Recently played in a poker tournament

john | Oct. 17, 2023, 5:09 a.m. Poker

I was visiting some friends, and saw the opportunity to play in one.  It was a multi day tournament.  Nothing too drastic.  Day one went well.  It was long and arduous, but I bagged some chips.

The post concerns day two though.  Recently I've been sort of playing way more Pot Limit Omaha than holdem.  Even though this tournament was holdem, things just seem to translate to all aspects of poker.

As we are deep into day two the field is down to about five tables.  I've been in a weird sort of position where I was able to lose the absolute minimum in the hands that I partook in despite being ahead till the river.

Then comes the busting the hand.  The hand that I didn't even want to play, but I was big blind.  The trap was set by the limping button.  A tall tale they had a monster, but what type of monster.  I should of raised preflop, but I didn't, it was suited so it had some flop value.  The flop came three clubs, but I had top pair.  My kicker was useless, but the odds he had top pair where dismal, he wouldn't of limped with a hand that had none Broadway.  Not how he'd been playing all day, he had a pocket pair. 

The question is how big was his pocket pair, and did it have a club.  I tanked, and decided I had him beat.  I figured he had pocket 7's or 8's and maybe 66's.  The board was 963.  Couldn't put him on a 9 since I had a blocking one.  And the sixes where too weak to limp, so they where ruled out.  He would of raised his sixes.

Now if he had aces, kings, queens, jacks or tens.  Given my stack size, maybe a limp is correct, but the risk I catch up is greater than the risk I don't.  But I did just bluff him off a hand a few hands ago, and showed it.  He was not amused.

Couldn't put him on the calmness to not raise it there with tens or better.  So I bet the flop.  He shoved.  My decision had been made before I even made the bet.  I called.

He turned over pocket ten's.

Follow me on BlueSky @nader.mx