WPT Legends Event

So, I was ready. I felt pretty good and things went smoothly for the most part. The table was friendly and very social which helped everyone stay loose. The first hand I got tangled in went like this: I raised to 150 with AK diamonds and got called by a player behind me that I’d never seen before (big surprise). The flop came A-K-8 rainbow and I fired out 250. My opponent called and I planned on value betting the hand through feeling like he had A-Q or something like that- he called. The turn card came a Q and I bet 700. My opponent raised me to 1700 and I thought about re-raising again. I had him on A-Q, but he could easily have had 10-J or 8-8. It was so early in the tournament that I didn’t think it made sense to gamble with the hand at such a good table so I called. The river came nothing and I checked, hoping to check and call a nice bet. My opponent bet 1500 and I quickly called. He turned over A-8 off suit and immediately I felt like I may have let an opportunity slip away. Still though, not knowing the guy and having several hands out there that could beat me I would have felt really foolish if I went broke on that hand. I had my chips up to 20,000 at one point and then a few hands in a river got beat with pretty strong hands. Trip 10’s went down to a straight, and then two hands in a row I was thinking, “No king, no spade,” followed by, “No king, no diamond.” This is spooky, but the first time the King of spades hit and the second time the King of diamonds hit! Both cards got me, but not the way I would have thought. In the King of spades hand for example, I raised in the small blind with 6-9 of clubs. The flop came Kd 9s 6s. I bet, and the big blind called. The turn was the 4s and I bet again while my opponent called. That’s when, “No king, no spade,” was going off in my head! When the King of spades hit I checked as did my opponent. He didn’t have a flush or a King, but his J-9 beat me with the kicker. A hand that hurt bad came in a multi-way pot when I called a small raise in the big blind with 5-7 of diamonds. The flop came J-8-4 all diamonds and it was checked around to the button who bet 2000. I wasn’t ready to go broke with this hand just yet, though, so I decided to check-raise it to 4000 and see what developed behind me. The initial raiser went all in for about 7000 total and the initial bettor folded. Here I think I made a mistake. While it was very possible that my opponent had a hand like Ad A, or even J J, it was much more likely that he flopped a higher flush. Since I was “priced in” and had one sure out I decided to call the last 3000. It was absolutely no surprise to me at all to look at the A-Q of diamonds. The river gave my opponent a little scare as it was the 9 of diamonds. Close, but not close enough. A round later I moved all in on a bet and a raise with Q-Q and my opponent called with A-K. 10-4-2 on the flop looked good, but a king on the turn had Lori and me on the road back to Vegas. So there. To those that say I never talk about poker in my blog, hopefully that will tide you over for a while because the next time I’ll be playing any poker is September 13th in the WSOP Circuit event. ]]>