The will to win must be greater than the fear of loss

Today I had the best poker experience I can remember. Thanks to some good words from CC members, particularly Icemonkey, I re-found my mojo in the $6 SnG’s. I’ve been struggling with the transition from a $3 game to a $6 game. Purely psychological which I’d expected and now confirmed.

I played 2 sets of games today. First set was 4 x $6.50 SnG’s. Lost them all! After a short break I reflected on those games and realised that I played scared. I was overall happy with my game and decisions I made, but I wasn’t being aggressive enough, playing far too passive. I let my fear of losing overtake my desire to win. After a break I asked myself the question ‘am I prepared to try again and lose $27?’ Because that is the cost of my buy-in 4 times. I answered yes and decided to play the game with the same mindset as I approach the smaller games.

The hands and positions I play were exactly the same but I showed no fear which gave different results. This doesn’t normally happen often but in the 2nd set of games I played I cashed in all 4 of them!

2 wins, 1 2nd & 1 3rd.

During my play I made some massive lay downs pre-flop with turned out to be the best move. See below.


With the pot being raised from early position and then re-raised from middle position I felt problems coming. It was a hard fold, normally I'd come over the top without hesitation, close my eyes, cross my fingers and pray to flop the nut flush or something similar. I'm so happy with that laydown. Even if I had have won, it's a big move to be able to flop AQ suited pre-flop, well for me it is anyway.


Yes, I tried to take down some blinds :). Once the pot was called and then re-raised, normally I'd call thinking I'm priced in for it but I decided to fold here which once again turned out to be the correct play. With all that money in the pot and the blinds where they were I would have called but thought, I can still play a shortstack and try to make it into the top 3, which I did.

Now to make some difficult calls.


I figured the BB was putting me on a steal attempt and to be honest I came very close to folding here. To be honest I actually put him on a steal attempt and once he decided to come over the top of me I thought here is where I take my stand. With 88 in this part of the game, I would have normally folded. This time I stood my ground and with the better hand.


To be honest, I consider my pre-flop call here a little loose. Once again normally I would fold there but thought JT suited, not the worst hand, I'm getting a good price and anything can flop. After the flop with a draw I was always going to call the shortstacks $110, but would fold to any raise after that. Luckily i made the nuts on the turn and was able to get paid off for it. The funny thing is, if the short stack had have gone allin pre-flop and not just doubled the bet, I would have folded without hesitation.


Putting this played on a steal attempt I instantly decided to make him commit. I'm either going to take his raise plus the blinds or get involved with AJ suited. GLad he flipped up AT and didn't suckout on me.


Some of you may think this is crazy, but I would normally call that. Any pair with a M of under 3, I'm shoving it in. This time I thought, under the gun has shoved and the blinds are still to act, once again it turned out to my advantage.


I almost folded pre-flop again. Look at the hand. BB is more than pot committed, button has raised so BB must call. I thought if I can sit this one out and hope the button take out the BB then I'm in the money. Then I thought if BB gets lucky then I'm all-in the very next hand and if I get unlucky I'm out on the bubble. I went in with AQ with very little chips and it held. Even if I had have folded pre-flop you can see that I still would have made the money. Coincidentally, I ended up winning this tournament. Not bad with a stack of $340 and the blinds were $400/$800.


The next hand. Now that I'm in the money, I'm going for the win in this game. A high, yup lets go for it. Thank god a A flopped making it easier to take the whole game down.

Overall, I'm very happy with the laydowns I made and the positions I stood my ground. I hope I'm over the fear I had when I first started these games. After this, I'm pretty damn sure I am.

Thanks to all for your comments and feedback prior to this post. It was the guidance and suggestions of friends and colleagues that allowed these results, so congratulations to you aswell.

Bring on tomorrow.