I wish I had read this article before last night's tourney. Had I done so, I might have lasted a few more hands than I did. Acccording to Mr. Glazer's article, I made "one of the worst plays in poker" by calling with my small pair - well, actually, I re-raised with it - still a bad move. Here's how the hand went down (not so differently than described in the article) - I was in the big blind with T800 and sitting on pocket 44. DocD - UTG - limped in; Chicagp Phil raised 175; Logan, Mean Gene and Al folded; Bad Blood, on the button, re-raised another 225 to 400; Cheap Thrills in the small blind (hmm, sounds like the title to a bad dectective novel) folds. This is what should have gone through my head in the 20 seconds allotted me, but didn't:
Doc probably has two moderate over cards, or a medium to small pair himself and is trying to see the flop cheaply or he's got a monster pair and he's attempting to trap. Doc D's raise says big overcards - probably AK or AQ, - or somesuch; Bad Blood's re-raise says pretty loud and clear, I'm sitting on a monster, call me, please. So I should fold - I'm beat.
But none of that went through my head. The right choice was to fold. But, I didn't just call, I re-raised and not even all-in. Doc and Phil got out of the way. BadBlood did take some time to think, I'm sure he considered that I might be holdin AA or AK, certainly not puny 44. He correctly re-raised. I was pot committed and had to call. I came close to a strait when the board came down 5-3-6-8-T, but was thoroughly trounced by Bad Blood's cowboys.
The article goes on to discuss other typical tourney mistakes by inexperienced players, such as myself. Give it a read.
