Wednesday night I played my tenth no limit hold em tournament with the Eastern Poker Tour (EPT). I was out before the end of the second level. Call it 28 minutes. Saddest part is that it took me longer to drive to the venue than the amount of time I had played. Attempting to salvage my drive, I hung around for the “bad beat” table. I blinded out of that in 15 minutes.
During regular playI really wasn’t getting good cards. Not that that should stop me, but, I believe that if you are going to make a play, you should have a hand that has some possibility of hitting. I was not getting those types of hands.
The first hand that put a dent in my stack depleted it by $4.1K. (I probably had 9.4K in my stack.) The blinds were at $100/$200. My opponent check-called all the way to the River. On the River he bet $1700. There was $6900 in the pot.
Hummm… I had Ks Up – a pr Ks and the pr Qs on the board. Had he slow-played As? Ks? Could he possibly have another Queen? I made a comment about the 2 Qs spooking me and he responded with something vague. As he did, he leaned back in his chair in a micro second of self-assuredness. (Thank you Joe Navarro!) So he had the Q. I called the $1700 in case my read was wrong, I didn’t want to leave that big a pot to someone without a fight. Got my tail whipped but my read validated. Guess that is the cost of doing business.
The second hand…Blinds were $200/$400. I was UTG. After the flop, I had 2 pr – Ks and a small Pr. My opponent was in the Big Blind. He bet the minimum on each round (which I called thinking that I was going to make a move on the River), until the River when he bet enough to put me all in. Hummm… The River brought another J, so now there were 2 Js on the board. Is it possible that he has a J in his hand? Oh YEAH, it was possible. He had played J 7 from the Big Blind, and I let him get the win by not raising on the Flop or the Turn. One J came on the flop, but, I think he would have given it up then since I was playing really tight and had opened the pot from UTG. BUT – You have to think it through then and there and pull the trigger. I was slow playing Ks up and got burnt.