TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS
I believe in trusting your instincts because when you don’t, you always wish you could go back and follow them. I say this because there has been many times when I wanted to do something and my instincts were telling me to do it, but for some reason I seemed afraid or scared to do it. When I didn’t follow what my instincts were telling me, I paid for it in the end.
One time that I will never forget is when I was sitting at the poker table with six friends and we were playing Texas Hold’em. The blinds were 10/20, I was dealer. I was shuffling the cards and for some reason I had a feeling this hand was going to be big. Wasn’t sure if I was going to win, just I knew that there was going to be a lot of chips in the pot. I dealt out the cards to my friends and waited until my turn to look at my cards. The small blind and big blind posted their 10/20 blinds and the rest of my friends folded until it was my turn. When I looked at my cards, I saw QQ. Of course I raised it, I mean I’m dealer and most likely have the best hand, so I raised it up to 100. Small blind folded right away, but big blind re-raised me to 200. I was thinking he had KK or AA, so I re-raised him to 350 to see what would happen.
The worst possible thing happened to me, he went all-in. He had more chips than me, so if I called and lost, I would be out. I saw there and thought. Of course my other friends at the table were getting mad, saying hurry up, but I couldn’t decide the right choice. My instincts were say call, but I felt bad about it and thought that I was beat. So I folded and I asked him what he had and he flipped over JJ. I was so mad! I couldn’t believer that I folded! We started flipping the cards over to see who would have won. The flop was Q of spades, J of spades, and 2 of diamonds. I literally stood up so fast and just started yelling. The turn came with an A of clubs and the river was an 8 of clubs. My friend laughed and called me an idiot. Four hands later I ended up getting out on some stupid flush that one of my other friends caught on the river.
I couldn’t believe how stupid I was and from then on I knew that if my instincts were telling me something, to always follow them because somehow they are just always right, maybe not for you, but always for me now. What an experience it was for me. That right there has made me a better Texas Hold’em player today
Kendall Cosgrove
