not another bad beat story

i am pokermax

My name is Vic de Guzman. I am an amatuer poker player from the Philippines. Though I play a lot of poker, both tournament and cash games, I still do not consider myself as a professional player. However, I consider myself a student of the game, eagerly learning and appreciating this mind-blowing card game. I am known in the Philippine Poker scene as POKERMAX. Why POKERMAX? A lot of people say that I bring so much action at the tables. I've had some Poker Tournament success in my 5+ years playing poker, namely, Champion of the 2nd season of the POKER BAR TOUR (2006), 2009 Filipino Poker Tour Champion wherein I bested a field of 667 (the biggest field in Asia) with a prize pool of 6 Million pesos, Champion of the 1st Rotary Charity poker event, 48th place in the 2009 Asia Pacific Poker Tour in Cebu, and several other tournaments wherein I placed in the money. I am currently a regular player at the Manila Bay Poker Club at the Mall of Asia and The Big Ace Poker Club in Mandaluyong.

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Valuable lessons in less than an hour of cash game
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
3:04 PM

I have not posted a blog in a long while. I have been very busy in the last 2 1/2 month on my latest poker-related project. I promise to write about it in my next blog.

In the meantime, I would like to share last night's session. It was probably the shortest live cash game session I have played. I was ready to play longer coz I had enough money to make 4 max buy-ins at a 50-100 game. I had to quit though as I felt that last night session was not gonna be productive for me as I was on super tilt mode. Let me tell you why.

A friend invited me to a 50-100 game last night. He said that the table was gonna be filled with people we know and that it was just gonna be a "friendly" game. No sharks. No Fish. Just friends playing. First of all, there are no such thing as a "friendly" game. It's either you go after their stack or they go after yours. Its as simple as that. So playing with friends was never a comfortable proposition for me. However, since I didn't have anything to do last night, I decided to go play with my friends. It was probably on the 2nd hand that I played when I went on super tilt. I was at the dealer button position and was holding a K 10 offsuit. I simply called. Mind you, the action was folded around to me and the card I was holding was a favorite against the 2 random hand of the small blind and the big blind. Normally I would have raised. However, the invitation of it being a "friendly" game stuck at the back of my mind. The small blind called and the big blind checked. The flop showed

I just made the nuts straight! The small blind led out with a bet of 350. The big blind called. I declared a raise and that before I placed my bet, I said that holding an AQ was no good. I don't normally do that, but in the spirit of the game being friendly, I decided to go along with the night's theme. Then I placed a bet of 800. The small blind folded, but before doing so he asked why I made a raise. I said that I have K 10. Now that's really being friendly. The big blind, who happens to be a very, very good friend of mine was next to act. Whenever I play with this guy, I always play soft especially when we are heads up. I check it down and let him buy his draw.s for free I never re-pop his bets. I don't value bet on him even if I have the nuts. I remember even asking him one time to stop betting coz I had the nuts. At one time, I even returned the money he put in the pot as a friendly gesture. In other words, his money is no good to me. So it really came as a shock to me when he declared he was ALL IN. Was he protecting a big pocket pair like AA or KK? Does he have 2 pairs? Did he make a set? No matter, I had THE NUTS and he would need to hit his draw to make a better hand. I must admit that I was a bit upset that he can's let go of the total of 400 he put into the pot. I had no choice. I had to call. I immediately showed my K 10. To my surprise he shows 10-2 of spades! All he had was an open ended draw and a back door flush draw. Now I was really upset. Was he stealing the pot from me? That was not friendly at all. I would have understood it had that move come from someone I didn't know. He said that he didn't believe that I had it. No matter. He didn't have anything too. Why the ALL IN move?! Worst, he made a runner-runner spades to make a flush!! He had me barely covered as I was left with less than 500 in my stack. I was so upset that I pushed my remaining stack without looking and immediately left the table. Before I left, he ask if I was angry at him and why I was leaving. I answered him yes that I was upset with him and that I was leaving coz I don't want to pretend that it was alright coz it's not! I was not gonna be able to play at an optimum level on a super tilt mode. Quitting was the only option for me.

I learned so much from that session. In less than 1 hour, I realized a lot of things that I needed to do to improve my game. Lesson # 1 "There is no such thing as Friendly Poker." You have to be ruthless, everyone else at the table is! Everyone is playing with real money. You always have to go after your opponent's stack. As B.A. Barrachus would say "I pity the fool!" Last night, I pity myself! Lesson # 2 "Compassion and Poker doesn't mix!" Whenever you are playing poker, you have to be ready to run over anybody, including your grandma! Be kind to kids. Be kind to the poor. Be kind to the elderly. But never be kind to anyone playing at the same table with you. Lesson # 3 " Quitting is always an option." Whether you are winning or losing, one has to consider quitting. Quitting may be temporary, say let a few hand past. Go for a smoke, Restroom break or grab a drink. The break will give you the necessary space to set you back into your proper mindset. Don't play your rush as you would be making decisions based on feel. Same when you are losing, quit and take a break so that you would not be deciding based on emotions.

Optimum play is based on having a clear head. Emotions or rush should not be a basis for winning or losing. Tilt is part of playing. However, controlling one's emotion gives a player an edge. The 3 lessons I just picked up from the session I had last night are very valuable in my quest to be a winning player.

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