Chip Value

One of the key mistakes I frequently see is the "light call".  You know, the big stack who calls your small stack shove with J/3, or the small blind (worst position on the table) calling your under the gun shove with 5/7 suited.  A chip lost is one that must be re-won and sometimes that one chip is the difference between being knocked out of the tournament and surviving to win with a "chip and a chair". 

That said, I am coming to appreciate more the subtleties of limping in from late position and small blind with garbage.  Sometimes it even pays to call the small raise.  I often see very good players counting the pot to figure their calling odds.  This makes sense if also tied in with a good read on the raiser's tendencies.  Does he bluff a lot?  Does he always C-bet?  Does he only raise with pairs?  Only with connectors?  If you are paying attention to his style of play it can be an excellent spot to float in position with nothing, or better yet, flop the nuts and let him donk away his chips with others joining in!!!  This morning in a SNG tournament I folded 6/8 on the button to a 3x raise.  There were several limpers who called and the flop came 6/6/8.  Youch!  However I am please to report that I ultimately ended up winning the tournament so opportunity missed but great outcome.

Speaking of outcomes, it is time to again address the wisdom of separating good decisions from bad outcomes.  It is sooooo easy for us to kick ourselves when we fold that 6/8 and flop the nuts, yet 98% of the time it is the right thing to do.  I often refer to Annie Duke's book (with John Vorhaus) "Decide to Play Great Poker".  She talks about making the right decisions as being the key to winning at poker.  It just doesn't seem that way sometimes.  So, we must choose our path carefully, balancing our instincts (reads) with logic and traditional lines of play.  We must also strive to not be predictable as that is a sure way to fail.