WSOP Circuit event, 300+40 NLHE
Approx 70 people left, paying 54 of the 527 starting players
Tourney and table chip lead (me) at approx 30K in chips
Starting chips 1500, stack average 11.2K

The table had been relatively tight as we neared the money and having held the lead for over an hour now I was pushing the table around at will. I had made a few all-in bets to push people off hands and only showed down quality hands so while my image may have been loose to the other players, they certainly only saw evidence of quality hands.

Two new players recently moved to our table with large stacks, at the break I asked one for a count to which he acknowledged he and the guy next to him who just arrived both had around 20K.

With blinds at 400-800 and a 100 ante in middle position I look down at J Q , the big blind is sure to go all in here as he has only about 1200 in remaining chips. Action folds under the gun and the two following players over to me, I make a small raise to 2000 to go ahead and push the big blind over the edge. I get a call from the button, (one of the two new players) and then as expected the big blind moves all in with his remaining 1200. We go to the flop with 7400 in the pot.

Flop: 8 Q 10

First to act I give this some thought, I hit top pair with a better than average kicker, I have a queen as well as the board so the odds of the button player sharing top pair are slim so I will try to run him out of this pot with a small bet and then isolate the big blind and take down the pot. I bet out 2400 to which the button thinks for about two minutes and finally calls. We see fourth street with 12.2K in the pot.

Turn: A

Action to me and I don’t like this card, I could check it which would practically give away this huge pot. The good news if there is any, is that I have added a double belly buster draw as a king or 9 give me the straight . My belief from the hands I have seen this guy play is that he plays a lot of draws and was chasing another spade or a straight. I want to shut down any draws as the pot is too large to walk away from so I make the big move and go all in. He thinks for about 5 seconds and calls. I nearly throw up when he turns over A Q ; the river is blank for me (he makes his flush) and the BB was on 35o. I have went from chip leader to near nothing ( he actually had about 28K ). Bad decisions on my part.

So here is the thing, this was only my 5th tournament – I have made a final table in one before that had 220 players (7th) and done nothing in the others. I figured that I did not want to just finish in the money but put myself in position to win – I made a huge mistake here as I WAS in position to win, I was in the lead going into this hand and made a play I did not need to.

Please hold back on the “you freaking idiot” remarks, or telling me how I am such a donkey. Do though, tell me what you would have done and why – I am still sick over this and want to make sure it is a lesson I will never forget.

i guess just don't overplay Top pair, Jack kicker in NLHE..that's pretty basic though.

oh, and especially when the turn is a horrible card for you and you're only called when you're beat.

gl

- Jordan

Pushing was pretty much the worst thing ever. You've not invested very much into this pot and can escape cheaply if this guy wants to bet the turn, which he would've. Honestly, I don't even really understand why you're betting into the dry sidepot as it is.

You really shoudln't tell people not to call you names, it'll only encourage them.

You did play the hand horribly. The button isn't going to fold for 2K more when he's getting about 3-1. The button isn't going to fold on the flop when you underbet the pot that has about eleventy brazillion draws possible and you're giving him 4-1. Then the turn card rolls off, possibly one of the worst cards in the deck for you that's not a spade, so what do you do? YOU GO ALL IN?!?

If I had A 2 , I'd call you there because I'd know that you were weak (which you were) and that you wanted me out of the pot (which you did).

Don't raise with your hand preflop when you're out of position. If you like the flop, then bet an amount where you might actually find out if he has a draw or not. And DON'T push your chips in with 2nd pair on a board with 2 possible straights and a flush draw.

The button played the hand correctly 100%. He was probably trapping the BB preflop, knowing that he'd go all in. He didn't overplay his hand against the chip leader.

I want to call you a donkey so badly but I'm gonna hold off....



This is actually a good play. He needs to bet the flop. His hand is probably winning (unless he gets called) and it should be protected against the many draws that the button might have. I think betting the flop was correct, but he needed to bet way more than 1/3 the pot.

Also, once you get called in a dry side pot, you better slow down because the other person has something. The button's somethign that he was calling with was surely better than the crap that you bet with.

I certainly know that I played the hand badly; but being in the hand was not necessarily wrong to start with. It is hard in words to capture the feel of the table but things were tight to the point that in the last 20 hands I would say that 15 of them were only played by the blinds - I was making an occasional move and getting no resistance. No one wanted into a hand, if they did they would fold to a raise most of the time.

In my post hand analysis I could have tried to check it down after the flop and eliminate the BB player but in all truth I never considered it because for hours I had not seen a check at the table that did not get raised, it was just the nature of the table - people were sensing checks as weakness and going after it.

Even the post flop bet was not too off the wall as I did have top pair with a better than average kicker but I should have thrown up a red flag when the button called.

The turn was the big mistake and my current thought is that I should have put out a feeler bet and see if he caught help with the Ace which came.

All truth, I did not even think about this long enough, I put him on a draw after the flop call (he thought about it for a while) and then did not stop to re-evaluate the texture post turn.

The flop and turn bets were both horrible, but for different reasons.

The flop bet was too small and you got no infomration, in addition to allowing draws to get there cheaply.

The turn bet was way too big. He easily could've had KJ there and made the nuts. After he calls the flop, you bet 1/2 the pot on the turn and fold if he raises, or you just check fold the hand. Either one is correct. Pushing is wrong by a mile.

I do stuff like that all the time. Which is why I don't play tournaments anymore.

tournament section please