I played in a $75/$25 knock out tournament.  Each player got a $25 chip and each player you knocked out you got that bounty.   There was 6 full tables so it was a decent size tourney.  There are two hands that stand out in my mind.  One that I probably should have busted on and didn’t, and one that I shouldn’t have busted on and did.

About the 3rd or 4th hand of the tourney I’ve got 99 under the gun.  Blinds are $25/$50 so I put in a raise to $200 total.  I get re-raised by a player two seats to my left and the rest of the table folds.  I decide to see a flop rather than shipping the rest of my $5,000 starting stack this early in the tourney.  The flop comes:

Not a bad flop for my hand by any stretch.  We’re only three hands into the tournament so I really don’t have a read on my opponent.  I can’t imagine he’s re-raise with 55 or 33, but he may have with 77.  A7 also flashes through my mind as does a higher pair than my 99.  I lead out with $300 and get snap called.  Hmm.  The turn comes a 2 which doesn’t look scary at all as I can’t imagine he’s re raising the UTG player with A4 or 46.  I lead out once again this time for $400 and get called once again.  I’d actually considered moving in but decided to make a bet instead realizing that there was a chance that he had an over pair.  The river brought another 7 which left me with a 7-high board (with me holding 99):

I’ve got an over pair to a board with no flush possibilities and no real straight potential.  At this point I’m not really worried about a 7 either as he re-raised me to open and I doubt he’d do that with 77 or with something like 78 or A7.  I fired $500 into the pot and got raised to $1,000.  At this point I really should have been concerned with an over pair to my 99 but for some reason I thought he was making a move.  I call and get shown JJ.  I suppose in retrospect I’m glad a 7 came rather than a 4, 6 or an 8 as I probably would have moved in and been done.

So after about 4 hands, I’m down to about half my starting stack and have to play VERY tight for the next couple of hours.  I manage to quadruple up when I flop a King high flush against 3 players and I’m back up over $6,200.  About an hour later I’m moved to another table and this hand comes up.

The blinds are $200/$400 and I’m in the big blind with 94 off suit (stack at $7,000 at this point).  Obviously not a hand that I’d normally play but there are 3 callers so I check fully thinking that I’m not putting another dime into this pot.

Bingo!!!  No flush or straight possibilities and unless someone limped with 22, 44 or 99 I’m WAY ahead.  I ship my remaining $6,600 into the $1,800 pot (the small blind had folded).  I get one caller and when he turns up his hand I’m a little unsure as to what I’m looking at.

I immediately start looking at the board looking for what I’ve missed.  Did I misread the board and there’s a flush draw out there?  Nope… only 1 club.  Did I not see a straight draw out there?  Nope… he’d need to make running 35 to make a straight.  Oh I know… he must have me covered like 30:1 right?  Nope… he’s got a stack of $8,200.

So here’s what we’ve got.  He called off over 80% of his stack with no pair, no draw and over 1 over card.  I wouldn’t be talking about it here if there wasn’t something to talk about, so naturally he caught runner runner clubs to end my day.  As I said before, I’m not one to complain about how people play their cards, but I do have to admit that THAT hand was a bit difficult to swallow.  All of that said, I’m happy to say that I protected my hand as best I could and really don’t see any way that I could have played the hand better.

As they say… that’s poker!!!

Sure I would have flopped a boat here, but how often would the flop have come with 3 over cards?  Or something like 5-A-3.  Or God forbid something like 8-2-3.  On an 8 high flop I’d have no idea where I stood in the hand.  Sure I’ve got top pair, but I’m out of position in a raised pot with a 5 kicker.  Not the spot I want to be.

See you after the flop!

This is one of those situations where you need to remember to play your game and let the chips fall where they may.   tmingda0129 absolutely played the hand properly.  He got his money in with the nuts and the majority of the time his hand would have held up and he’d have double the chips.  The more correct decisions you make the better your bank roll is going to be.  As they say… that’s poker.

See you after the flop!

Hand #1

The under the gun player folds and the next player raises to $400 early in the tournament.  I look down and see a nice looking King Ten suited and think for quite a while before throwing my hand away.  I figure that against an early position raiser I’m most certainly behind – potentially crippled.  Of course, the flop comes out with three clubs including the Ace.  I could only sit and watch as the pot was pushed to someone else after I’d laid down my nut flush pre flop.

Hand #2

The second time I had the deal I look down and see those beautiful bullets.  It’s music to my ears when the under the gun player raises.  It’s folded around to me and I make a decent size raise which he calls.  At this point I put him on a middle pair or AK.

AA on button, raise, called by one player.  The flop comes 224 and he moves all in.  I fold.  This is a pathetic play and I realize it even before he turns over QQ.  Playing scared sucks.

I’m happy to say that the next time I sat down at the table I did NOT play nearly this scared.  It’s very important to look at your game objectively.  Gotta plug those leaks whenever you can!

See you after the flop.

A pretty terrible flop for my sevens but I do have an inside straight draw.  I check giving up the lead and the button makes a reasonable bet which I call.

Trips on the turn puts 4 to a straight out there but I’m backed into a corner at this point.  I move in and get called instantly by J9 for a made straight.  I fail to fill up on the river when an Ace comes and the tourney is over.

I knew when I raised preflop I could be getting myself into trouble.  In all honesty I may have been getting a bit antsy but I was really hoping to get a double up to gain some traction.  Going into heads up 10:1 or 15:1 I knew I was in for an uphill battle and figured that this hand was as good a time as any to try and make my move.

Talk about a beautiful flop for a pair of tens.  I put in a standard continuation bet hoping he’s got something like A9 and was just calling on the button with position.

That card potentially made a straight but it’s highly unlikely that he was playing 58 to a raise (even with position).  I make another bet and he raises.  I think for a minute and then call.  I’m scared that maybe he’s got a set but it still feels like an unpaired ace.

I’ve got an overpair to the board with my pair of tens and I was raised on the turn.  This card actually scared me a bit cause after getting raised on the turn I started thinking about a possibility of being up against a set and he very likely would have called my pre flop raise with a small pair like threes.  Even with that thought going through my head, I figure that the 3 on the river didn’t help him so if I was beat before I’m still beat and if I was ahead before I’m a winner.  The raise on the turn really scared me so I decided to check and see if I couldn’t win at showdown or call a smallish bet on the end.  He made a small enough bet that I was getting pot odds to call and he rolled over pocket aces to take a nice size pot.

Looking back I’m not sure what I could have done differently.  Raising pre flop with tens is the obvious play and making a bet after flopping an over-pair is a no brainer.  I got raised on the turn but with the exception of a set I didn’t see how I was behind.  I suppose I should have started thinking about a big pair at this point but I just didn’t.  I like my check on the river here because if I’m beat I’m REALLY beat and I’m going to get raised anyhow.

See you after the flop!

I didn’t have any “never seen that before” hands but I did have a couple of noteworthy ones.

Hand #1

I make a raise from early position and get a call out of the big blind.  Flop comes out beautifully.

At this point I’m pretty positive that I’m in good shape against a blind hand.  Obviously I have to bet enough to make someone pay to draw to their flush and that’s what I do.  The turn comes a non diamond and I do the same thing making it expensive for the flush to get there.  As fate would have it, a diamond fell on the river.  I checked and made a crying call only to see what I already knew.  Personally I thought I’d done enough to keep the draw from getting there but obviously I didn’t.

Hand #2

Button makes a raise and I reraise out of the big blind with my kings.  He calls and we’re off to the flop which doesn’t look all that dangerous.

There’s really only a couple of hands here that scare me but I really don’t have him on JJ, or 88.  KJ and AJ cross my mind as good button hands and I’m actually hoping he’s got AJ as I’ll win a nice pot.  I suppose button raises with 55 is possible but it really doesn’t concern me.  A second Jack falls on the river and I’m forced once again to show down the second best hand which was best going into that last card.

Hand #3

Love seeing them those rockets!  Love even more when someone moves all in before I’ve got a chance to act.  I had the all in player out chipped by just a few so when my aces held up it was nearly a double up for me.  This put me back above chip average and I propelled me for another hour or so.

Final Hand

I’ve got 66 on the button and the player to my right makes a minimum raise.  I call and the flop comes out:

I didn’t put him on a J and he’d already had trip 5′s two or three times already tonight… how many times can one guy have the same hand???  You guessed it… one more time.  I wasn’t able to catch my 6 and my day was done.  On to next season for me – hope it will be better to me than the current season.

See you after the flop!

Hand #1

I’m in the small blind and I look down to find a pair of Sevens.  We’re playing 6 handed and there were two callers so I decide just to call and see a flop.

Hmm… talk about a bad flop for a pair of Sevens.  Believe it or not the table checks around and we go to the turn which brings another J.  At this point (with 4 overcards) I’m forced to fold.  I retrospect a bet on the flop might have taken it down but I just couldn’t pull the trigger betting into a flop with 3 overcards on it.

Hand #2

I’m on the button and look down to see one of my favorites:

I’d been playing pretty tight (primarily cause I was getting a whole bunch of nothing) but I decided that this was too good to pass on so I bumped it to 3 times the big blind.  The small blind called and we were off to the flop.

Not a bad flop at all.  I’d have preferred to hit a pair to go along with my 4 flush but this was definitely good enough to call when the small blind put out a bet.  The turn and river came and I ended going to the river with nothing but a pair of 8′s.  Not good enough to take down the pot once the small blind showed wired Queens.  Unfortunately nothing higher than a Queen was on the board or I may have been able to buy the pot with a big bet.

Final Hand

Just before the second break and I’m under the gun and look down to see AQ.  It’s folded around to the big blind who calls and we’re off to the flop:

All right!  Finally something I can play with.  My opponent bets $400 and I call.  The flop comes out another beautiful Ace.  She bets out again and I move all in for the rest of my dwindling stack.  She (of course) flips over an A9 for a full house leaving me drawing to three outs which don’t come.

Looking back I’m not sure I could have gotten away from this.  Once I hit my third ace just about the only hand I was worried about was AK.  I honestly didn’t think she’d call with A9 in that spot (AK, AQ, AJ or AT was about the range of Aces that I had her on).  Guess I missed that “that much”.  As they say… that’s poker!

See you after the flop!

I’m certainly not prone to these online bad beats – here are a couple from my latest session.

Hand #1
I’m on the button with A7 of diamonds.  When it comes to me it’s unraised so I put in a standard “3 times the big blind” raise.  I get called by the big blind and we’re off to the flop.

BEAUTIFUL!  With the exception of my opponent holding AA in the big blind I’ve just flopped the nuts.  He makes a standard bet which I raise and puts him into the tank.  He uses just about all of his time before he puts me all in.  Hmm.  At this point I’m putting him on one of three hands – a 7 with a bad kicker, a big ace or a flush draw.  Based on the way he’d played up till this point in the tourney I don’t have him on aces.  I call and he shows a pair of twos.  Yep… you read that right, twos.  Not sure what he was thinking other than maybe he was putting me on a flush draw or a bluff of my own.

As I’m sure you can tell from the title of this post, this hand did not turn out well for me.  Of course the turn and river came like this:

I sat there in stunned silence as I got the pop up telling me my tournament was over.  I don’t even want to begin to think about what the odds of that beat are.

Hand #2
In another tournament I’m once again on the button and this time getting low on chips.  I’ve been trying to play but the cards just haven’t been coming my way.  I find myself with KQ of clubs on the button and make a standard raise.  This leaves me with just over 3 big blinds.  I’m raised by the big blind and I figure he’s making a play at the short stack so I decide to put the rest of my stack in jeopardy.  I’m happy to see that I’ve made the right play when he turns over KJ off suit (with the Jack of diamonds).

The board came out and once again I was left speechless.

Sure I had an Ace high flush but he was holding the Jack and once again I was done.  This is less of a bad beat than the first hand but they came in back to back tournaments and I had had enough for the evening.  As I said in my last post, “The best you can do is get your money in good and pray to the poker gods.”  I did just that and came out on the short end of the flop both times but as they say – that’s poker!

See you after the flop!