POTD #96 Monte Carlo Monday: Triton 2023 Main Event vs Kent Staahle

Maybe if I had more time to think I could have stalled and made the right decision

I’ve been writing POTD for five months; I am still a novice and learning new things about Substack as a platform and the work of daily writing. But I am also closing in on my 100th POTD, so while I am not yet a grizzled veteran, I feel I am no longer a rookie and am beginning to sharpen my tools and learn some cool new tricks. One cool new trick I've learned is that from the Punt of the Day homepage I can use the Substack search function to find keywords and help me find old posts. At times I’ve felt that I kept teasing my audience, running a Jimmy Kimmel / Matt Damon type bit by continually mentioning my big A5s hand vs Vladimir Korzinin, only to never write about it. Then I searched and saw I’ve only mentioned Mr. Korzinin 5 times in 96 punts, which is, to my mind, a reasonable amount of mentions. I assure you, my plan remains the same-- when I run out of Monte Carlo hands that were worse than that hand, I’ll write about it-- but unfortunately for people who want me to write about that hand, I keep remembering other terrible hands I played.

Today’s hand was from the Triton $125k Main Event from 2023. We were nearing the end of day one, and I played what should have been an uneventful hand with some easy decisions, but I failed to execute. When I looked up my post hoc description of the hand, I wrote “I am a stupid idiot and don't raise because I am low on timebanks and am a big idiot.” I was so mad that I couldn’t use the proper tense or even think of a second insult beyond “idiot.” This hand is worse than the A5s hand.

Triton Poker Series Monte-Carlo 2023 - Event #3 $125K NLH Main Event
(SB/BB/BBA) (4k/8k/8k) 250k Starting Stack, I have 220k, Kent Staahle covers

It folds to me in the CO with A♣️K♦️, I make it 16k, it folds to Kent who calls in the BB

Flop (44k) 6♣️3♠️2♦️: Kent checks, I bet 22k, he calls

Turn (88k) A♠️: Kent leads 20k, I call

River (128k) T♣️: Kent bets 50k, I have 162k back and just call and am shown T♦️8♦️