41 Days of Poker--$50 Freezout

Happy birthday to me.  I turned 60 today, old enough to start getting my army retirement pay.

I played a live $50 freezeout yesterday.  I made some big mistakes on my last hand of the tournament.  Until then, I played really well.

I saw few good hands and didn't hit with any of my speculative hands.  By the beginning of the second hour of play I was hanging on with a pretty short stack.

Then I got aggressive in the right places, shoving often, and I watched my stack stay about the same size.  I didn't pick up very many chips on my all-ins because I shoved about ten times without getting a caller.

At the beginning of hour three my stack was getting really small and I was having to shove more and more often.  Before the big hand at the end, I had shoved between 15 and 20 hands and only been called once.  I wasn't picking up enough chips to keep up with the blinds and antes.  The players in my local poker room are aggressive early in tournaments and very tight when stacks get shorter.

Then it happened.  In the blinds (I don't remember which one) I limped holding 33.  Three players to the flop.  Then I complete messed it up.  The flop was something like 973r and I flopped a set.  I should have shoved right there.

I had shoved a bunch of times, no one had called me in a while and the table was getting antsy.  Then I made one of the worst mistakes in poker--falling in love with a hand.  I forgot about my shove or fold strategy and made big bets on the flop and turn.  One player called, we went to the river.  Runner runner straight for villian, and I was out of the tournament.

One could argue that I was way ahead mathematically and villian doesn't hit that straight very often.  That was indeed the case and negative variance has been hitting me in the head for several months. There is nothing I can do about that.  Even so,  I made so many mistakes in that one hand that I deserved to get knocked out:

1. I fell in love with a hand.  My strategy going into that hand was to play shove or fold poker. The table was so antsy that it was likely someone would call my next shove, but I got excited when I saw the set and I developed one of the most deadly of all poker maladies--Fancy Play Syndrome.

2. My bets were sized incorrectly.  As stated above, I went into the hand with a shove or fold strategy, but I lost my mind when I hit my set.  I didn't even think about bet sizing.  I bet way too much on both the flop and turn.  When we got to the river only a tiny fraction of the chips I had at the beginning of my hand were left.  Logically and mathematically, villian HAD to call.  He called with his gutshot and hit his straight.

3. I never saw the straight draw. I was so in love with my hand that I wasn't paying attention to the community cards.  When the hand played out I was waiting for the dealer to push the chips toward my stack.  In my mind, I had already won the hand and more than doubled up when I hit my set.

I have no excuse for my poor play and all the mistakes I made on that hand.  I have no excuse for not watching the board, because it's inexcusable.  I can't remember the last time I messed up a hand that badly.

My next live tournament will be on Tuesday, September 29, a $30 freezeout.  I will post my results Wednesday morning.