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!!!