When I Was A Donk With Blake Bohn

Blake Bohn

Blake Bohn started playing cash games in the ‘90s before transitioning to tournaments after the poker boom. The Savage, Minnesota-native has been a consistent winner ever since, starting his run with a win in the 2012 Running Aces Tournament of Champions.
The next year, he won the Chicago Poker Classic for $288,171 and narrowly missed out on a World Series of Poker bracelet, earning $281,049 for a runner-up finish in a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event.

Bohn then made back-to-back WPT final tables in September of 2014, and won the Iowa State Poker Championship the next year for $101,229. This year, Bohn took second in the April MSPT Shakopee main event for $67,203, before returning for the September event to win for another $94,776. In total, the Minnesota Poker Hall of Fame member has racked up more than $2.8 million in live tournament earnings.

Here, Bohn talks about the hand that has given him the most trouble.

“Honestly, I feel like I’ve had the same leak since the start of my career. I think I just love A-Q too much. I don’t know what it is, but I seem to have gotten into a lot of trouble with that hand over the years.”

“It’s kind of ridiculous that I’m still misplaying it as often as I do, because A-Q has cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. It’s one of those hands I have to play, but then I’m up against A-K, or two queens or better. A-Q is a hand that looks a lot better than it actually is. Think about how much better A-Q looks to you than A-J, but it’s just one click away. For some reason, my brain sees A-Q and treats it more like a premium hand.”

“I’ve gotten better about playing it on the flop, in situations where I flop an ace and might be outkicked. Or on queen high flops when I might be up against an overpair. But interestingly enough, it’s the preflop situations that have burned me the most. I’ve burned a few 20 to 25-big blind stacks getting a little crazy with A-Q preflop, and that’s obviously something that needs to be corrected.”

“The good thing about this is that I don’t really think about A-Q like that when I’m playing. When I’m in the moment, there are no bad thoughts about A-Q. You hear bad players saying things like they don’t want pocket jacks because they always lose. That’s not me. Go ahead and deal me A-Q. I’ll take it. The cards don’t know, it’s all variance.”

“I just need to get better about being a little less aggressive with it preflop. There are spots, obviously, where I want to get it in, or apply maximum pressure, but I also need to recognize those spots where my A-Q is behind.” ♠