When I Was A Donk: With Matt Vengrin

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.

Matt Vengrin has been a poker pro for more than a decade now. During that stretch, the Red Hook, New York native has racked up almost $900,000 in live tournament earnings along with another $2.9 million in online winnings.

Last summer, Vengrin finished runner-up in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event at the 2015 World Series of Poker for $161,680 and most recently, he earned his first PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) bracelet.

Here, Vengrin talks about a big mental error he made at the tables.

I was playing in a World Series of Poker event in 2013. If I remember correctly, it was a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event and we were already in the money on day 2. I found myself in a big pot with someone on the river.

I really wanted to go all-in, but as I was thinking over my options, I came to the conclusion that my opponent was going to call me. I realized that I was trying to find a way to win the pot, even though my opponent was really strong, just because there was so much money in the pot. I knew I was going to get called, which was obviously not what I wanted, so I decided to give up.

All of a sudden, I hear the words, “I’m all in” come out of my mouth, even though I had settled on folding. For some horrible reason, my brain and my mouth weren’t on the same page, and I had to move all in.

Of course, he instantly called me with the nuts and I busted the tournament. That was the only time that has ever happened to me at the table, and obviously I didn’t admit it in the moment because I didn’t want to look stupid.

It might sound like simple advice, but think before you act. You don’t need to go so far as to cover your mouth at the table, but there’s nothing wrong with taking a few extra seconds to make sure that you really want to make that decision and that you’re not just on autopilot. ♠