Could you be content with busting out of a tournament?
It’s never fun to play a game and lose. That’s especially true when there’s money on the line. However, it is possible to lose with grace and to be content with the outcome. As an old saying goes, “The best race I’ve ever run is one I didn’t win.”
As long as you do your best, you should be content even if the final result isn’t what you wanted. A lot of competitors have a hard time understanding and accepting a loss. That’s why there are somany sore losers in the poker world.
Barring a pre- agreed chop (an even split of prize money) or an alternative format, there can only be one winner in tournament poker. Furthermore, only the top 10 percent of players or so make the money, meaning that roughly 90 percent of the time you’re going to walk away with nothing. To put it bluntly, you’d better get used to losing.
In poker, there are many different ways to lose. Making ill- advised plays is often called “punting,” while two big hands running into one another is a “cooler.” There are also bad beats and coin flips. For many players, myself included, the best way to lose is when there’s nothing you would change about the way you played the hand.
A great example of this happened when I played the 2018 World Series of Poker $565 Casino Employees Event, a tournament I had won five years earlier, earning $85,000 and a gold bracelet. With blinds at 250- 500 plus an ante of 75, and sitting on just 4,200, I couldn’t wait long to make something happen.
That’s when a player in early position whom I’ll call “villain” made a minimum raise to 1,000. A lateposition player called, as did the player in the small blind. I looked down at Kc 2c in the big blind.
I already had 500 invested, and it was only 500 more into a pot of 4,175, meaning I was getting 8-to-1 odds. I decided to call with the intention of executing a stop-and-go play, which means that I’d move all in if I caught any part of the flop.
As it happened, the 2h 2d 7h flop gave me trips. With such a powerful hand, I shifted gears. Instead of moving in and scaring off the competition, I checked, and the villain continued for 750. To my surprise, the other two players called. This is when I check-raised all in for 3,700.
The villain called, and the other two players folded. I figured my opponent held a big pocket pair and I just needed for him not to make a full house. I was expecting to nearly triple up, but then I received the bad news.
The villain tabled 7c 7d for sevens full of deuces. I needed the case deuce to survive, but it was not meant to be, as both the 4h turn and the Kh river blanked.
It hurt to bust, but I’d play it the same way every time. In this case, I was content to lose.