Realizing When You're Behind
After recently returning from a tournament here in the UK, I had the chance to sit back and analyze what went wrong. I could only pin point one hand and it was a classic mistake I'm sure many players make, especially if they lose focus or are inexperienced Texas Hold'em players.Briefly, I was in the big blind with Q,Ks. The blinds were 200/400. The player to my immediate left (under the gun) raised to 1600. I called, the flop came down Q high. I checked hoping to trap my opponent, he bet all-in for 5000. This leaves me with a tough decision. Should I call and win, I am chip leader on the table by around 8000 chips. If I lose, I'm not in deep trouble but I'm much weaker and hand a strong player with position on me a big chip advantage. I called and my opponent showed A,Q. I missed my K.
So, how can we avoid this situation? I hit my flop, I was just unlucky, no? No, I don't think so. I knew this guy was only playing premium hands. So when he raises 4 times the big blind from under the gun, I should know that Q,Ks is behind. Instead I was more interested in the big pot, knocking this guy out and planning my bulldozing of the rest of the table. It cost me dearly and a couple of hours later I was out.
Q,Ks is a strong hand in certain situations. In late position with no action you could quite easily justify a raise. At the same time if there are a handful of limpers, you could get involved too, without too much worry about being out kicked should one of your cards hit the flop. In this situation Q-Ks was not a strong hand to be calling a good sized raise with from a player under the gun.
Realizing when your hand is behind is essential for tournament survival. So the next time you have big suited connectors and feel like calling a pre-flop raise, stop and pause for a moment or two. Ask yourself “What am I beating?”
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