MTT

Focus on the Source of Mistakes

NLHE is a tricky beast, as you’ll often make the correct decision on the flop or turn, get all of your chips in when you should, yet ultimately lose. You analyze the hand later, determine that shoving was the right play, and go on your merry way. The problem, however, is that you can’t just look at your last decision in a vacuum, as it’s often earlier mistakes that really lead to your downfall.

It’s late in a NLHE MTT and you’re getting short stacked with 3K in chips and blinds of 200/400. You’re UTG and you’re dealt 7d7c. You limp for 200, hoping to see a cheap flop. It folds around to the button, who raises to 1,000. It folds back to you, and you call 800 more.

The flop is 2c 4h 6d. You shove your last 2,000 chips into the pot, the button calls with QcQd, and you lose.

Should you have pushed on the flop? Yes, you should have. That decision is absolutely correct, given the circumstances and the texture of the flop. The problem, though, is that you made a mistake pre-flop, and never should have put yourself in this position to begin with.

The pre-flop decision to try to limp with 77 isn’t a horrible one, but you have to fold when it’s raised. You simply can’t call off 800 more chips, nearly a third of your stack, praying to flop a set. If you don’t flop a set, you’ll be forced to check/fold flops with overcards, as you’re out of position with just a pair of 7s, or you’ll be in the spot outlined above, shoving and praying that the button doesn’t have the overpair that he or she is strongly representing.

Don’t let the fact that pushing on the flop was the correct play for you to make confuse matters. That decision was indeed correct, but you never should have been in that position, as you should have folded to the pre-flop raise. When analyzing your NL hands, don’t just focus on the final decision as it’s often earlier decisions that play a much more critical role in determining whether you’re a winner or loser.