I often think back after I finish a tournament, or sometimes during the ever so short 5 minute breaks; and think about hands and positions that I played good, played poorly, could of played better and some plays of others I have noted.

Alot of thought lately is about my game, mainly my play after the bubble has burst and bigger payouts are approaching and that ever elusive final table. Well after my recent deep thoughts, I think I have come up with a problem and hopefully found a solution.

I think the problem has to do with the way I play poker. I have never read a book on poker, I learned to play different types of 7 card stud, 5 card draw and hi/low games since I was about 10 years old with my dad and grandpa so poker has been in my blood, my genes for ever I suppose. I have never had a mentor, or even anyone I have talked over hands with. I started playing limit texas holdem when I was 18 or 19 years old when travelling weekend charity casino's started coming to town around 1994-95. My point is that I learned to play by putting time in, lots of time and learning to read people, playing with instincts. Reading people online is not exactly the same as playing live, but it is possible. Online reads come from betting patterns or hesitations instead of a live player fumbling there chips or slithering down there seat avoiding direct eye contact.

The problem in my online game, is the ability to fold sometimes when I know I have my opponent beat. What's that I just said, yes, it is not a typo, "learning to fold when I have my opponent beat". Well why the heck would I wanna or do that you might be saying. And I don't blame you. It has taken me several years of playing to learn what I am about to reveal. My problem is that I play with instinct and when my gut tells me I have someone beat and they go all-in preflop, I would find it hard to fold my hand.

Now I am talking about having my opponent beat, not dominated here. For example, my most recent bust out came from this leak in my game I am talking about. It was a 16k or 24k guaranteed mtt on Full Tilt the other day. We were already into the money, there was about 50 players left. Average stack was about 40k, chip leader had about 130k, I had aproximately 60k. Blinds were 1000/2000 w/ ante. I am in big blind and am dealt 66. Everyone folds to the small blind. Small blind had aproximately 90k in chips. Small blind went all-in. I found this bet very odd and it smelt very much like ace high. I was confident I was in the lead and called. My opponent turned over AK. I was very pleased as I usually don't mind being all-in preflop with a wires pair against ace high. The flop came 10 10 2. Turn was a 9 and quickly my fist was pumping and I was silently chanting "no ace, no king", lol. I should have been chanting different as the river was a 9. So I went from doubling up and being top 3 in chips to quickly busting out with 6 high.

* I may not even have the odds correct and my opponent may even be favourite over me but I consider myself leading with a pocket pair vs. any high cards when your tournament life is on the line. *

Now, some people might be thinking, well gee, that was just bad luck. Well in the example above I agree it was bad luck but only to an extent. Life is largely influenced by history. Events of the past often repeat themselves in the future. Poker is the same way. If you keep making the same play over and over, usually the same result will occur. There is the luck factor in poker, so sometimes the same actions will yield different results but you catch my drift.

Back to my bust out and correcting the hole in my game. I have finished many of tournaments and donked out of many more. This post has grown long enough, lol, so i won't go into bad beat stories. I am stating this is a hole in my game based on similar situations in the past that have yielded very similar results. The results are busting out of a tournament with a healthy stack and losing equity by not finishing higher. Late in a tournament, it is never the correct move to call your stack (not refering to a short stack here), with a pocket pair less than 88, when your opponent goes all in (referring to a stack that has you covered). That's right, fold 22,33,44,55,66 and even 77 (and that's my favourite pp!). You only have a small pair, I say 80% of the time you will be up against two live face cards and the other 20% a bigger pocket pair! So if you don't hit your set and your opponent hasn't matched up, you still have to avoid the turn and river.

I feel that I have come up with a solution to my problem. If the situation arises in a tournament, I need to remain calm and not act upon sudden instinct. Take some extra time with the hand and think back to past experiences. Do I want to make the call with 66 and run into AK, only to see an ace or king spike the river yet again? Folding and waiting for a better spot to get my money in is definately a better option.

Well, I think I recognized a hole in my game and I think I found a way to fix it. I guess only time will tell if history repeats itself or not. This hole or weakness might be obvious to some, maybe even most on this site, I just felt like stating the above cause I have been thinking about this for a while now.

Shad

I think that Shad has Chad beat hands down for effeminanity....now if Chad calls himself wick thats different. Small pairs for everything with few tables remaining is a bad idea most of the time. Poker is situational, but if you think the small would push with any2 .....66 can be a good call. If he has stayed in line, and ak is his likely holding, then why would you feel that bad about folding it, or losing with it for that matter? Would you feel better going out with a big pair to garbage? Gambol or dont....all it really comes down to. Timing is everything in this game. And yes take your time with small pairs, and dont resign yourself to doing the same thing everytime with any hand in any situation.
pokerstars Game #13814338335: Tournament #69509717, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level XVII (3000/6000) - 2007/12/12 - 13:43:15 (ET)
Table '69509717 107' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: danny888 (23733 in chips)
Seat 2: byzy (40646 in chips)
Seat 3: neals badits (40894 in chips)
Seat 4: losyara (34775 in chips)
Seat 5: scmaverick (9940 in chips)
Seat 7: DFman777 (15478 in chips)
Seat 8: saentje (72822 in chips)
Seat 9: anshovel (34884 in chips)
danny888: posts the ante 300
byzy: posts the ante 300
neals badits: posts the ante 300
losyara: posts the ante 300
scmaverick: posts the ante 300
DFman777: posts the ante 300
saentje: posts the ante 300
anshovel: posts the ante 300
neals badits: posts small blind 3000
losyara: posts big blind 6000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DFman777 [Qd Qh]
scmaverick: raises 3640 to 9640 and is all-in
DFman777: raises 5538 to 15178 and is all-in
saentje: folds
anshovel: folds
danny888: folds
byzy: folds
neals badits: folds
losyara: calls 9178
*** FLOP *** [4h 2h Jh]
*** TURN *** [4h 2h Jh] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [4h 2h Jh 6s] [4d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
losyara: shows [4s Qs] (three of a kind, Fours)
DFman777: shows [Qd Qh] (two pair, Queens and Fours)
losyara collected 11076 from side pot
scmaverick: shows [9c 7c] (a pair of Fours)
losyara collected 34320 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 45396 Main pot 34320. Side pot 11076. | Rake 0
Board [4h 2h Jh 6s 4d]
Seat 1: danny888 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: byzy (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: neals badits (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: losyara (big blind) showed [4s Qs] and won (45396) with three of a kind, Fours
Seat 5: scmaverick showed [9c 7c] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 7: DFman777 showed [Qd Qh] and lost with two pair, Queens and Fours
Seat 8: saentje folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: anshovel folded before Flop (didn't bet)
would this one feel better?
High....

Ps...what the fuck do i know....been beating this game for 15yrs....but my first week in vegas sucked.