In the early going I min-raise in with A-9. Only one other caller. The flop is K-J-7. I bet a couple hundred and he calls. I figure he has K-x. The turn is an A. I figure I have him beat. I have him read as K-x. Now my Aces beat his Kings. I put in a couple more hundred and he calls. The river is a blank. I put in 500. He comes over the top with 1000. Oh man, he can’t have K-A can he? Or any other two pair? I have to call. He turns over pocket 7s. His set takes me down. I never saw it coming. I really thought I had the correct read. Short-stacked, I get knocked out quickly and rebuy.
I played A-9 four times and lost every single time. The fifth time I decided to play conservative and fold it. The flop was 9-9-x. Sigh!!
I played well the next two hours. I have a below average, but not super small stack in the final eight players. I am playing tight. The blinds are at 200-400. The player under the gun pushes in to 1000. I look down at Ad-Qd. I go all in with 2,350. To my suprise a third player calls as well as the 1,000 bettor. The flop is A-J-10. I feel pretty good with top pair and a very high kicker. One of the other player goes all in, the third player folds. We flip up our cards. He has K-Q and has flopped the straight, I get knocked out.
I wonder why he called. K-Q is a pretty good hand, but to call a 1,000 better and an all-in with it? It is just me or is that a foolhardy bet that happened to hit?
Postscript: It’s the day after, I’m reviewing in my head. It’s true I’ve gone all in with marginal hands a few times. If it had been just him and me it could be considered a reasonable gamble on his part. However when one player had raised and when I had raised all-in, calling it with K-Q is a bad play. It’s very likely you don’t have the best hand, and you can’t bluff me out when I’m all-in already. It was a bad play by him.
Coincidentally, it was the same guy who had the pocket 7s earlier. Also coincidentally, two hands before K-Q had called an all-in against A-A. Two kings came up on the board. Maybe he just figured K-Q was lucky.