Bluff Poker Tour Event #3 & #4

Event #3

I suck

Event #4

Suckout

I'm going to rant here a little because I need to purge it out of my system.
I sat down last night feeling very good about my chances in event four. I hadn't played at PokerHost before and not many people signed up for it since we only had 79 players. I was still atop the Bluff Poker Tour Leader Board but after the third event my margin had shriveled to only 2 points.

I didn't recognize anyone at my table so I figured I would try to push around a little and just outplay my competition. After about 10 hands it was obvious that these guys were completely unwilling to lay down a hand. I got the distinct impression that to most of these boys Ax represented a monster. Against players like these it can become very easy to lose a lot of chips to a big suckout. I resolved myself to only playing big hands until I could be moved, or enough of these guys busted out.

About 20 minutes in I received Qh Qc in late middle position. UTG+1 made a smallish raise to 80 and the player on his left called. It folded to me and I decided if I was going to play these, I wasn't going to let anyone in cheap. I had 1,100 in chips left and I made a large raise to 400. Action folded around the table to the original raiser, who called. The remaining player folded and we were heads up.

The flop brought a beautiful Qs to turn my sisters into triplets. She brought along a 10h and a 6h. I loved the Queen but didn't care for the two hearts too much. My opponent took a few seconds and pushed all in. He had me covered by about 1,000 chips so this was my perfect opportunity to double up. When I double up here I know I'll outlast this table and move onto greener pastures. I call and my opponent shows the Ah Kh.

Why did he push here? He has nothing but a draw at this point. He has lots of outs but what makes him think he is good to go here?

Was it a stop and go play? I don't think so, these guys weren't that smart. I believe he was blinded by the Royal Flush draw possibility. He didn't know I had the Queen so it wasn't possible.

He also holds the plain nut flush draw and the broadway straight draw. Still, these are only draws and he's betting into an opponent that showed a large amount of strength preflop. Even if I was a player like the rest of them he would have to at minimum put me on an AK like him, or AQ. Either way he's looking to possibly split if the straight comes or lose to a made hand on the flop. This says nothing of if I held AA, KK or what I truly had, QQ.

He bet all in to what was the nuts at the time. I held a 67% lead on the flop and the turn showed a 9d. Percentages don't guarantee success and when a Jack hit the river I was out.

Thanks for coming by, don't let the door hit ya in the ass on the way out.

I was royally pissed at the time and my ring games suffered for the rest of the night because of it. I spent the rest of the night chasing to many second bests and managed to lose $100.

The more I think about it I'm not sure I can fault my opponents play too much. Doing what he did was really his only way to stop me in the hand. He made the wrong play but I knew these guys were making the wrong plays. I suppose I can't be upset about people being themselves. I'd never lay that hand down, but I'm going to lose it 32% of time on that flop, against those cards.

Ok, now I feel a little better.