Some Key Hands

Sit-N-Go – 1

Got excellent value for my pocket aces here against a calling station, and I made note to not c-bet at him without the goods, my other opponents lacking this restraint soon add him back up to a healthy stack.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1897733

4 handed, with relatively high blinds I found AJs, and I wanted to play it aggressively and hopefully take down the pot pre-flop, but I made a stupid min-raise allowing him to take back control with a push holding a medium pocket pair, I called and missed to have my stack decimated.

I had noted this player make several raises in quick success, and the table was reluctant to tangle with him, I judged my hand was likely the winner or against a pair as I was, but I didn’t want to just call and I needed to take down pots to ensure I had a shot at winning the tournament. I think my mistake was not re-raising him all-in.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1897754

After loosing the coin toss with my AJs my cards no longer mattered, I needed to get lucky, so I pushed all-in with my next hand 95 off suite and was very surprised to get a fold from the BB.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1897741

Because of the very high blinds compared to stack sizes each of us had dropped low on chips sooner or later, and we where in turn keeping ourselves afloat by aggressive pre-flop action. I had taken several pots with folds pre-flop, as had everyone else so wasn’t surprised that I got a call, though was a little surprised by the hand that I was called by.http://www.pokerhand.org/?1897744

Overall heads-up I felt I was out played, but I could be being too hard on myself, sometimes your opponent just has the goods and you don’t, I’m not going to dwell on it.

Anyway, I fould J7s, not a good hand by any stretch of the imagination, but I had folded several hands recently and didn’t want to let my stack dwindle further, so I made my standard raise, where each previous time I either showed a good hand or it went to showdown with me leading. I was re-raised by my opponent going all-in, I knew I could easilly be behind, but my opponent had also come over the top and stolen several pots recently so he could be just as weak as me and trying to apply the pressure.

Needing to take down a key pot to give me a clear shot at 1st place I called, hoping to get lucky. We both paired, his was higher and I was out in 2nd, the hand played close to how I expected it would, I just didn’t come out on top this time, but that’s okay, after loosing the race with AJs against a pair I was very lucky to finish in the money at all, so I’m pleased to take 2nd place money here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1897750

Sit-N-Go – 2

I feel this hand although early on, cost me at least a cash finish, although I also feel I lost the minimum and played it well. I woke up with pocket jacks in middle position, and being so early and having limper’s in front I decided to limp along and see a cheap flop.

On the flop I made an over pair, but the flop held a pair of deuces. Someone leads out, and I re-raise them expecting them to hold the 9’s, but they quickly push all-in against me, and I fold.

Actually just going through the hand, they lead out when the blinds where only small, so my opponent actually opened with a 5x raise, which is large enough on this spot for me to have assumed they where trying to get value with trips as opposed to betting out with the 9’s,  the correct play probably should have been to fold to the bet instead of re-raise taking the size of her bet into account, ah well.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1898577

After checking my option on the BB I was lucky enough to make two pair on the river. I folded though, and here’s why, one of my opponents took an ussually long time to act on the turn when the board paired, and I felt on the turn that he was trying to work out how to play the trips he had just made, so when he lead out on the river, for a bet that was a large portion of my stack, I had an easy fold.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1898718

My final hand, I found Q9s, and usually it will go in the muck and I’ll await a better spot to try and double up, but after considering a few important points I decided this could be my best time to make a stand, so I pushed all-in.

Firstly there was only one limper, whereas up to this point, up to this point there had ussually been multiple limper’s in the pot, this gave my weak hand more chance of holding up, and if I folded I would have less of a stack to reduce the field when I have to push, with a hand that is likely to be only marginally stronger then my Q9s.

Most importantly though, I had noticed the BB had raised frequently against me since I had become short stacked, and seemed to do this out of routine, if it had folded to the two of us. I looked over the instant hand history, and he had opened with a raise frequently, at least half of his last ten hands, so I thought about it, and decided to push all-in, looking for a fold.

He took some time, but eventually called and turned over pocket deuces, I was right he was weak, but held the lead, and a deuce on the flop sealed the deal, I needed runners and didn’t get them this time.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1898720

Trying to keep up with my new “zen like” focus I just made a note of his actions for next time and let it be, but this wasn’t a very nice game for me.