I got pretty close in the first two online satellites I played, losing on a pretty horrible beat in each (I’ll spare you the details), and I was determined to give it one more shot in the last week these satellites for the main event were available. I entered the Thursday night $100+9 tournament on ub.com, hoping that this time I would find a way through the minefield. The way I ended up losing, however, was far from a bad beat.
Backtracking a little bit, I’m going to just put a fact out there for you: SailorLobell (a tournament player on UB, ranked in PocketFives.com's top 10) flat out owns me. He’s knocked me out of at least a half dozen tournaments, and for whatever reason, I’m terrified of having him at my table. The most recent time I’d played with him still stuck out in my mind.
I had won entry into UB’s Sunday night $200+15 buy-in tournament, which was something I was doing pretty much every week at the time. SailorLobell was 2 seats to my left at my initial table, and I was right around my starting stack of 2500 chips, when he raised the 30 chip blind to 105 from under the gun. I had picked up JJ on the small blind, and I decided to call his raise after all the other players folded. I was well aware of the possibility, even likelihood, of him holding a higher pair, and I was calling mainly in hopes of hitting a set and winning a big pot.
The flop came 3 3 10 rainbow, and I checked. He bet out about 150, which was less than the pot, and I called. This was a pretty horrible call, in retrospect. I was stuck playing this hand out of position, and I had not obtained any information about his hand, while letting the pot get bigger. The turn came off a blank, and I checked again. He bet out about 400, and I went into the tank. I finally decided that I had the best of it, which made no sense, because this guy NEVER bluffs and there was no hand I could think of that I could beat there. I pushed in the rest of my stack, and he called immediately, showing AA. An A on the river rubbed salt in my wound, and I was out of the tournament without even making it to the first break.
When I sat across from him at the Tunica satellite, I still clearly remembered how horribly I’d played that hand, and I was determined to just stay out of pots with Sailor—I figured I had a better chance against the rest of my opponents, since Sailor had knocked me out of more tournaments than the rest of them combined! I had already told a couple friends, who were watching me in this tournament, that I was going to avoid him all together.
About 10 hands into the tournament, I was dealt JJ in middle position. Sailor raised the 10 chip blind up to 70 from under the gun. Do you see where this is going? I actually typed on IM to my friend, “I’m going to call but get out if I don’t hit a set, no matter what.” The flop came 10 high, and he bet out 120 chips. I decided I was going to take one shot to win this pot, and I raised it up to 460, which left me with about 2000 chips. I was in position this time, and I wanted to make sure he didn’t bet me out of the pot with AK. I told myself that if he reraised, I was done with the hand. I was expecting a reraise or a fold, but he just called.
The turn came off another low card, and he led out with a 600 chip bet. Alarms were going off in my head. I typed on IM to my friend, “he has it.” I sat there forever, trying to figure out how this could possibly happen to me again. I pushed my chips in. He called. AA. Tournament over. (SailorLobell actually went on to finish 3rd that night)
Did I really just tell the exact same story twice, with the exact same hole cards, against the exact same player, and with me making the exact same bonehead play? What on earth could he have possibly called my raise with, that I’d have been able to beat? The answer to that question is nothing. I knew exactly what he held, and I was unable, for some reason, to make the laydown I knew I needed to make.
The point of the story is not, surprisingly, that we should learn from our mistakes, so that we don’t make the same ones twice. That would be one good thing to take out of this story, no doubt, but the truth is that I HAD learned from my mistake. My friend was right on the mark when he told me that I would not have made this mistake against another player, and that is the point I’m getting at here.
Some players just have my number, and most likely, there are a couple out there who have yours too. Don’t let these guys break you—there are plenty of people in any tournament that you can beat, and you should figure out who they are and target them, rather than going after the players you know are the toughest in the field. When you’re up against a tough player with a lot of chips, proceed with caution, as you know he or she is less likely to make a costly mistake.
I won’t be making that mistake for a third time—I can guarantee that. Unless I’m holding an absolute monster, I’ll be gone from any hand he’s in, long before I can send all my chips his way again.
Canada
United Kingdom
Costa Rica
Australia
Mexico
Denmark
Russian Federation
Sweden
Brazil
Germany
