Grumpy – I really wish I could find some omaha games live, but just like 7 card stud, people are not playing. I think the reason is the kids like to play holdem cos they can whack it all in and hope for the best. They have more chance of getting lucky with holdem than they do with stud or omaha. A lot have now gone broke, but at least they had a run where they got lucky. Holdem gives them that chance. Stud is dead over here in the UK. Hardly anyone now plays omaha either. When I first started playing I found myself sitting at the table with ”grumpy old men,” as Dave Colclough once put it. Although the poker explosion has brought some new blood to the game, a lot of the time I now find myself playing against grumpy old men once again. The only difference is, I am now one of those grumpy old men.

A poker table is the one place where I can stare at a beautiful woman and they don’t send for the police.

Back your judgement - I get Ks Kh in the BB. 3 or 4 limped in and a late position player who is one of those highly aggressive rubbish type players (30 ish not young) raised £5. Great! I raise it another £10 and he calls. Please god don’t let an ace come! Flop comes Ac 6d Ts. Shit!

I bet £10, he calls. If he had reraised here I would have folded and saved the rest of my chips but he just calls. 4th comes 4c. I check. I have £16 left. He bets £15. I look at him. I say “I really really didn’t want to see that ace. That’s all I didn’t want to see.” He says “I left you one.” It was the way he said it. A movement in his face, his tone, his facial expression. He didn’t reraise when I bet £10. I didn’t think he had the ace. I said to myself, “If you want to play this game well, you have to back your judgement. If your judgement isn’t very good, you shouldn’t be playing. If your judgement is good and you don’t back it you shouldn’t be playing.” I threw in my last £16 and hedged my bets by saying “go on take it.” He shook his head, “I don’t have it.” Music to my ears! “I need a 9,” he said. I turn over my kings and the dealer deals the nine of clubs on the river. He turns over 7-8 offsuit. He called my £10 bet on the flop with nothing but an inside straight to hit. He had hit a double belly buster on the turn, but I’m not sure he even realised it.

The hand was a mini revelation. It made me realise I had to trust my judgement more. If you have bad judgement, you shouldn’t be playing poker.  If you have good judgement and you don’t back it, you shouldn’t be playing poker. So be willing to back your own judgement, if your senses are screaming out to do something. Yes, sometimes they will let you down, and you’ll tell yourself that you’re an idiot for not following your head. (The head in your hands, how could I call on THAT board feeling.) But having good instincts and backing them, is one of the most important qualitites that sets poker players apart. Of course I had played that hand very well, in my own humble opinion. I had made the correct decision based on my own good judgememnt. I had correctly reraised preflop to get as much money as possible into the pot while I was ahead. I did everything right, and still got screwed. I hate the game.

There are more important things than poker. Like playing poker for more money – At the start of last year I did something I generally dont do. Call a bet hoping to hit a draw. It’s an awful habit, especially when you’re not drawing to the nuts. I was in a £50 tourney with about 50 players. Starting stack was 5000 chips and I was up to about 8000 on the 3rd level of 100/200. I caught my spade on the river and called a large bet. It was only the queen of spades, so I just called as my opponnent was betting with some confidence. “You got the ace of spades?” I asked. “No, I got the queen,” was the reply. “No, I got the queen,” I said. Since my opponent was highly skilled and highly experienced I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. I looked down to see the queen of spades and ten of clubs had metamorphosed into the queen of clubs and ten of spades. I usually check my cards twice, but my eyes were killing me, along with my head, so I could hardly see my cards at all. It hurt to look at anything. It hurt to drive to the venue with my eyes in a permanent squint. It hurt to look at anything at all. Vision was blurred and my eyes sent shards of pain through my head. This resulted in splitting migraines.

I told my sad tale of the misread in the break, to a guy who has been playing for upwards of 40 years at very high levels. He told me about a 2 day £1000 tourney that he had bought in to. He was doing well and down to the last 3 tables. He looked down at pocket 7’s and reraised all in when he hit trips. Only problem was he hadn’t squeezed the cards properly and those pocket 7’s turned out to be 3/7o. He got knocked out on a rag 3/7o after 2 days hard work! Made me feel a little better. Even the best can screw it all up. A few days later my doctor was really worried I was losing my sight and I got sent to an eye specialist. Thankfully my eyes are now fine, and it at least puts things a little into perspective. Occasionally there are thing more important than a piddling £50 tournament. It’s just when you’re playing, nothing else seems to matter.

You might just as well play two random cards – I was at a finals table and there was a raise under the gun. A player in middle position called, and I reraised a gigantic amount which said “I have a massive hand, I am pot committed.” The original raiser folded because he knew my game. The caller called for half his stack. The flop comes with a Q 9 rag. The caller checks and I push all in. He calls and turns over pocket tens. He finds a straight draw on the turn which misses. I shake my head. “Well I had a pair of tens, what do you expect me to do with tens?” “Throw them away,” I replied. There are many occasions where you are actually better playing two random cards than a small to medium pair or rag ace, because if you are against a big ace or big pair with those hands you are a massive underdog. Two suited connector cards are better than a small to medium pair against an overpair. Okay, they were tens, but tens are just one pair, and a not particularly good one at that. Against a raise and reraise or the situation I have described they should be in the muck, especially against a player like myself. The action tells you a great amount where you are in a hand.