Emotion Can Yield Bad Things

This will come as a shock to no one, but let me say it: I am emotional. Or shall I say volatile. Like potassium metal. Poker is a very unemotional game at its heart, but it is easy to get excited during the course of the game. Why do you think tells are so powerful in live games? I can get emotional when any or all of the following happen:

• I get a bad beat.
• I lay a bad beat on someone.
• I get dealt A-A, K-K, or A-K.
• I haven't seen a good hand in a very long while.
  
• I see someone playing horribly, and I terribly want to exploit them.
• I believe I am the best player at the table.
• I believe I am the worst player at the table.
• I get moved to a new table after finally getting comfortable where I am.
  
• A dealer breaks a known rule, and won't admit it.
• The moon is aligned with Mars.
  

Sometimes emotion makes me play horribly (tilt), while other times it drives me. I'd like to think that I get emotional a lot less than I used to, but I can stilll go over the edge without much effort. Tonight it happened. Again.

Usually, I keep a level head, even when I'm dealt a pretty big hand. I try to figure out the best way to play it most of the time, but tonight I didn't think about it enough. I was playing in my usual poker tournament on Tuesday nights at Ameristar in Kansas City, and I was down to just under the starting amount of chips, or about 2400. The blinds were at 50-100, so I had an M of about 17, give or take, but 20 minute blinds will eat you alive. And fast. I was sitting at the table with a bunch of average players, and I didn't feel particularly threatened. The guy under the gun made a standard raise to 300. It folds around to me, about 4th to act behind him in middle position, and I look down at:

A-K

I don't know why, but I immediately threw folding out of my mix of options. I could put 1/8th of my stack in and call, and hope that no one behind me pushes, or I can just push all in myself, as I really can't make a standard re-raise of half my chips. I'd rather put my opponent to the test. So I pushed. "All In." Pretty standard, right?

Well, there was a big tell that I usally would pick up on, but for some reason I didn't. This guy who had initially raised looked at me, and he said, "I want some action." He was under the gun, and raised, which is usually a sign of pretty good strength, but those words probably should have given my pause. But emotion can make a person crazy at the table. So crazy that I didn't really stop to consider what he might have in this spot. I just hoped he'd lay it down, and we'd move on to the next hand.

Well, he instantly called when it got back around to him, and can I tell you that I was really hoping that he'd flip over K-K, as I know I was way behind, and that would have given me the best shot to win (about 32% or so). But nope. It was the cooler:

A-A

My equity is about 15% in that spot, and I got to pack my bags and go home.

This really isn't a bad beat story. It is an anecdote to remember to give pause and truly consider your opponents cards and everything about the play you are making. Don't just shove and pray. It spells disaster about 67.34235254% of the time.