Couple Poker Hands

I Decided to venture out of the friendly confinds of Boston yesterday and head down to Foxwoods. I was planning on playing the tues night tourney @7 and screwing around in whatever cash game was going on at the time.

I jumped in a four handed 75-150 Omaha/Stud 8 game.

The Omaha game was pretty passive preflop with very little raising. I was in the SB with 685J and the button limps, I toss in the quarter (I had posted a $50 small blind) to see the flop. The flop came K95 and it gets around. The turn is the 7 of clubs, giving me the nuts, but also making 2 clubs and 2 to a low on board. I bet out and the BB, thinks for a couple seconds and says "I have to call." I immediately think he has a low draw and a club draw. Its kind of foolish to call with just clubs or with just a low draw in such a small pot. Anyway the river came a big club and I check folded. Not a big deal but him "having to call the turn," I think is a big mistake. Him putting $150 into a $375 pot, where he will get scooped 42.5% of the time and only scoop me 22.5% of the time(thats if he has 3 live low cards), and the rest of the time we split the pot.

After a couple hours in that game, the 7pm tourney began. Its a 150 buy-in, with 60 rebuys and a 120 add-on. During the rebuy period I had full intention of shooting it up, playing as many hands as I could. I had just doubled my stack up to ~4k with the J4 of clubs, so my image was a little tainted to say the least. Now a FW regular limps so I limp in the cutoff with AJ, the blinds come along. The flop is JJ5 with 2 spades, I have the A of spades. The FW reg bets 150, I splash out 525 and clear out the blinds and get it heads up. The turn is and 8 of spades, he checks I check, the river is a 5, making the board JJ855, giving me the virtual nuts. He immediately moves his stack in and I call. He shows me Q9 of spades. The hand seemed pretty standard, but for about the next 15 minutes the other end of the table cant stop talking about his turn check...."you shoulda shoved," "you cant give him free cards," "he woulda called anyway," "he just won with j4soooooted".....blah blah blah it was rebuy period, I had three jacks and the ace of spades, sorry boys' I was getting that pot.

A few hours later we are at the 600-1200 level, with 200 antes. I have ~10k after I post the small blind. By this point in the tourney everyone is short stacked relative to blinds, and the most aggressive players are the ones that will survive. Its folded around to the button (an older man from NY) who open limps, I pretty much know I am not folding before I look at my cards. Anything that resembles a poker hand and all my chips are going in the pot, and any piece of cheese I will call and hope to get lucky, getting a great price. I look down and see the seven deuce of diamonds. I call. The BB checks, the flop comes out 258, with 2 spades. With 5600 in the middle and 9400 left in my stack, I move in hopping to take it down right now. The BB gets all mad saying he wishes he raised preflop (later he says he had QJ) and the passive old man on the button casually calls the 9400 (leaving himself with about 3k) and turns over A8sooted. This is normally the end of the story, but the blank turn was followed by the 7 spades on the river! Ship The Bread to Fred !!!

I ended up busting out with about 35 people left, I decided to try and win a big pot with QQ rather than just taking down a smallish one. I thought the play was right at the time and I stand by my decision now. Blinds 1k-2k with 300 ante, the button goes all in for 1700, I am in the Small Blind with QQ. My three options are A.shove my 25k in and get the BB out of the hand. B.Limp in and allow the BB to see a free flop or make a preflop move to get me out. or option C.Make a weakish raise tempting the BB to reraise me. Based on my feel for the player I chose option C and raised to 5k the BB immediately says "allin" he has me barely covered and I beat him into the pot with my remaining 20k. But this wasn't meant to be, as he rivered a straight with his KJ, sending me to the rail.