Poker rookie mistakes – Phil Ivey mucks winner

There’s no doubt about it whatsoever. Rookies make countless mistakes at the poker table. Starting from playing too many hands, and continuing with taking their losing hands way too far and firing out dark tunnel bluffs, they do it all. One of the most frustrating mistakes they make though is that they simply fail to read their hands. That’s right: they make a hand that’s pretty good, sometimes even the best hand at the table and then they fold it when pressured by someone with top pair, or even worse: they muck the winner. Of course, misreading the board or their hand and then shoving all-in on what they think is a straight/flush is also a relatively common mistake, one that’s probably even more frustrating than mucking the winner.
When it comes to mucking the winner, Phil Ivey is probably the person to go to for advice. Why is he the one? Take a look at this video and you’ll understand:

Believe it or not, Ivey himself has some experience in the matter, and top level one at that. During the 2009 WSOP Main Event, he misread a hand (in which he had actually hit a flush) and mucked the winner, offering his opponent the undeserved (and may I mention rather large) pot as a gift. As you can see, it happens to the best of them, so it will definitely happen with rookies.
Here’s my take on what might’ve happened with Ivey. Professional players do not re-check their starting hands, or at least they try not to. They take an initial look at it and that’s well enough for them. The reason why they try to avoid re-checking is that it will offer a huge read to their opponents. Consider the following example: you’re playing with a professional player and you check your starting hand. Because of the way your brain is built though, you’ll only memorize the face value of your cards and maybe whether you’re holding red/black ones. The suit itself is highly likely to elude your short term memory. Four spades land on the table and you’re thinking: the 8 I had in my pocket was a black card… Was it a spade or a club? At that point, you re-check your starting hand and see that you do indeed have a flush. Your skilled opponent however knows the exact reason why you’ve re-checked your starting hand, and he’ll draw his conclusions based on the move you make next, conclusions which have a very good chance of being the right ones at that point. The same goes for various other card combinations too. Most high level professional players are so good at getting into your head that a simple gesture like that will completely blow your cover.

This may be – in my opinion – the reason why Ivey didn’t re-check his starting hand and why he failed to read the flush he’d made. Pocket pairs are highly likely to be misread suit-wise. The player takes a look at them and sees that he has a pair of 8s. The very fact that he already has a made hand takes up his focus and he begins to root for landing a set. He’ll generally look at the board from the perspective is his pocket pair, thus missing other possibilities. Straights are not missed as easily as flushes are because the face value of the cards is involved there, rather than the suits.

Apparently, regardless of his high level of poker thought, Ivey got caught up in the pocket pair trap and completely failed to take the flush possibility into account. Not wanting his opponent to see his pocket hands, he mocked them convinced that the other guy made a pair of As over his pocket 8s.
How do you avoid misreading hands and especially misreading your hand like that? If you’re playing online, it’s relatively easy to avoid such mistakes. Use the 4-color deck to make it easier on your eyes and brain to pay attention to the board. Most online poker rooms warn you if you make a hand, so all you really need to do is to take a look at the ticker or the message across the screen to realize what you’re holding.

Obviously, it’s much more difficult to keep track of the situation at a live table. One thing that may be helpful there is to adopt the 10-second rule. Do not make a move for 10 seconds, rather just contemplate the board a little and think about the various combinations your pocket hand might’ve hit. Don’t rush the decision, even if you’re fairly certain it is indeed the correct one.

Of course, some people say Ivey didn’t misread in the above video. He may have thought the other guy had a higher spade, but that logic just doesn’t seem to hold water because Ivey wasn’t actually faced with a raise to make a fold. They both went to showdown unchallenged and Ivey didn’t show. I say it was a misread, and even though one may well strain a “brain-muscle” trying to think on Ivey’s level, he too is only human as this here mistake proves beyond doubt. Bottom line: I’m pretty sure Ivey thought his pocket 8s were facing down a pair of As or a bigger pair, that’s why he mucked it.