Strategy with Kristy: John Kim Part Two

Kristy Arnett Editor

Feb 03, 2012 2 min read Last updated Apr 10, 2013

John Kim is back for another edition of the Strategy with Kristy podcast. Last week, he talked about what it takes to be a professional poker player.

This week, Kim talks about interesting hands he's played recently and also discusses a couple of hands he watched his students played.

Here is a snippet from the interview:

Let me tell you a really quick story about why you want to take your time making decisions. In the 2006 [World Series of Poker] Main Event, the year Jamie Gold won it, I ran pretty good and made it to Day 5. We were down to 73 players. I had 30 big blinds or something close. Everyone folded to me in the small blind. I had jack-ten offsuit. I limped or raised, my action doesn't really matter, but he looked over at my stack and contemplated raising. Obviously, he has a pretty good hand if he's thinking about raising preflop. He was just a standard player, nothing out of line. The flop came ten-two-four rainbow. I just remember thinking, "OK, I have top pair. I have 30 big blinds. I guess I have to go broke." That's obviously the wrong way of thinking.

I think I bet, he raised, I three-bet, he shoved, and I snap-called without even thinking. He rolled over king-ten, and I busted in 73rd. It's the worst feeling when you bust after playing five days in the Main Event. When I walked away, I was just thinking, "Man, why did I do that?" If I thought about it, I could have avoided going broke there. I knew he wanted to raise preflop, so if he's raising my bet on the flop, he always has ace-ten or king-ten. I should have taken my time and thought about that.

Here's the other thing. I finished 73rd, but the two guys who finished 72nd and 71st are right behind me. My payout was, $65,000 or something like that, and 72nd paid a little over $100,000. Literally, if I would have just thought about it for three seconds, I would have made an extra $30,000.

So ever since then, I told myself that I would never act in haste. Always think every decision through.