Good play...not so good results.

I have been slowly getting back in to playing live once again. I was out of it for a couple months….my coaching and all, but now my season is over so I am getting back into things. For the last 3 weeks I have been playing in the Tuesday night donkfest. Don’t get me wrong, there are a couple of good players sprinkled through the mix, but for the most part the fields are full of people who call way too much and extremely over value their hands.

Anyway, I bubbled the final table last night. Here is my hand of the night-

I was in the BB there were 3 other players in the pot. I looked down at AhQh. I was going to raise, which I really should have, but I decided to check my option. I did this for a couple reasons. 1st reason- one of the players in the pot will play any ace or any 2 high cards, and he will pay off any big bet. I figured if I could out flop him I could get paid off big time. I guess looking back on it I really should have raised it up, but I didn’t. 2nd reason- I was just trying to change it up a little. I thought if I showed it down and won the pot someone would take notice that I didn’t raise it up with a fairly solid starting hand.

So, the flop:

Qs Jc 6s

Not a bad board for me. I had to be in the lead. I bet it hoping that someone would think I was full of it, and play with me. Well I lost two of the limpers that I was really trying to get in the hand, but I got one caller, not the one I was expecting (the small blind).

Turn: 10d

He checked to me. I took a second. This guy would have for sure raised with AK, I really don’t see this guy playing a K9, and he would never call on a gut-shot with the 8 9. He is one of the tightest guys I have met. I figured I was still good so I fired again. This time I bet it harder hoping he might think I was bluffing and I could get some more chips off of him. He thought for a second, and flat called, but announced “I check dark.”

The river came off:
5c

I reached for some chips, but something just didn’t seem right. I honestly have no idea what it was, but I just figured he was calling again. I really didn’t want to open myself up to a re-raise if I was beat, so I checked behind. I flipped over my AQ and looked over at his hand. He tables Jd 5c.

This guy just rivered 2 pair on me!! And to make it worse he was calling me down with 2nd pair and no kicker. I would expect this from some players in the Tuesday night game, but like I said earlier…this guy was tight! As I watched my chips being raked into his stack I asked him what he was calling with (he is a nice guy and gives pretty straight forward answers). He says, “Honestly, I just thought you were bluffing. I figured you had air, and I was going to call you down.”

For a second I was ticked, but then it hit me. He did exactly what I wanted him to do. He gave me no credit for having him dominated. I was hoping he would think I was full of crap. I wanted him to think I was weak, and he did. What stinks for me is he just hit one of his 5 outs on the river to beat me. I can’t be mad…I played him perfectly, but the 90% I had going to the river isn’t the same as 100%.