Holy Exit, Batman

OK, so I did enter the New Orleans competition after all, 120-odd entrants gave it value. Unfortunately, I didn't last too long. I found myself directly on the right of a player called The Holy. I've played him before and he's been very aggressive, though never struck me as being particularly good.

Anyway, second level (15/30), we all started with 2500 chips. I have 44 in mid position. Two limpers in front, I follow, as does The Holy. BB raises to 60, we all call. Flop comes Q66 rainbow. It's checked round to me. I bet 210 into a pot of 315. My thinking, if no one has a Q or a 6, my 44 could be the best hand. With the turn, only 2 cards help me, most of the other 45 will cause me problems. Define my hand now and I'll know where I stand. In retrospect, against four opponents (especially with one left to act behind me) this might have been ambitious. The Holy called, everyone else folded.

Turn is a 7. Pot is 720. Now, common sense dictates that my thinking here should be 'he called my bet, which means he has something (there are no draws on the board). Anything he has will beat me, therefore I don't put another chip in this pot'. That's not what I did, I bet 630 chips, following through with my display of strength on the flop. I did it because I didn't respect his call - I thought he read my bet as a bluff, and would bet big to force me off the hand if I checked to him on the turn. Why I came to this conclusion, I don't know. Part of it is that I don't want to let him win the hand. The last time we played each other was in an STT, and he cracked my Aces when he went all-in on me pre-flop with KQ. He limped for 50, I raised on the SB to 200 and then he put me all-in for the other 800 chips I had. Even though I would have called anyway, he was trying to push me off the hand. I thought he was trying the same thing tonight.

He called my 630 (pot is 1995) and the river is a 3. Then, he types into the chat box 'QQ'. Whenever I've seen people type things like this before (telling their opponent what they have) it's invariably turned out to be true. It's a sort of reverse bluff - they are trying to induce a bet. As a rule, I don't fall for it on the rare occasions it happens to me. Even though I wasn't completely sure in this case, I checked then folded to his all-in bet.

I'm still not sure what he had of course. His chat after the hand followed through on his claim of QQ ('I was scared you had 66 in the hole'), which made me doubt his original claim. Looking at the hand in retrospect, I played it badly. It could be argued my flop bet was legitimate (defining my hand there and then), though there is an equally strong argument for leaving well alone. Once that bet had been made however, that should have been it - I should have folded to a bet. Ah well, you live and learn - that's the point of this blog.

Note to self: don't get hung up about one opponent - judge each hand on its merits.

I played just one more hand. I'm on the button with 77, 1500 chips in front of me, with blinds at 25/50. There's a raise to 200 and a call in front of me. I call, thinking I'm just getting the right odds for a call, provided I can get someone to match my chips if I flop a set. The Holy, on the small blind, then goes all-in (he has me covered). It's folded round to me and I have a decision to make for all my chips. With longer than the 15 seconds you get to make your decision on the internet, I would eventually have come to the correct decision (fold). However, my initial thinking was 'he's trying it on - call'. More thought would have led me to consider what his bet meant. He went all in, overbetting the pot, therefore he didn't want to play his hand post-flop. Which hands are strong enough to think you're ahead pre-flop, but are difficult to play post-flop?

Answer - mid pairs (88 to JJ). This is what I would have (and should have) put him on. I didn't. I called and he turned over a pair of 10s, and that's me gone.

Note to self: think things through properly. And do it bloody quickly!!

So, a tournament in which I only played 2 hands, and played them both really badly. I find this far worse than a bad beat of getting a huge hand cracked, as there's nothing you can do about Lady Luck chopping your balls off, but everything you can do about playing like a eejit.

Just watching the Hit Me Baby One More Time results on the telly - Carol Decker looks good for 46! Vernon Kay, of course, looks like a prick (white polo neck indeed!).