Heart vs. Head

Let me preface this article by saying that the poker mechanics that I am talking about here and in a majority of the articles that I post are in regards to cash poker games. Cash games are more of my element over tournament poker so some of the comments that I make may not have the same relevance. I have continually chided that to tournament and live poker are two different species of game.

I hear poker players make a common excuse for a hand that they lose and why they lost. They make a call to a big bet, knowing that they are behind in a hand (and I mean waaaaaaaay behind with horrendous odds), they lose the hand, and they say something along the lines of, “I really didn’t want to call but,....” Now that’s the first problem right there. They have their buts in the way. Those are some of the biggest buts you’ll ever see in your life. When you say but you change everything that you said before it.

I think poker players have a bad tendency to make betting decisions with their heart and not with their head. The chips that are in the middle of the pot are screaming, “Come get me if you dare,” yet they have the most horrendous odds of making the winning hand and they call just hoping to get lucky. The end results of these decisions usually go the way that the player figured that they would and I can usually hear them walking away from the table mumbling to themselves about how badly that they played and they knew it, or how much they hate the game and will never set foot in the casino again.

I remember a session when I was playing 1/3 NL and I picked up 89 hearts in the cutoff and I find myself seeing the flop with 3 other opponents. The flop comes J♥ 10♦ Q♥. First player to act bets $50 into a pot of $64 and the next player folds. With a straight already in my hand, a redraw for a flush, and one other opponent behind me waiting to act, the last thing I want to do if he a King in his hand is to give him the opportunity to catch the Ace that he needs to beat me; at least not at a cheap price. I figure my best chance to win the hand is to move it all in right here. My feeling in that situation is that if someone already has AK and flopped the absolute joint, I can pay him off, and gladly so because at least I know that I got my chips in the middle with a made hand, and I have good pot odds to hit a flush for a winner. If he has a King and is drawing then I can gamble for a big pot with the advantage going to the river. The player behind me folded and the initial bettor calls. He has pocket Kings. He picks up a King on the turn to make a set, but the the board doesn’t pair on the river and the pot moves my way.

The call by my opponent (even though it was what I wanted) was a bit baffling to me. He was getting a return of just over even money in a situation where he was just over a 3 to 1 underdog. Remember, there were only $64 in the pot going to the flop. He had $185 left. When our other opponent folded, the most he was going to get was $185 of my chips. I knew he was behind once he thought about calling, and I gave him some good fold equity to just throw his hand away. I knew he wasn’t looking at it that way mathematically at the time. I don't think he could let himself consciously leave that much money in the pot with a pair of Kings in his hand. He even admitted to me later, while we both happened to take a break at the same time, that he suspected that I flopped a monster but he just couldn’t let the hand go.

When you let emotions start making your decisions on what to do versus making a decision based on what you know is right, that’s a huge leak. It’s one that can and will cost you an enormous amount of money over the long haul. In fact, it will ultimately make you a losing player. Your heart and emotions have absolutely no effect of what cards are going to come out of the deck because the cards don’t recognize what you’re feeling. If you’re beat and you either suspect or know it, the best advice is to throw the hand away. Some will take nothing away from what I’m saying and that’s okay. Believe me, if you continue to do what isn’t working for you your opponents won’t mind that you have refused to change when they are going to the cashier’s cage and counting what used to be your chips, again.