I made a few mistakes earlier tonight in a pot-limit hold’em tournament on PokerStars. I had about 9,000 in chips, up from a starting stack of 1,500, when I was dealt 74-suited in hearts in the big blind. Four other players limped in for 200 and I checked. The flop came 7-2-2 with a heart, a club and a spade. I bet out 600 into the 1,000 pot and got one caller. The turn was a 5 of hearts, giving me a flush draw to go along with my top pair. I bet 1,000 and was raised to 2,000. I called The river was the 8 of hearts, giving me the flush. I bet out 1,400. She raises me all-in for 1,600 more. I called. She had 77 and had flopped a full house. That left me with about 3,000. All of this carnage because I got involved with a weak top pair with a paired board out of position against a solid opponent. That’s a recipe for disaster.

My mistake was made on the turn. Betting out on that flop is okay because my hand will often be the best. Once I was called on the flop I should have known I was beat and check-folded the turn or, at the very most, check-called it. I was either up against a better 7, trip deuces, an overpair or a sophisticated call-bluff, which is highly unlikely. There weren’t any draws out there. If I didn’t bet, I wouldn’t have felt obligated to call a minimum raise when I picked up a draw on the turn and I never would have hit my flush for the second-best hand on the river. If I would have just stopped and thought things out logically on the turn, I wouldn’t have put any more chips into the pot and still would have had an above average stack as we approached the money.

Later in that same tournament I got eliminated when I raised pre-flop in late position with A4-offsuit and got called by the button. The flop came A-x-x. I checked and she checked. The turn was a jack. I went all-in for a pot-sized bet and she called with AJ. I was drawing dead. This was a classic case of making a huge bet when you’re only going to get called by hands that beat you. She called my pot-sized raise pre-flop, so she has to have something. It’s either an ace, big connectors or a pocket pair. The face cards and pocket pairs won’t call the all-in, but a better ace will. I think a check-call or a check-fold was the correct play here. The only benefit of betting all-in is you prevent a pocket pair from rivering a miracle set, but that will only happen once in every 22 times. You can’t be scared of a 22 to 1 shot.

The worst crucial mistake I ever made was at the Borgata in Atlantic City. I was at the final table of a $50+rebuys tournament with about 115 entries. First place was $5,000 and we were down to four players. I was second in chips and was running the table. Two players limped to me in the big blind and I looked down at 78-offsuit. I checked. The flop was 6-9-3. I bet about half the pot on a semi-bluff and the player third in chips thought about it for a while and called. The turn was a ten, giving me the nut-straight. I bet out a little more than last time and my opponent raised all-in. I did a quick pot odds calculation and folded. That’s right. I folded the best possible hand at the final table of a tournament without even realizing I had it. In my mind I was still on the straight draw and had missed. I think I was looking for the five so hard I forgot about the ten. A few hands later I lost a coin flip on the river to finish in fourth place. I know I would have won the tournament if I didn’t misread my hand.

These mistakes and the countless other ones I’ve made were avoidable, but when you’re playing so many hands you tend to blow through your logic so fast that you can easily make an incorrect decision. Those decisions can be very costly. Usually it means you’re out of the tournament.

You can’t play scared poker, but you have to think of each multi-table poker tournament as the equivalent of walking through a mine field. To say you have to watch your step is an understatement. You have to be very careful and think before making a move. Act hastily at your own peril.