Columnist Stephen Allan is on a quest to become a successful professional poker in Las Vegas. Click here for Part 1 of this running series.
I woke up on the morning of January 30 to see that Duke had gotten their butts whipped by 12 points against Georgetown, and I probably wasn't the only one convinced that once again, the Blue Devils were a Sweet 16 team at best.
But that game also marked a key moment in the year—specifically, it was the squad’s worst loss en route to the national title. Every so often, I think of how impressive it was for the players to come back from a loss that humbling and humiliating to ascend to the pinnacle of college basketball with the national championship.
The feeling of despair briefly flashed back about five days ago when I was playing at the Venetian casino at a $1/$2. I had, in a span of about 15 minutes, lost $120, won $300, and then lost my buy-in of $300 and then some on a foolish bluff. The reasoning behind the hand was illogical, rushed, and narrow-minded—and it cost me a day’s worth of work in a matter of seconds.
I didn’t even bother to buy back into the game. I just said “nice hand” to the guy, got up and left with my hands over my head and a pained expression on my face. How the hell could I lose the money just like that? It would’ve been one thing if the guy had made a great decision and called with an average hand, or if I had just suffered a really bad beat, but instead I made a really horrendous choice and I had played poorly.
As I said, though, that thought was just for an instant. While this was the first time I’d lost an entire $300 buy-in in one hand, it wasn’t the first time that I’d lost that much at a table, and it wasn’t the first time I’d lost an entire buy-in before (mostly at smaller stakes online). In fact, I was almost certain that if I had sat down at that table and played within my game, I would’ve walked away a huge winner. It wasn’t so much that I needed to get the money back as it was I knew the other players were much worse than me and very beatable.
I wrote in my last blog piece about the need to withstand the unexpected and handle the bad beats when they come. But far more important and critical to my success out here is being able to understand the days when I, quite frankly, just sucked and analyze why I played so poorly.
Notice how I didn’t say the days where I lost or the days I won. I’ve had days where I played every hand perfectly and left the table with less money and I’ve had days where I made poor decisions and got extremely lucky. While winning on days where I play poor is a nice feeling, it’s also one where I almost feel guilty for having won money when I really shouldn’t have. It’s also a feeling of weariness, knowing that the decisions I made will lose me money in the long haul.
When I look back at what happened the previous session, I don’t just say, “well this would have been the correct play here,” because while in a given situation there may be a “best” answer, that doesn’t mean there aren’t other actions that could have worked as well. For example, on the hand where I lost everything, I shoved Ace-King on a board of 2-3-5 after the guy had raised my original hand, trying to represent a hand like pocket aces or trip fives. Obviously, given what happened, the correct play would have been to fold since he had the straight. But what if I had called and seen a turn card? What if I never bet out first on that board? What if?
I’m not a what-if person in real life. But the real key to my success as a poker player is not just asking “What would’ve been the correct play here” but instead, “What could have I done differently here? How would each possibility have ended?”
Sometimes, there’s only one really good answer. But by keeping an open mind and not focusing on one huge mistake or one possible solution, you always wind up with the most long-term success.
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