RATS

Okay, so now I've dropped 300.  My play last night was fine, just some beats and some tilting.  I should be fine.

 

I saw Jennifer Harmon's beat at the feature table WSOP 2005 day 1.  She holds QdQ, guy calls with 8d9d

 

Flop is TJdQ, guy has straight, Jen has top set.

 

Turn is Td giving Jen nut boat, and opponent SF draw, Jennifer holds Qd so he has one out (2% by the way)

 

River's 7d  I was gonna say 'horrid', but it's precisely that sort of emotion I don't need in my game.

 

It didn't put her out, but she was pissed enough that it really affected her.  She did a really smart thing.  She left the feature table.  Just walked away for a moment.  When she returned, she was still aggravated, however.  She went out shortly afterward.

 

My point is that these beats happen in real life.  We have to learn to deal with them emotionally and continue to play your best game.

 

Observe Daniel Negranau, who (televised) continued to laydown stong hands when he was beat.  Emotionally, he seemed to be dealing with these blows much better.  He was able to keep his head about him when laying down these hands, even though he didn't know if he made the right decision.

 

In contrast to this, we see the extremely lucky situations where players play mediocre hands and flop monsters - AT Sammy Farha, TT some actor guy, flop AAT  First hand.  All the $ goes in, guy is out 10k in 90 seconds.  Then Sammy goes on to flop a set of 3's vs AA to rise above 30K in just a few minutes.

 

Greg Raymer ends up getting catching cards of a lifetime once he moved to the final table and having everyone pay him off.  He also plays 22 vs a raise and goes on the attack vs AA and rivers a flush draw.  (This play, and Raymer's action on this hand warrants careful review of how to play 22 with his flush draw, and how not to play Aces.)

 

All of this points to the requirements of keeping your head about you when everything goes wrong for you, and everything goes so right for everyone else.