1. 2008-01-09 08:35:48

   Top Pair, Top Loser

   I really screwed up tonight at the tournament, so I'm going to purge it from my memory by writing about it here.

   The Build-Up

   I started out playing relatively tight, but I accidentally got involved in a hand with Andre when I turned an open-ender and he made a small enough bet for me to call. I made the straight, he tried to raise me off of it. I was scared of the possible flush, but my straight was good. I was playing relatively tight and trying to be aggressive and I built up a pretty nice chip stack.

   We got down to 7 players, so I opened it up a little bit and raised 3x with my A6o. My opponent on the button calls. The flop comes T84 with two clubs, so I take a stab. My opponent thinks, somebody calls time, and he decides to push all in (for about half of my stack). I get the vibe that he doesn't want me to call, and it seemed reasonable that he would make the move on a flush draw, so I call. He says "good call" and turns over AQ. I sheepishly turn over A6. I was right about him not wanting me to call, but it was a bad call! Being the luck-sack that I am, the river is a 6. Lame for my opponent, but pretty good for me.

   The Stupidity

   I continued to play well and made it to the final table approximately tied three ways for the chip lead. I folded, folded, folded. I finally pick up AJc and raise 3x from under the gun. Everybody folds to the small blind, who calls. He checks in the dark - what?! The flop comes out AQ6. I bet half the pot, he raises three times that, and I go all in. I don't know why, and I wouldn't do it again, because it just doesn't make sense. I guess I didn't want to lay down my top pair, especially since it seemed my opponent showed weakness with the check in the dark. Oh, by the way, my opponent was one of the other chip leaders, so I was knocked out of the tournament in 8th. Stupid.

   My only consolation is that my opponent told me he checked in the dark so I couldn't get a read off of him :p

   Online

   I decided to hit the tables real quick before going to bed, and I won a bit more than a full buy-in. Yay for that. I'm up two full buy-ins after 3.5 hours and about 600 hands.

   I made some pretty good moves at pots where my opponents seemed weak and didn't get called down at all. I also managed to crack some aces with 97o. I had flopped middle pair and turned a straight draw. I led the betting to the turn because we were both in the blinds, but my opponent suddely went all in for 3 times the pot, so I decided to call. It turns out he thought the board was really ugly and wanted me out. Good thing the river made my straight! He went off in the chat box, but it's my policy to never type there. The other players at the table gave him a hard time because he "played his aces so weak". Funny.

   Posted by Jason M at 2008-01-09 08:35:48

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