Thorn's Big Mistakes #2: Playing while not entirely sober

When it comes to poker, I have a drinking problem. It doesn't happen often (just twice in the past six months), but when I do end up drinking and then playing poker, I pretty much go donk off a buy-in or two. Sure, that doesn't sound like much, but since I don't put in a huge volume of hands (maybe 100 a day on average), it absolutely kills my winrate.

For example, last week my Godfather came to DC on business and took me out to a bar. We had a good time, some delightful fish and chips, and a few beers. I admit, I'm a terrible binge drinker (I live with 3 other guys, and we have a beer pong room, complete with ball holders and ice racks to keep the beer cold while playing), so the 2-3 that I had seemed like nothing. Not so on the poker table. I pulled up PokerStars, sat in a cash game, and on the third hand I 3-bet a CO open-raiser with 44. He 4-bets. I don't even think about it because my non-completely sober mind is still stuck on the "hey that open-raise looks like a steal attempt" and I shove over the top. He's got KK. Oops. 100 BB in the sewer. What's worse is that I had notes on him from previous play, marking him down as a solid, multitabling TAG who I've only ever seen 4-bet with the goods. If I'd thought about it at all, took the time to read the notes, etc. I would've made the better play of folding to the 4-bet. Sadly, buzzed me doesn't think much.

I'll definitely have to remember to stick to one drink an hour, if that, when I go to Atlantic City in two weeks and am confronted with free drinks at the table. I'm sure I'll have some good stories to tell with 8 good guys coming along and much poker fun to be had. Here's hoping that includes winning.