Straight on the river, pair on the board

Let me get these two outta my system...

I had been "blah" about my sit 'n go play recently, when I finally set my stupidity and impatience aside for a $10 SnG. Down to two, and we were almost dead even in chips when I flopped a set, then had my opponent hit a two-outer with one card to come. Second place wasn't so bad. It felt like a return to my previous solid SnG play.

Just now chewed on a beat the likes of which I haven't seen. Everybody's seen runner runner flushes and straights... I got sideswiped by a runner runner full house. In the cutoff with K7-hearts, I was first into the pot with a raise. I really just wanted to take the big blind's money, who wasn't seated and therefore in "post 'n fold" mode. The small blind called me, then checkraised me, all-in on a flop of Kd-7d-3s. I called, and the SB showed Q7, no diamonds. The turn and river were both queens. Amazing and interesting.

(And during the writing of this post, I recovered from that beat to finish in the money at 44th out of 720. Right after the running queens, the blinds went up to 50/100, and I had 640 chips to my name. Two timely double-ups put me back in the mix.)

Ok, now that that's over with... time to think about my recent play.

Several days ago, I wasn't pleased with it. I was making too many mistakes. Bluffing a little too much. Being a little too aggressive with the wrong opponents. What bothered me most was getting trapped by large hands on the river.

The first time, my A4 flopped a wheel straight against Albert in my home cashgame during late-night four-handed play. When the turn was another five, I didn't see through some of his theatrics, trying to a little too hard to figure out what I had. He checked to me on the river, and I thought he'd call me with a pair of tens or queens (with the board jack-high). When he checkraised me all-in, I was priced into calling. I politely told him to show me his full house. He showed me his quad fives.

The second time was against Kida in the cash game following Manny's first attempt at hosting a $20 tourney. Four-handed, I held JT-spades and saw a nice flop: Qs-9d-3s. I bet 50 cents at a 60 cent pot, and Kida checkraised me to $1 total. I called, and saw the 3h fall on the turn. Instead of betting into me, Kida checked. I thought Sure I'll take a free card.. perhaps Kida raised me on a draw, KQ, or QJ.. and checked along. The river was the Kc - no flush to be seen. Once again, I got checkraised on the river. This time I had smelled something fishy but thought I could get paid by Kida's two pair. No sir. Q3 (but it was sooooted!), full house.

I need to pay just a little bit more attention to what's going on. My reads have been good - I just need to ignore my greedy impulses to bet when the little Poker Robot in my head is flailing about, blaring "Danger, Will Robinson, danger!!"

And it hasn't escaped my attention that in both cases I had a straight, and there was a pair on the board.

My play in Manny's tourney was less than stellar - my cards were a little cold, and I busted out when I was reraised by a competant player, who had just lost a huge hand on a bad beat. I thought he was on tilt and my pocket nines were good. His Hilton Sisters had other ideas. Out of the 12-man tourney in 8th.

My Sunday tourney followed some decent SnG play. Unfortunately, Tabletalk Tommy couldn't make it, and he appears to be the glue that brings out Kida, Guitar Dave, and Mark the Lucky River Bastard to my game.

Seat 1: Mike (I have no clue how I draw the button so often)
Seat 2: Jefferson (my new roommate. first time playing.)
Seat 3: Superloose Shawn
Seat 4: Forty Ounce Dave
Seat 5: Albert
Seat 6: Oklahoma Jeff
Seat 7: Miguel
Seat 8: Woody

We voted to pay the top 3, $75/$45/$25. We had only five rebuys total, which seems really low for this group. We had plenty of all-ins during the first hour, with an inordinate number of wins by the short-stack.

I had the lowest stack after the first hour break. I was just under 2K (with the starting stack size of 2.5K) and decided to just add-on, putting me at 4.5K or so. Everybody else had at least 5K, and I think the chip leader, Miguel, had more than 10K.

Shawn was the first to leave, when my unraised big blind special, 85-offsuit, flopped big, As-5s-5h against Shawn's Ad-Ts. Shawn muttered "should've raised" a few times after the turn and river were no help.

The middle portion of the tourney was interesting. I sat next to Jefferson, who I had given perhaps 30 minutes of random poker tips. Pocket pairs, trap hands, position, being selectively aggressive. Playing tight early, and increasing your aggression as the blinds increase and the table gets short-handed.

Unfortunately, he was the next to go. There was a raise in front of me, and I pushed with my pocket queens. Jefferson called me with KT-clubs. No good. I think his defense was that he had been seeing people overplay a lot of poor hands, but he "forgot it was me" pushing my chips into the middle.

The middle part of the tourney was a bit of a blur. Albert and I folded a lot and (he) groused about not getting any good cards. I knew better. I also knew it was time to do some blind stealing before I got short-stacked. I tried a raise UTG with 97 offsuit. I hadn't played a hand in the prevous 20. Woody and Miguel both called from their blinds, and I planned to bet or raise on the flop. The flop was a 7-5-4 rainbow. After Miggy checked, Woody pushed all-in. Seemed like an odd play, but I decided to fold my top pair. Woody showed 32 offsuit. I can't decide if Woody's was the play of a savant, or an idiot. While the play worked this time, I really should be raising UTG with a good pocket pair. It wasn't until a few minutes later that I realized he called my raise with 32 offsuit. Nice to see my raises still get too much respect.

Miguel is always interesting to play against. He plays waaaaay too many hands. Sometimes it seems impossible to steal his blind, or raise him off his hand preflop when he's limped in. In the last cash game, he made some questionable plays that paid off when he caught turn and river cards. When the cards stopped catching him up, he gave his chips back.

Same deal in the tourney. The deck hit him upside the head in the first hour, and showed him no love in the second. Chip leader to busted out in 6th.

We lost Forty Ounce Dave next. It was during this time, while five-handed and shorter, that I started showing Jefferson my cards at differing times pre- and post-flop. I told him "Your face should show nothing. Pretend you're waiting for a bus." While I was showing him good cards, timely folds, and a daring bluff or two, his reaction didn't seem to tip anybody off. It was strangely satisfying to show only the new guy when everybody else was dying to know what I was up to.

During four-handed play, with the bubble lurking, I had a Midas moment. Everything I touched turned to gold. (Ok, so it was more of a Midas half-hour, but that doesn't quite roll off the tongue as nicely.)

I started four-handed play as the obvious short-stack. I won a few pots, culminating with a nice double-up holding an overpair to Oklahoma's top pair. The hand that securing my spot in the money happened right afterwards.

I really wanted to attack the blinds. I raised preflop with K3-diamonds, and Woody defended his blind to see a flop of Ac-Ts-4c. Woody bet into me, and I raised. He called after some thinking, and I put him on a medium pair or a draw. The turn was a red 5. Woody checked, then reluctantly called. When the river was a red 6, Woody checked to me.

At this point, I actually considered checking. If Woody was actually on a draw, my king-high might actually be the best hand. I had already committed a huge portion of my chips to the pot.

I fired my last bet into the pot - if I was called and lost, I'd be desperately low. Woody folded, showing K9-clubs. I was pumped beyond belief. On my way to the muck, I showed Jefferson.

I used the "show Jefferson" thing several times while short-handed. I'd show him, make an ambiguous comment after the hand was over, and then lie lie lie about what I was actually holding. Whatever hand I was representing, I said I had. I was holding ten-high? I'd say pocket tens.

Down to three (Oklahoma was the bubble boy), I misplayed pocket queens and it worked out. In my small blind, I just limped in after Woody had folded his button. Albert raised from the big blind, and I smoothcalled while showing Jefferson and declaring "I think I hafta call."

I hated the flop: A-T-4, rainbow. But that didn't stop me from checkraising Albert. His reaction belied that he was not expecting a checkraise. He folded, telling me he put me on a set, and declaring he was laying down AQ. Enjoying the lies I had been telling, I told him his read was good - I had hit a set of fours. (He had guessed tens. But c'mon, aren't I going to raise preflop with pocket tens from my small blind?) Naturally, he could've been lying too...

I ended up busting Woody when he checkraised me all-in with middle pair, and this time I refused to lay down top pair, which I think involved AQ this time. I started heads-up play with a 3:1 chip advantage on Albert. It was over quickly. I think Albert was fatigued, and tired of me raising him. He had just lost a decent pot, and decided to come over the top of my preflop raise, all-in with J9. I was getting excellent odds on my call and my K7 turned out to be the winner.

Hopefully my ship is righted, and my play is solid heading into the PCS Championship tourney. Season #4 concludes on Friday night.