Buster Collings

in keeping with my promise to be open about my poker mistakes (for your benefit) here is the 2nd installment of Buster’s Poker Mistakes.

Big Mistake Number: 2
Game: No-Limit Texas Hold’em
Cost: $130
Title: Letting the dealer distract
Story: i sit down at a table with $xxx (the blinds are $5 and $5) and i wait a very very very long time to pick up a worthy playable hand. i probably sat thru 20 hands before i finally picked up an Ace & 8 of clubs; which didn’t make a hand for me. so i sat thru another 20 hands or so before i finally picked up another playable hand.

just before i pickup up this 2nd playable hand my table got a new dealer. i immediately asked the dealer for a table change. i wanted a table change because the table i was on had a couple of really good players who had built up very large chip stacks. any smart/good player knows that those are the kind of guys u don’t want at your table… unless u are one of those guys :-). there was also a new table that opened up next to ours which had a bunch of small stack players on it and a couple of open seats. that was exactly the table i wanted to be on.

the dealer starts dealing cards while answering my question/request. his answer was “what do u mean?” so i told him “i want to change tables” and he looked at me all strange (he didn’t understand that in most cardrooms this is not obsurd). in the meantime this idiot of a dealer hands me an A,Q offsuit… FINALLY some playable cards.

at this point i’m a little aggrevated with the dealer because he is telling me that they do not do table changes and that i could leave the table and re-register and hope to be sat at another table. during my moment of aggrevation and my continued discussion with the dealer the flop comes K,Q,7. i had put in a raise before the flop and had 4 callers so now as it was checked over to me i put in another raise after the flop. the turn card comes and is a Ace. now i got a big 2 pair and as i’m aggrevated with the dealer and still chatting with him a guy in the first position bets into me $100… while there is about $150 already in the pot everyone folds but me… i decide to push the remainder of my current stack in by calling. i was halfway thinking… well if he has an A,K i gotta see it.

he didn’t have A,K… he had J,10! in other words the nut straight. and the river could only save me with a Jack, which did not come of course.

i was boiling mad now. not at the other player. he made a great play. i was mad at myself and the dealer.

if you have read my earlier post about poker mistakes you should know that by now i take measures to study the board very seriously before making decisions. however, i obviously did not do so this time.

so $130 bucks gone and WHAT DID I LEARN? a few things:

1. do not be distracted from the game when playing a hand! don’t talk to the dealer. don’t talk with other players. don’t do anything that will distract you from playing your hand to the best of your abilities. i can guarantee you that i’m excellent at reading the board now and before this mistake. i don’t overlook possible hands, when i’m looking for the possible hands.

although some might think this mistake is the same as my first one blogged, well… it is and it isn’t. i was distracted, which led to me making a similar mistake “misreading the board.”

DON’T ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE DISTRACTED!
TALK BEFORE AND AFTER HANDS, NOT DURING HANDS!

2. read the board perfectly! everytime! see my first big poker mistake.

well… u may be laughing at me, but hopefully you are taking my candid advice to heart so that u do not have to feel the burn of such a bad play.

til next time.