When I Was A Donk – Liv Boeree

In this series, Card Player asks top pros to rewind back to their humble beginnings and provide insights regarding the mistakes, leaks, and deficiencies that they had to overcome in order to improve their games.

Liv Boeree grew up with a passion for sports and heavy metal and studied astrophysics in college. After graduating, she took a job as a number cruncher at an online advertising company, but it wasn’t long before she was bit by the poker bug and decided to make that her career.

Her big break came in 2010 when she won the European Poker Tour San Remo main event for $1.6 million. Most recently, she finished third in the EPT Barcelona high roller event for another $453,000. In total, the 31-year-old Team PokerStars Pro has earned more than $2.8 million in live tournaments.

Here, Boeree talks about a big mistake she made at one of her first poker tournaments.

Back in 2005, when I was just learning how to play poker, I was playing a £10 rebuy down at the Gutshot Poker Club in London. I had only been playing for about three months at the time. On one particular hand, I three-bet from out of position, I think it was the small blind, and somehow managed to flop quad kings.

So first to act, I decided to bet full pot. My thought process was that I had a big hand, so I should bet like I had a big hand, which was big. Clearly, I didn’t understand the concept of milking value from my opponent. My opponent obviously folded, because there were very few hands he could have had that would’ve paid me off. To make things worse, I showed my hand.

Everybody at the table immediately went crazy, because of course that’s what happens when someone shows quads, and that’s when it hit me that, perhaps, I could’ve slowed down a little bit. Even the dealer took me aside a little later just to let me know that it’s okay to slowplay some hands to get some more action. You know you played a hand poorly when the dealer says something.

After that, I probably swung too much the other way and overcompensated by trapping every chance I got, which obviously isn’t the right thing to do either. It takes a while for a beginning player to find the right balance between getting value and protecting their hands. Once you understand board texture and how it hits your opponent’s range, then you can make a better decision on whether or not to slow play. ♠