Over at FullTilt Poker on the table called Harlin, Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko received an extremely pleasant early Christmas gift from another player called “gamble up77?”, a total of $20,000 to be precise. It was in an amazing 10 hands that “gamble up77?” managed to lose the $20,000 to his opponent, whom were both playing at the $1000/$2000 limit table. It will certainly be a happy time at the Hawrilenko household this Xmas, presents will be coming in bulk most likely with a win like that.
Despite the initial appearance of the loss appearing to be huge, bear in mind that $20,000 is only ten big blinds at the $1000/$2000 level so it seems that “gamble up77? should have bought into the game with a much larger stack than he did, this would’ve most likely have been the biggest mistake that the player made even before he started the actual game. Buying into poker games at that level, especially playing heads-up, with such a small stack is definitely a big no-no, as the obvious outcome is that you will instantly be feeling desperate to increase the size of your stack and you will most likely make silly bad plays in a rush to do exactly that.
The result will more often than not be that you will lose all that you have brought to the table unless luck is on your side, as bringing a small stack to the table restricts your play and leaves you little room to experiment with your play style. As a general rule, it would be much more sensible to make a point of only buying into games with the maximum amount, which is normally 100 big blinds or so. This is a sustainable method old play and allows partial bankroll management, which is a key factor if you are looking for a long lasting poker life.
As the table was limit, rather than the more popular version of poker that is no-limit, this of course means that no instant all-ins were performed, and that in order to get all his stack into the middle then “gamble up77? must have progressively bet into the pot throughout the hand. As the game was limit, this further increased “gamble up77?’s chances of winning the game as a hand often loses its value after the flop, and as only a minimum bet can be acted, this would give any player with the right amount of blinds in their stack the odds to call basically irrelevant of their whole cards.
For example, if the game was no-limit and “gamble up77?” picked up a quality hand and immediately went all in at a no-limit table, there is a high chance that his opponent is sure to fold, whereas on the other hand if the player was playing at a limit table as he was, then the maximum he could bet would be reasonable for his opponent to call. This in turn leaves “gamble up77?”’s hand vulnerable after the flop as if he misses the flop he is basically all in anyway and his opponent may have hit with a hand of less quality. Overall, “gamble up77?”’s money was practically dead from the start.
