TalkFlop.com

A couple of weeks back and I went to the Nautica Charity Poker tables in downtown Cleveland for the first time.  While I’m not generally one to bitch about the way people play their cards (cause I do some crazy stuff as well), I’m not sure how often I’ll be going back.  To say the play was “loose” would be quite the understatement.  The buddy that I was there with sat down to play some $1/$2 no limit.  I wasn’t playing but he said that every hand opened with a minimum of a $15 to $20 raise.   That seems a bit crazy to me, seeing as the max buy in on the table was $200.  But I digress.

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!!!

I was playing a sit and go the other day and ran across this hand early in a tournament.  It’s not the weirdest hand I’ve ever seen but just goes to show the type of stuff that you’ll see on a pretty regular basis when you’re seeing so many hands.  All the money went in after the flop and it played out as is shown below.  I can only imagine how pissed I’d be if I was the guy holding the nut flush and had to watch as my opponent caught runner runner to fill up.

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!