Miscount!

The worst bad beat you can ever take is the one you put on yourself. Making a bad read, mistiming a bluff, making that call when you know you're beat. That's all part of the game - take your beating, lick your wounds, and move on.

But what about those really stupid mistakes? Rookie mistakes, the ones that should never happen more than once in your poker-playing lifetime?

Thinking you have the Nut Heart Flush when you're actually holding the Ace of Diamonds - check.

Proudly displaying your four-card straight - check.

Mucking your Pocket Aces when someone shows K8 on a K822x board - check.

Miscounting your tournament chips and busting out because of it - check... and check.

Yup... I did it again. I never wrote about the first time I made a chip count mistake because it happened before this here blog existed, so I'll go ahead and lay out some of that ancient history.

I'd only been playing 3/6 for a few months, and this was maybe the 4th or 5th cheapy tournament ($25 buy-in) I'd ever been in. Never made it too far, but I was learning and having fun. I had just recently found out about Poker Blogs and digested lots of tidbits that helped my game and got me all the way to the final table out of ~30 entrants.

The blinds were up to 500/1000 and we had colored up to just using red chips worth 500 each. At some point earlier in the level, someone announced their raise to "Five." The dealer, who had just pushed in, asked: "Is that 500 or 5000?" At least two people chimed back: "We're at 500/1000, the minimum bet is 1000 so it's obviously 5000." The dealer backtracked and defended himself: "Okay okay, but still, you should be clear about your raises."

It didn't take long to get down to the last 3 players. I was on the button with 21 chips, with 1 and 2 chips as the blinds. I looked down at 9Ts and decided to raise. 3x the BB would cost me 6 chips - I figured it was worth the attempt, it wouldn't cripple me and I could easily let go if needed and still have enough to play with.

I grabbed a stack of ten chips, reached forward and dropped two. "Raise," I said as I moved the stack in my hand over and cut off another two. One more cut would complete my 6-chip raise. With the dealer's reprimand about verbally announcing raise amounts fresh in my mind, I said out loud and clear: "6 thousand..."

As I dropped the last two chips, I realized my mistake. There were my 6 chips out on the felt, which is what I wanted to do, but that only amounted to 3 thousand. I was thinking 6 chips, but had announced and was now verbally committed to putting out 6 thousand - a total of 12 chips, over half of my stack.

I got a caller, and he pushed on the flop. I caught a 9 for middle pair, and figured I was pot-committed and made the call. Hey, at least I cashed.

From that day forth, I make sure to count my chips and separate them before pushing them over the line, and make sure I know what I want to say before I say it. So how did I end up with another miscounting situation? This time, I don't have the excuse of being a newbie as it just happened the other day. It wasn't quite the same circumstances, but it falls into the same forehead-slapping, ass-self-kicking category.

A buddy called me near the end of my workday, saying he heard of a $30 buyin tournament that starts at 6:30. The place was only about 5 miles from the office so I told him I'd be there. It was a nice place and the 30 seats filled up pretty quick. I was looking over their tourney flyer and was amazed that players started with 6000 chips! But then I saw the blind structure began at 100/200 and pretty much doubled every 15 minutes. Okay, this should be interesting.

Chips came in denominations of 100 (5 blacks), 500 (5 yellows) and 1000 (3 reds). In a span of two orbits, I saw a face card once but it had nothing to back it up. I was up against a raise and reraise when I finally saw two paints, but it was only QJ so I let it go. I raised once with pocket 8s, then folded when my continuation bet was check-raised on an AQ2 board. He showed A2.

We were now deep into the 2nd level (200/400) and there was only about 3 minutes before it went to 400/800. I looked down to see what I had left: 2 red chips and a black. I wanted to ask my neighbor to make some change for one of my reds, so I wouldn't feel so short-stacked, but he was involved in a hand. Then the next hand was quickly dealt and I was UTG.

I really wish I would have gotten the change, because it would have helped me avoid the mental lapse that kicked in when I tried to calculate my stack size relative to the blinds. At the other places I regularly play, red chips are 500. So having 2 reds, I counted up 1100, just under 3x the BB, a push or fold situation. I had A3s so I put my remaining 3 chips in the middle. The dealer announced it for me, "All-in." What I wasn't expecting to hear was the "2100 to call" part...

The only caller had AK. I flopped the Wheel draw, but it never came and I was shaking my head in disbelief at the move I had just made. I thought I was much more desperate than I really was, when in reality I could have seen at least one more round of cards. Or if I had just limped in, I could have made a stop'n'go move when the flop missed AK.

Maybe I've been playing too much online and am spoiled by having all the numbers displayed right in front of me; or maybe somedays I'm just an idiot.