Do you ever find yourself in an unenviable position at the table and ask yourself, how did I get myself in this mess? Of course you have. We all do. This happens to every players, whether amateur or professional regardless of the amount of skill. Many times, this happens when a player gets involved in a pot that they should not have gotten themselves into in the first place. If you find yourself cold-calling raises with hands such as A-J offsuit or K-10 suited or offsuit, you can often times find yourself dominated, even if you flop top pair by someone holding the same pair with a higher kicker. Before you cold call a raise, ask yourself one simple question:
What kind of a flop am I looking for here?

If the answer to that question is flopping a straight or flopping trips, then you probably shouldn’t get involved with the hand at all. Just muck them. Live to fight another day.

I had been running pretty well when I made this very mistake in judgment. I was in the Big Blind looking at the Kh-10c. I wasn’t even suited. An under the gun player raised to 8 and the button made it $16 to go. Inexplicably, I called. That was my first mistake. The flop came down 10h-10s-jd. Perfect flop I thought to myself. I flopped a set. Since I was out of position, I checked with the intention of check-raising. That was mistake number 2 as no one bet and the turn was the Qd. I bet $20, one street too late, the initial raiser folded and the re-raiser, re-raised all in for $100.

This is where I made mistake number 3. Without giving it much thought, I called. I didn’t stop to think what he could be holding. Any rational person would have figured him as having Big Slick and now having a straight. For some reason, I didn’t think about that possibility and called and sure enough, that’s what he had. Now I was left with 4 outs, the other 10 or one of the 3 other kings. The River was the measly 6h and I was sunk.

I always preach about patience and thinking everything through. Unfortunately, it this spot, I didn’t stop to think, not once and it cost me big time. I learned my lessons. Don’t call raises with marginal speculative hands, and think when re-raised. I had played with my opponent quite often and should have known that his actions meant I was beaten. Good players learn from their mistakes, and I consider myself to be a good player, most of the time at least. I won’t make the same mistakes again.

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