$700 Lessons

That's how much it cost for what I learned the other day.  After dusting off my stack 3 times I had to get up from the table. It's OK to lose money so long as you're playing well. That's part of poker; it happens all the time. But I had made a few serious mistakes that accounted for a lot of what I lost.

The most grave error I made was the most basic possible. I had a hand where I made all the right reads and then turned around and made all the wrong decisions. I hit the board with a pair and a draw against a player I put on an overpair. He shoved on the turn not giving me odds, I knew I was supposed to fold, but I called anyway. There's just no excuse for that. A fold there was almost automatic but I let my emotions make the decision for me. I missed and he won with the hand I knew he had. There is no way I can expect to be a profitable poker player if I keep making calls like that.

But that wasn't the only way I misplayed that hand. I had put myself in that position because I took actions on the flop without having a plan for the later streets. Going back through my hand history I realized it was a mistake I made in several other hands too. I wasn't thinking my lines all the way through.  I made raises building big pots and played right into spots where I made my own decisions difficult. I was handing my opponents the rope with which to hang me.

We're going up to Harrah's Rincon this weekend for the World Series of Poker ciruit events and cash games. I've caught my mistakes, now it's time to prove I've learned from them. Let's see if I can use what I've learned to earn that money back.