouble at all.  I even bluffed a pot or two and did not detect any bad decisions on my part.  I made it to the final table (again).  When we were down to I believe 7 players, this hand came up.

I was on the button with 18,000 chips with blinds of 1,000-2,000 (or 9 big blinds).  There were only 2 callers before play got to me, both of whom limped.  On the button with 7-7 I naturally raised to 3,500.  One limper folded and the other guy reraised to 12,000.  Gak.  Now this guy had been reraising me all day and even though I would have still had 7.5 big blinds left if I folded I picked the wrong time to get stubborn.  Has this ever happened to you?  I was just sick and tired of the reraising.

He had J-J and my 7-7 went down in a blaze of non-glory and I was out 2 or 3 away from a payday.  Blast my terrible timing.  Drat.  Phooey.  Etc.

2 comments:

Phil said...

O.K., for starters, this is just a cold deck situation with pair over pair. That said, small pocket pairs are very difficult to play in a way, but also the easiest hands to play. Most of the time you are looking to flop a set, as there are nearly always over cards on the flop. A small flop presents other problems, as now you are looking at small cards making straights.

In general, I like to treat small pairs very gingerly, Usually folding to serious preflop action unless very short stacked. The jacks in my opinion played very poorly, trying for a trap versus open raising. They are almost begging to get snapped by a weak ace or king that catches a flop. It did work in your case because you did not see any aggression. I would have played it as a call on the button, hoping to catch a set, or betting on the flop if it is small. With any overcards, and flop action I am out of there in cash game or tournament.

Phil said...

Hey Dewey,
Thanks for the birthday card!!!
Doc