Focus on the decision not the outcome

Last night I played three $5 6 player no limit tournaments and I finished in second every time. What I found interesting in this series of tournaments was the decisions I made and the winners made not the eventual outcome.

My game and understanding of the game has been steadily improving for a number of reasons – 1) because I am playing a lot 2) because I have been coaching someone a lot 3) because I try to read about the game as much as I can 4) because I have a couple of people I talk to a lot about the game in general, their games and mine 5) I continue to watch a fair bit of poker and really pay attention to the analysts and 6) because I started this blog. The last one may seem odd but as I am playing I find myself thinking about all of the same things I used to … my image at the table, other players’ images at the table, position, chip stacks, point in the tournament, who pays how much for draws, trying to put my opponents on a hand etc….. But, since I started this blog I also find myself looking for things to write about, whether it’s a specific situation or something more subtle I am learning as I evolve. Last night I think I saw a pretty good example of my evolution and I thought I would write about it today in case it can help someone else.

As I mentioned, I finished second in three straight tournaments, by not finishing first in all of them I left a few bucks on the table, but that’s not the point, the point is to evolve and learn and grow and get better at the game. Poker is all about the decisions you make and although a complex game with many variables it can all be boiled down to getting your money (and someone else’s) into the pot when you have the best hand.

In the first tournament last night I was the chip leader by a significant margin when we got to heads up. I put my opponent all in 3 times (over the course of several hands) and all 3 times I had the best hand and all 3 times he hit what he needed to win, he was lucky to the point where he actually commented on it, which I find is pretty rare. When I was all in with my last 140 chips (compared to his 8,860) he was behind and hit. Of course, by then it was over but I thought I would mention that he won 4 times going into the hand behind.

In the second tournament I was way behind in chips, roughly 1,000 to 8,000 and blinds were 100, 200 so I had to act quickly and was clearly desperate. As it turned out, I went all in ahead and he hit but in this tournament it only happened once because of course, he had me covered.

The final tournament played out a little differently, when we were down to three players I was the low stack and went in behind and the board hit the straight for a split. Eventually, I ended up heads up as the low stack and battled to get it to about even, I pushed all in with KQ suited hoping to steal the blinds and to change the pace as he had been pushing me around for a bit, and he called with AK and took me out.

So, 7 all-ins in 3 tournaments and I was ahead 5 out of 7 times. Not bad. And, not bad that I got to heads up in all 3 tournaments in the first place, so rather than lament the fact that the outcome could have been different I chose to focus on the fact that I played well and more often than not I made the right decisions.

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