As we all know, falling in love in real life always has a chance of ending in heart break; although it might be amazing at the start, things could turn sour faster than you think.
The same principles can apply in poker. I’ve seen far too many player fall in love with their hole cards, then be completely oblivious to what their opponents could be holding. Metaphorically speaking, this is the same as being oblivious to a partner that could be cheating on you.
You just don’t do it.
Recently, I was playing poker at Full Tilt Poker against an opponent who did exactly the thing that I am trying to warn you against. Now this opponent was no amateur, they were quite an experienced poker player and perhaps shouldn’t have made the mistake that they did, but this just goes to show that anyone can fall in love with their cards.
This opponent was lucky enough to be dealt what we all hope for: Aces in the hole. He was on big blind, and when most players limped in, he raised. I was on the button with 10 jack of hearts, called his raise, as did one other player before me. Up until this point, my opponent has played his hand flawlessly, he raised to narrow the field of players that could beat him as well as stopping players with weaker cards seeing the flop cheaply.
So now there are three players in the pot and we see the flop, eight of clubs, nine of hearts and ace of hearts. BANG just like seeing the woman of his dreams my opponent was in love, he had flopped his set of aces. But – as you can see – I had flopped a flush draw and also an open ended strait draw.
Straight away, he bet into the pot and the other player folded. With so many outs, it made the odds a no-brainer to call. The turn was a lousy 3 of spades, no help to me. Not to worry though, as I still had 15 outs left in the deck. Immediately he bet again, not enough to make the odds too long for me to call though, it seems as though he was trying to keep me in the pot to extract as much money from me as possible. I call, and on the river falls the five of hearts.
Completely oblivious to the third heart that had just fallen, he bet into me with no fear and I immediately raised him to not give him anytime to think. Without too much thought process, he pushes all in. I call, knowing I have him dominated. With much authority and pride, he shows me his pretty set of aces. I calmly show him my flush and the look on his face – I will never forget, it was as if he had just caught his partner in the act of cheating. He got up from his seat and walked off without saying a word.
In hindsight, he will know he made a mistake, but in the heat of the moment and the love for the “monster” he had just been dealt, his eyes were wide shut and didn’t even consider what I could be holding. He isn’t the first player to make this mistake on Full Tilt, and certainly won’t be the last. We have all made this mistake and when we look back on it we say “DAMN, how did I not know that he had made a straight”. A quick re-assessment of our hand and what our opponents could be calling with can save you a lot of money in the long run.
Just like a relationship that’s gone sour, its best to release your hand when its obvious that you have been outrun, no matter how much love you had for the cards when they were first dealt!
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