Another Horse Tourney

[Rocketwadster 0]

I absolutely love these HORSE tourneys. I consider myself well rounded enough to play in all of the games (with the possible exception of the Stud portion, which I usually pass on unless i have a pair of aces of trips). Once again however I am faced with a seemingly easy decision, which wasn't so easy.My question is this - when you can see that you are clearly better than (but possibly not better than one of) your opponents, do you keep pounding your strong hands even though there is a small chance that you are losing, or, do you slow down minimizing the chips at risk (but also minimizing your possible profit in that hand)? Here's an example:$5 HORSE SNGFull Tilt Poker Game - 100/200 - Limit Hold'em - 11:30:35 ET - 2006/05/02Seat 1: Jr Sandman (395)Seat 2: BennyDiction (1,420)Seat 3: Rocketwadster (2,030)Seat 4: Villain (2,665)Seat 5: mmagee (2,555)Seat 6: jaemo (2,935)jaemo posts the small blind of 50Jr Sandman posts the big blind of 100The button is in seat #5*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to Rocketwadster [Kd Ks]BennyDiction has 15 seconds left to actBennyDiction foldsRocketwadster raises to 200Villain calls 200mmagee has 15 seconds left to actmmagee foldsjaemo foldsJr Sandman raises to 300Rocketwadster raises to 400Villain calls 200Jr Sandman calls 95, and is all inWe all started with 1500 chips. I haven't played very many hands, but the ones I did play have increased my stack slightly. Villain has gained their chips playing Stud 8, and I don't recall seeing any showndown hands in Hold'em. I end up with a capped pre-flop pot with one opponent all-in, and the Villain, who just called both times the betting came to them. *** FLOP *** [Td Kc Qs]Rocketwadster bets 100Villain raises to 200Rocketwadster calls 100Great flop for my hand, with top set. My opponent raised my bet, so they have something. I just call to feign weakness, intending to pound the turn to a safe card (ie. no ace or ten).*** TURN *** [Td Kc Qs] [7h]Rocketwadster bets 200Villain raises to 400I bet out here as intended, but my opponent raised me without delay (it was an auto-raise). Flush draws are gone, could be two-pair, but could also be a straight. The raise was so quick that I chicken out right there, and opt to call it down UI.Rocketwadster calls 200*** RIVER *** [Td Kc Qs 7h] [4s]Rocketwadster: Ace jack???Rocketwadster checksVillain bets 200Rocketwadster calls 200As indicated, I didnt improve, so I opted to just call it down. Too weak, or a smart play??? Could I consider folding at any time?*** SHOW DOWN ***Villain shows [Jd As] (a straight, Ace high)

[mk 11]

I love that he calls two cold TWICE preflop, lol. You're trailing exactly one holding; I would've pumped this thing for sure. If I were in the hand, I would've expected to see him flip up TT, KT or QT, but what can ya do? In these LH hands you've been posting, you're just getting coolered, man. Variance and all that. Don't let it affect your play.