PRACTICE OPPORTUNITY # 7:
Sometimes, after you've played a difficult hand, you wonder, "Should I have played it differently?"
At times like this, it would be nice to have a poker player guru with whom you could discuss your play. Your poker guru should be someone that you respect, a winning poker player who has plenty of poker experience, and is someone that you trust to give you good advice.
It is a huge asset to have someone you can trust to give you sound advice to improve your poker. When you ask a trusted advisor to help you, be prepared to give him all the details of the hand, including the type of the game, the amount of the blinds and how soon they were going to rise, how much money you had, how much money your opponents had, what kind of players they were (tight, loose, aggressive, passive scared), and what your table image was.
What kinds of questions do you want to ask your guru? You might ask whether any other playing options were possible, whether he would have played if differently, and how you might have increased your profit or decreased your loss in the play of the hand.
Through poker the years Both Tom and I have been fortunate in making many close friends in the poker world. We have discussed the play of lots of hands, some with differences of opinions. These differences of opinion have helped me to adjust my strategies By seeing things from a different point of view.
In the late 1980s, we were down to the last table of a $1,000 buy in no-limit holdem tournament at Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker. I was in middle chip position with around $10,000 in chips. The short stack in first position moved all in for about poker $4,500. I looked down to find the K ? K ?. I moved over the top of the raiser for all my chips. The player to my left, George Rodis, thought and thought, and finally folded. Everyone else folded, too, leaving only the short stack and me in the pot.
The flop came with the K ? 9 ? 2 ?. "I had an A-K," George said, sounding disturbed that he didn't call my raise. I won the pot with my trip kings, sending the short stack to the rail. In retrospect, I realized that if I hadn't reraised I also would have busted George and put myself in a commanding chip position to win the poker tournament. As it turned out, I ended up finishing up in fifth or sixth place.
After getting knocked out, I gave lots of thought to that hand and discussed it with my close friend, Tuna Lund. Our discussions changed the way that I will play this hand in similar situations. Now in this same situations, I will just smooth call the all-in bet to invite the A-K into the pot. I would like to thank my good friends Tuna Luna, Jack Fox, Vince Burgio, Eric Holum and Tom McEvoy, my writing partner, for always Being available for discussions of our favorite game cash course.