A Tale of Two Hands

We had 30 players for our Saturday night home game. I ended up finishing in 4th place for $100. I ended up losing two Races on consecutive hands: AK vs QQ and TT vs AK.

Instead of doing a recap of my skillful rise to the Money, I'm going to share two hands with you. One from the tourney, and one from the Cash game.


Hand #1: Tourney Level 4 (100/200)
I limped in Mid position with JTc. Five players saw a Flop of Ac Qh 4d. UTG+1 (ProWest) lead out for 600. I've got a Gutshot and backdoor Flush Draw. I decide to call because I want to gamble a little to get some chips. Everyone else folds.

Turn: [Ac Qh 4d] Qc - UTG+1 checks. I decide to bet 1100. He thinks for a moment, and check-raises to 2400. Now I go into deep thought. Being a home game, we play with the same group of players on a regular basis. He is certainly on the aggressive side, so he doesn't necessarily have a big hand. He also tends to think that I'm a bit of a Nit. So I decide to call. I still have my Gutshot, and have now picked up the Flush Draw. Although it is possible that neither Draw is any good.

River: [Ac Qh 4d Qc] 6c - UTG+1 bets 3000. I quickly call. I did hit my Flush, but I can't raise in this spot, and risk my tournament life. He says, "You got it." I show my hand, and he is not happy about it. He assumed that I had just Top Pair, and he was trying to bet me off of it. I think he just had a pocket pair, but he never showed.


Hand #2: $1/$1 NLHE
Colin raises to $7 in Mid position. A couple of callers. I'm the SB with Ah Ad. I decide to just call instead of 3-betting. Why? Because GrayDay is the BB, and is very plastered. He's slurring his words, having conversations with himself, and just playing poker like a drunk GrayDay. My Spidey-Sense is telling me that he's likely to do something stupid in this spot.

And he does. He 3-Bets to $27. Meat, sitting right before Colin, cold calls. Colin calls. It folds to me, and I 4-bet to $77 ($50 on top) which leave me $95 behind. GrayDay goes into the tank for what seemed like forever and finally calls. Meat also goes into the tank, and starts counting his stack. At this point, I realize that I didn't raise enough. I probably should have made it an even $100 to go. Meat finally calls the extra $50, and Colin jumps aboard this runaway train. Pot size: ~$320

Flop: Jc 4h 2d. Naturally, I ship my $95 stack in to the pot. Once again, BB tanks. He finally calls the $95, only leaving himself around $20-$40 behind. Meat folds his 55. Colin has 65 for a gutshot, but folds.

I show my hand. GrayDay doesn't. Turn: [Jc 4h 2d] 2s. Now he shows his hand, 52c. With the other 5's being folded, he just hit a true 2-outer. The River was a blank (6, I think), and he scoops a $500+ pot.

Since this hand started the Final Orbit, I just get up from the table, and wait for everyone else to finish up before our usual Breakfast at Denny's this time.

I'm not at all upset about the hand. I actually got what I wanted, which was GrayDay playing a huge pot drawing very thin. It just didn't work out like it should have. In that respect, it was similar to the hand the DP and I played a few weeks ago where he hit a 4-outer on the Turn after all the money went in on the Flop (Bottom Set vs Top Two Pair) for an almost $700 pot.

But between those two hands, that's a $1200 swing.

Ouch!