One thing that seems to befall a lot of players at the poker table is a lack of a plan.
From the moment I am dealt my card in a hand, I am already developing a plan. Of course the plan starts with, are these two cards worth playing, and if so at what cost? Many times, you are making that decision before you've had much time to think about it, but once you've decided to play your hand, you need to be thinking about action on the flop, turn and river and be willing to execute that plan.
Yes your plan can change, but you should build into it options
For example, if you have limped with pocket 8s and are third to act on the flop, before that flop comes you should already know what you plan to do. Your plan won't have every scenario covered, but you should have a general idea of how you will play those 8s if you hit trips on the flop, or if an Ace comes on the flop, etc...and how you react to action in front of you or no action.
And that plan should also involve who else is in the hand. For example: if a super tight player bets out on the flop I give up the 8s, whereas I may just call a standard player, and possibly raise an aggressive player (probably not how I would do it, but the idea is to know before hand).
But you also have to be able to follow through on that plan. At a recent tournament I had about 25 percent of the chips at our table after I had hit the nut flush on a hand that had been played fairly aggressively by a couple of players (I had A 10 diamonds in big blind, flop was Ace of hearts, King of diamonds and 4 of diamonds, giving me four to the flush and top pair turn was J of diamonds, completing the flush, the player that had the queen high flush bet out strong and eventually shoved on the river. He had me covered at the time, but this left him with about 1.5 big blinds). The guy that lost that hand had doubled up on back-to-back ensuing hands, and had played well enough to actually get his chip stack up again. He was still a ways behind me, but had become the only real threat at the table.
So I'm dealt pocket jacks on the button. My plan is to raise 4x the blinds, regardless of action in front of me. And if someone else raises, I'll go 2.5x their raise. Well the guy who had been on a roll raises a hefty 4x raise. One caller between us, and I abandon my plan and just call. The flop comes KK5, and there's four of us still in. When the initial raises bets out about 1/3 the pot size, I had already scrapped my plans, and reasoned that he must have a king, and fold. Well, the turn of course is a jack. And I feel like an idiot. I feel even worse when the showdown comes and the raiser shows AJ, which gave him two pair, but I likely would have had him eliminated had I stayed. But in my head he had been playing well and getting cards, so even with as strong as a a hand as I had, I gave it up, overthinking and not following the plan.
He now had the chip lead at our table, and I was a close second, but my mind was lost. Mentally I struggled to regain focus, and though I remained alive for over an hour after that, I wasn't close to the money, eliminated with three tables left, and only the final table paid.
That wasn't my plan at all.
