Inevitable

I played a lot of cash games this weekend and had my fair share of success. It is nice when the cards mostly run the right way. I have made a few adjustments to my game working hard not to push small hands too far. It is hard not to when you see so many big pots show down top pair or two pair. Either way, I played the following hand and I think I did everything exactly right, but I’ll let you decide.

The game is $.05/.10 PL Hold ‘Em. I have around $8 left on the table and I’m dealt JJ in middle position. The table has been playing loose, but there are 2 good players on the table (that doesn’t include me, which might have been obvious when I said “good players”). There was a single limper in front of me, so I raised to $.45. I had two callers behind me as well as the original limper. So now the pot is bigger than normal (around $2) and I don’t like my hand very much…until the flop comes Jd 6d 2h. Of course I see the flush possibility, but I’ve got top set and I’m hoping one of my callers has an overpair or maybe even 2 of them. I figure I’ll bet it out hard to eliminate the draw-ers and perhaps I’ll get calls from the overpairs, anyone who paired the 2 or 6 (or better yet, made a lower set) or anyone who thinks I’m just bluffing with AK. The first limper bets a min bet and I raise to $1.80 (around 2/3 the pot) which should make chasing a flush a bad idea. The other callers fold and the limper calls. The turn comes a blank, not a diamond and so my trips are still the nuts. This time the limper checks and I’m happy to take this pot now before a card comes up that could scare me. At this point I’m figuring him on aces, kings or queens because I’ve been playing with him for a while and he’s played well the whole time. I bet the pot, which is around $5 and so I’m basically pot committed at this point since I don’t have much left in my stack. He calls and the last card is the queen of diamonds. He bets out the rest of his stack which has me covered. Do I save my $1.50 or so? With the way I bet, he knows better than to bluff me. He’s either made trips queens or he made his flush, which he was foolishly chasing. I don’t have a choice, I call and he flips over Ad 7d. Goodbye buy-in.

I’d play this hand the same way another 100 times…and I would win around 66 times out of that 100, so I’m okay with that.

The next hand came in a $2 tournament. There were around 200 entrants and the tournament started at midnight on Saturday. I didn’t expect to play that long…really, I didn’t even think about it when I entered. Over four hours later I find myself at the final table with the chip lead (not much of one, but I have one). I enter a few pots that I need to enter, with ATs or small pocket pairs, but end up folding on the flop when I miss entirely. By the time this hand comes around there are four of us left and we’re all pretty evenly stacked. I have the rockets on the button and there’s been a single folder. I raise to 3 times the BB, which has been the standard raise at this table. The SB calls and the BB folds. The flop comes T 6 2 rainbow. The SB bets out 1/2 the pot which I interpret as a continuation bet, though I hope he has AT or KT. I raise, hoping he’ll take it as bullying. He calls and flips 66. His set holds up and I take a respectable fourth place for around $40. I don’t see where I had any choice. It was inevitable, I was going to put it all in the middle with that hand. I doubt I could have played it any other way.

Anyone disagree?