Mind Over Poker

One of my favorite televised poker moments occurred during a World Poker Tour event a few years back. Patrik Antonius was seated to the left of Doyle Brunson at the final table. In the edited version, Antonius was shown reraising Brunson preflop on quite a few hands. Each time, Brunson folded, until the following hand took place. Brunson raised with pocket threes. Antonius reraised all in with A-2. Brunson decided to take a stand and called. When Brunson made the call, Antonius was surprised to see the cards that Brunson held, and asked, incredulously, “How could you make that call?” Brunson’s response was classic: “We’re playing poker, not solitaire.” Brunson doubled up, and the crowd cheered.

Why do I bring this up? I was reminded of this after a recent mistake I made. This mistake is one that I see made all the time, and I should have known much better. My problem was not one of playing solitaire. I was playing poker, but I was playing poker against one opponent instead of two. The problem was that I had two opponents in the hand. I correctly deduced that I could take the hand away from the original raiser after the flop, which I did. What I didn’t properly measure was the third person in the hand. I ended up losing a big pot to a player who was not the object of my intense focus and scrutiny.

Here’s the hand: I’m in the big blind with rags. A tight-aggressive player open-raises from middle position. The player on the button calls. I call from the big blind because I know that the original raiser will fire a continuation-bet no matter what, and if he doesn’t hit the flop, I can take the pot with a check-raise. A nondescript flop comes, giving me middle pair and putting a flush draw out there. I check, and the original raiser makes a bet. The button calls. Instead of raising, I call. The turn brings a blank and I fire out a bet. Just as I had planned, the original raiser quickly folds. What I hadn’t counted on was the button making a nice raise. I was now forced to fold.

Of course, I know better, and it is not a mistake that I typically make. However, I was so excited about my read on my primary opponent that I let my vision get clouded. I chose to ignore the potential danger of the third person in the hand. It’s extremely difficult to make moves in a multiway pot. When you have a player you want to pick on, it’s always best to try to isolate him. Not only did I fail to do that in this case, I compounded the problem by ignoring my other opponent. I wasn’t playing solitaire, but my crime was just as bad as that; I was playing heads up while in a three-way pot.

David Apostolico’s latest book is Compete, Play, Win: Finding Your Best Competitive Self. You can contact him at [email protected].