In Search of My Inner Phil Hellmuth

i have not lived up to my promise of keeping up with daily reports. partly that is a result of generic laziness. i am also adjusting to many late nights and sleeping in. at least two or three nights a week bedtime is between 4am and 6am. i can't recall when i was last on that kind of sleep schedule. in addition, the last couple of weeks have also not been very kind to us. instead of trying to keep up on a daily basis i will post instead when i have specific hands of particular interest or thoughts about the game that i would like to hash out a bit.

today, i would like to discuss making big pre-flop laydowns. twice, recently i was incapable of laying down a big pocket pair to what i perceived to be pocket aces. a week ago, sunday, we were playing at the horsehoe casino. there was one tourist at the table who was a total fish and i could not lay down KK to his obvious AA. i lost about $250 on the hand and a total of $500 for the session which was my worst day ever.

let's take a look at the psychological groundwork involved. i was already down somewhere in the neighborhood of $250. i was not involved in any major pots prior to this one. i was losing many small- and medium-sized pots. 40% of cards seem to fall in this range - 62o, J3o, Q2o, and K8o. my highest pocket pair prior to the kings was a pair of eights. i limped in early position with my kings because i was confident the fish would raise. he raised the vast majority of hands and played almost every single hand. like clockwork, he raised to $10 when the action moved around to him in middle position. when the action got back to me i made it $40 to go. he then re-raised to $140. that was when i started suppressing all of the alarm bells that were going off. the hand was perfect until his $100 re-raise. i didn't even make the smart bad play which is to just call the re-raise and move all-in on the flop when an A doesn't hit in case he is over-valuing AK in this spot. i would have still lost all my money since the flop was 10 high, but if an A hits i can lay it down. i moved all-in and he called instantly. before the cards are even flipped steven declares "kings and aces".

my ego just wouldn't allow me to heed my instincts. in the midst of this bad session i couldn't accept that my perfectly excuted use of my first big hand had gone from gold to shit in a matter of seconds. "how could this happen against the fish?" "how could i lay this beautiful hand down against the guy who has been giving away plenty of money at the table for the last few days?" the real question that i need to ask if i want to reach my potential is, "how can i not lay this hand down?" my post-session analysis of my play started with the thought, "i am good enough to lay the kings down in this situation" followed almost immediately by, "obviously, i'm not."

steven came over with another regular from the game, monty. the first thing he said was, "if u lay down those kings there u are a better poker player than i am" followed a little later by, "remember that's the hardest lay down in poker". those statements were partially to cheer me up and partially for monty's benefit. when alone he said, "u have to be able to lay those down there". the big lesson is to focus more attention on the psychology of the game. why is this person playing poker today? what are his/her tendencies? how can i exploit them to win more money? one of the biggest things for me is to accept the inevitable downswings. until now they have only existed in theory.

the reason i titled this entry, "in search of my inner phil hellmuth (official site" is hellmuth has an unbelievable ability to put people on hands and make big big laydowns. he has supreme confidence in his reads and then let's that dictate his play. in this situation, i would not allow myself to pay complete attention to what in restrospect was obvious – even the fish can pick up AA. had i simply accepted my $40 loss then i would have avoided losing an additional $200. i can't let what has already happened in any given session dictate the decisions i have to make. although i did not act immediately after the $100 re-raise i certainly didn't allow myself the proper time to think through where i was at in the hand. focus, focus, focus. it is the small things that one does over and over that separate the weak from the average, the average from the great, and the great from the phenomenal.

tuesday we played in the rebuy tournament at the radisson. after the break i had T1085 and the blinds started at 15 - 30. i lost a chunk in one of the very first hands. i picked up Qd 8d in the bb. two people limped in and so did the sb. i checked my option. the flop was was 998. the sb checked and i bet out T125. the two limpers folded and the sb moved all-in. i made the easy laydown and the sb flipped up A9. i was drawing dead to running queens or running 8s. i'm not sure if the sb would have gotten any more money out of me or not, but that was definitely a weak play on his part.

several hands later with about T900 in chips i pick up QQ in middle position. one player limped in front of me and i raised it to T150. leo (spelled liu), a solid player, re-raised to T400. i considered folding the queens, but decided to call and see what the flop brought. it was J high and i moved all-in and was called immediately as leo turned over AA. part of the reason i did not fold pre-flop was the nature of tournament play. i need to double up to have a reasonable chance to make some money. i figure that there is a good chance that leo has AK and if the flop doesn't have a K or an A i will move all-in. again, i didn't listen to my instincts. i sensed he had aces, but instead played the hand as if i my read was generic - "he has a big hand, but i can't be sure how big". once i commit almost half my chips pre-flop it was hard to get away from.

in reflecting upon this hand, i realized that i had more information available to me than i actually consciously processed. i have seen leo play a fair amount and i have seen him raise plenty of times, but i don't believe i have ever seen him re-raise anyone. had i thought about this i probably could have eliminated AK from his possible range of hands or at least minimized the possibility that this is what he was holding. if i do this then i need to make this laydown. there is a slight chance he would re-raise with JJ, but unlikely. the only hands that make sense are KK and AA. if i have more chips i can call the raise and see if i flop a set because i am almost guaranteed to get all his chips.

in the future, when faced with situations like these i will ask myself "what would phil do?" (WWPD).