Losing All The Hands

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When you lose a bunch of hands in a row, it is easy to get discouraged. Instead of losing your mind and tilting away your stack, you should simply continue playing great poker. Sometimes you are going to go on a bad run and that is perfectly fine!

On a recent poker trip, I could not win a hand to save my life. Despite this, I stayed level-headed and continued playing my best game. The following hand is a spot where I think many players would lose their entire stack, but by thinking about ranges and attempting to minimize risk, I was able to save half of my chips, allowing me to keep my seat in the tournament.

In a $3,500 buy-in tournament with 100-200 blinds, a splashy player raised to 400 out of his 15,000 effective stack from first position at our seven-handed table.

I looked down at K K and three-bet to 1,200 from the hijack seat. An unknown, but seemingly competent, player cold called from the cutoff. The action folded around to the initial raiser, who also called.

I am loving this situation. The cutoff’s range should be quite strong (but still crushed by K-K). While some players will make the mistake of calling three-bets with the implied odds hands, such as 2-2, A 5, and 10 9, most reasonable players call in this spot with strong hands they do not think are premium enough to get all-in, primarily Q-Q, J-J, 10-10, 9-9, A-K, and A-Q.

The initial raiser likely has a decent hand (given he raised from first position) but it is tough to say exactly how wide he is raising. It is also difficult to know if he folds any of his raising range to my three-bet when he is getting decent odds due to the cold caller (although he should certainly fold many of his offsuit hands).

The flop came Q 10 4. Everyone checked.

Given the cold caller’s range, this is an excellent spot to check and see what develops. While I am not planning to fold my K-K to one or two bets, if significant action takes place (such as a cutoff bet and then a call or raise from the splashy player), I will consider getting out of the way because it is easy for either opponent to have Q-Q or 10-10.

Once the cutoff checks behind, I am feeling great about my hand and now only realistically have to worry about the splashy player. Notice that checking the flop does not open me up to getting outdrawn too often and may also induce someone with a queen or 10 to pay me off on the turn and river.

The turn was the 3. The splashy player bet 1,800 into the 4,100 pot and only I called.

I almost certainly have the best hand at the moment, but if I raise, I will probably only get called by strong queens (which would have likely bet again on the river) and better made hands, such as sets and Q-10. As on the flop, I am not too concerned about being outdrawn, making a call the best choice. Calling also sidesteps a disastrous situation when I call, the cutoff raises, and the splashy player continues.

The river was the 7. The splashy player bet 6,500 into the 11,300 pot.

As on the turn, I have a fairly easy river call. Many players will value bet any top pair because they assume I will always bet the flop or raise the turn with my better made hands. My splashy opponent could even be bluffing with a hand like A-J or J-9.

One thing worth noting is that some players who see lots of flops and turns may not actually be aggressive, meaning when they put significant money in the pot in an aggressive manner, they often have the strong hand they are representing. This concept could certainly apply in this case, but even then, most players think top pairs like Q-J are a strong enough value bet in this spot.

I called and lost to Q 10 for two pair.

Although I lost this hand, it certainly could have gone worse if I was a bit more aggressive. Sometimes, when it rains, it pours. Enjoy the experience!

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Jonathan Little is a two-time WPT winner and the 2024 PokerGO Cup champion with nearly $9 million million in live tournament earnings, best-selling author of 15 educational poker books, and 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the Year. If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush the games, check out his training site at PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.