Totally get you.
Managed to qualify for the Sunday Million (with 109$ buy-in) last week through a satellite. The qualifying process was somehow exhausting and afterwards we were put directly into the target tournament without a break. Additionally I only slept like 3-4 hours the last few nights before Sunday, so I was very tired, too, only kept alive by coffee.
Then, at first it went down pretty well, managed to elevate my stack by 50 percent with some well played hands.
Went up against the chip-leader from middle position with J-K off-suit, I raised pre-flop, he called, everybody else folded.
My stack was at about 82 thousand, his at like 130 thousand. He was either at small blind or big blind, I don't quite remember.
So, the flop puts out 10-Q-J, different colors, no flush draw, cool. He bets like 5 thousand, I call.
On the turn a 6, he bets again like 8 thousand chips, I call.
The river - K of course. He puts me all-in, like 69 thousand.
The king laughs at my face, I'm like "HELL YEAH - two pair". Before this hand he had bluffed a few times and lost some chips, so I was like "I got you now".
And because I wasn't concentrating and thinking right (since tired), I just ignored the things he could have and were good enough to beat me, just felt invincible with my ridiculous two pair.
Only any cheap ACE or a 9 needed, K-Q, pocket 6s, 10s, Js, Qs, Ks. Of course I called, of course he had an A.
Like you said before - I would normally never call in this situation - not even in a freeroll, considering the betting pattern he had before and since I only had a J until the river. Maybe for like 10-20 thousand, leaving me with 50, okay. But I would never risk my tournament life for that.
So to make a long story short (I know, too late for that 😅) - playing tired and exhausted is never a good idea, because your judgement is impaired and you will NEVER make any good decisions in that mental state in a long run.
Interestingly, I saw a video of a poker pro giving tips for winning, in which he describes how important stress-reduction is (according to him) for success in poker. He says that he works out every morning, eats healthy and sleeps about 8 hours at night. When on break, he does a little meditation or stuff like that, to calm himself down and get into a more relaxed mental state, so that he can think clearly and make better decisions again.
I would agree that the best way to play poker is with a sufficiently rested mind.
It is definitely better to let it go in such situations and to get some rest, when you're tired. Which is what I'm going to do now, too.
So, I hope you are relaxed enough the next time you play for money (and that you have a bit of luck, too 😉).
See all of you guys at the tables, the best of luck to y'all 🍀
