getting owned- a new twist

Received this by e-mail from a guy about to release his new book.
Next time I want to fold, but call knowing there is a big chance I'm behind, I will be thinking of this and hopefully do the right thing.

Hi, this is Tri.

What is the first thing you think of when you read that phrase?

If it was directed at me, I would feel a little embarrassed. My face gets a little hot. My stomach gets a little squirmy. In poker, I feel owned when someone outplays me. Getting outplayed means my opponent bluffed me with a worse hand and took down the pot. It is probably the main reason why I want to call river bets a lot. I don't want to fold the best hand and calling ensures that I was correct, even though I lost money confirming my read.

My fear of getting bluffed, or getting outplayed, was accidentally "cured" by a friend. I was grinding online and received an email with the subject, "Owned Much?" I open the email and as it was loading, I could felt my friend's enthusiasm and excitement because I couldn't wait to see how he owned his opponent. I was ready to see what type of monster bluff he had pulled because that's what owning someone means to me; you bluff them out of a pot. Since my friend is a great player and a sicko at times, I was thinking of all kind of crazy scenarios in my head. Did he 3-bet bluff all-in on the turn with king high? Did he overbet shove the river with 5-high and won the pot without a showdown? Well, I got to the hand history and it was a little anti-climatic. It was a tiny pot. There was no bluffing involved. All the hand history showed was my friend losing the minimum with a very strong hand against the nuts. He was really proud of that fact that he saved a lot of money and indirectly, he owned his opponent.

This was a huge revelation for me because I didn't know you can own someone else by losing. And that's when I started folding more. In fact, it makes folding enjoyable because I know I owned my opponents since he has a strong hand and I can sense the frustration that they are feeling. I know they are frustrated because I can remember the frustrations I felt when I have the nuts and my opponent kept folding and weren't paying me off. Then I realized that is another way to own your opponent. If he has a good hand and wants you to call, you outplayed him by folding. And since I love outplaying people, I keep folding against nits.

Another form of owning people is to value-bet thin. There's no better feeling than value-betting with a marginal hand and getting snap-called by a worse hand. I'm not talking about tank-calling; that's everyday routine. I'm talking about the instant call you get once you placed your bet. Like he knew it was coming and was waiting to snap your head off. And since he called so fast, you thought you were toasted, only to find out a worse hand called and you still couldn't believe what just happened. I'm not sure if there is a better owning situation than getting snap-called by a worse hand. I live for those moments and it's when I'm most happiest at the poker table.

If your interpretation of being outplayed means something else, take solace in the fact that sometimes, no matter what you do, you aren't going to win the hand, especially if you are at a positional disadvantage. The sooner you accept this fact, the less annoyed you'll be. Nothing is going to change this idea, until you get the mighty button. Then you can outplay others and can smile and say to yourself that, "sir, you just got owned."

- Tri

Great post man. I mean it. Never thought of this deeply. I've educated myself to not be frustrated when i have aces and nobody plays but i never thought deeply about how the villains feel when they get great hands but no action.

I wonder if that's Tri Nguyen.

Yep, I would say that is correct RV.

Thanks swingro, made one bad lay down recently, but the correct folds have saved me much more cash.

Being correct reading the opponents range has helped my game.

The bad lay down was due to a total misread, it was a 100% call when i reviewed it.

I like posts that make me think . Thanks for this one.