wot's, uh, the deal?

PS is running the 20 tables (180 players) $4s again! To me, this the BEST talent test for the money.

Last nights adventure was definetely a wake up call for me.

In level 1, I make a bad play. I made a push in level 1 (already a bad idea), but then checked the turn and so did the opponent. Had I put in a good bet there, he would have folded what turned out to be a 4 outer. He hit it on the river. And he bet. AND I called it. IF I WAS GOING TO CALL A RIVER BET, THEN I SHOULD HAVE MADE A TURN BET INSTEAD. Not only am I down half my chips, I did this in level 1 where you start in a position where you need to ACCUMULATE chips.

5 minutes later I double up back to the starting stack size. But I COULD have been chipped up. Instead I am "chasing average" (what I call it when Q<1) all the way to the break. At the break, the average is like 4000 and I have like 1800. I figure its a few more hands and I am out. BUT, I am making GOOD decisions now and about 90 players have eliminated themselves.

There are now 60 players left and I am 27th in chips.
There are now 50 players left and I am SEVENTH in chips!
There are now 40 players left and I am 5th in chips!

With 24 or so players left (18 pay), I am in the top 10. And then I bubbled. How did it happen? Was it bad luck? Was it suckouts? HARDLY. I played BAD.

How does one play so good and then SELF DISTRUCT?! Let me tell you!

Let's skip the hand analysis and skip to the BASIC breakdowns that directly contributed to my downfall. Since I was a big stack, I should AVOID confrontation with the ONLY OTHER BIG STACK at my table! Worse yet, HE was in position! When that flop came and I bet out and he called. I got suspicious. Why, because I watched him numerous times call on the flop and raise on the turn to steal a pot. And yet, I made the flop bet with a weak holding, which he called. Then I made a STRONG turn bet which he came over the top of. I had to fold. POOR PLAY.

Then I COMPOUNDED my mistake by trying the same trick he used on me on another player. He also took my chips. And suddenly, I was in RED (M=5) territory again. TERRIBLE PLAY. It pains me to see that after years of this, I can still be such a train wreck.

I need to train. I am back at the 180s until I can produce results.