Thrift Shop, K10hh

I love that song Thrift SHop by Macklemore.

Well, I played the $130 Friday night at Hard Rock for the Oklahoma State Championship of poker. For my fourth tournament in a row I failed to make first break. But, that shit happens and I am not overly concerned with the results of any one tournament, any ten tournaments, and even more. If I feel I am playing well then I am fine with it. Considering there is so much less volume live than online, it does seem that several players might get frustrated quicker live. Online there was the ability to play so much more volume. But, an understanding of variance coupled with constant review of the important hands played can help us understand what went on and how to improve. Thinking about getting better for the next tournament instead of why we are unlucky after busting is also an great way to stay on path and not be frustrated.

I am going to share my bust-out hand from last night. I could have folded but decided to go with my read and was kind of wrong. The reason I say kind of, is because I was right. He did not think he was ahead and was showing weakness. When I said call, he immediately said, "You're good." But, I was wrong and he had top pair, and I had second pair. 

Here is the hand.  

I am on the button with K10hh in a $130 7pm nightly during the Oklahoma State Championship of poker. The hand started with the HJ+1 opening for 3.25x to 675 at 100/200. The HJ+1 was a 30 year old black guy drinking a mixed drink and talking some. I chose to call from the button and take a flop. The BB calls as week. The flop is J510 rainbow and the BB checks, HJ+1 checks, and I make it 1200. Bb quickly folds and then the Hj+1 starts yapping about whatever and then shoves after about a one minute tank. Now as I am tanking to decide what to do as I had a plan for him raising and calling, but was not expecting a check/shove. As I am thinking he begins to talk more and more so I juts listen. I am fairly certain he is not happy that I haven't folded yet and begins to show some signs of distress. After about two minutes he calls the clock on me and continues to talk. I end up calling and he had QJ and held. The villain had me covered and i started the hand with 8kish so it was a bit of a spew. I knew I should fold as risk doesn't always equal the reward in these spots. In the end I went with a read that was not accurate enough. All in all if I could do it again I would 3b/f pre and as played I would fold to the check/raise.

If you have any comments about the hand please reply.

If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information visit http://variance101.com/# or email me at variance101@gmail.com.