Trusting the Process: When Good Decisions Still Hurt

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Sometimes, poker doesn’t punish bad decisions. Sometimes, it punishes good ones.

We were six-handed in an $88 tournament. I had 40 big blinds in the small blind. The button min-raised, and I flatted with pocket nines.

Now, the big blind — sitting on a 10 big blind stack — shoved all in.

It folded back to the button, and he reshoved. All in. Forty bigs.

Now here’s where the spot gets interesting.

I’d underrepresented my hand by just calling preflop. From the button’s perspective, I likely looked capped — maybe like I had a weak suited ace, some middling connectors, or a hand I didn’t want to 3-bet. And so, when the BB jams for 10BB, the button has every reason to isolate wide. I think his range includes:

Small pairs (22–88)

Broadways like ATo+, AJo+, KQo

Suited aces and connectors

And of course, value hands — TT+

In other words, his iso-jam range is wide.

So I called with 99, thinking I’m ahead of most of that.

And I was.

The big blind had pocket eights. The board ran out 8-9-10. Flopped middle set. But it didn’t hold.

It’s easy to feel stupid after a hand like that. Easy to doubt myself.

But when I step back and take emotion out of it — the analysis holds.

Flatting pre with 99 isn’t wrong. It’s balanced.

BB’s 10BB shove is standard.

Button’s iso range should be wide given my perceived weakness.

Calling with 99 against that range is profitable.

I made the right call. It just didn’t work out this time.

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That’s the hardest part of poker — separating decision quality from outcome.

But it’s also the most important.

This hand didn’t teach me that I misplayed. It taught me that I’m learning to trust myself, even when the board doesn’t go my way.

Because sometimes good decisions still hurt. And that’s okay.