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.

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!