A weird night. All kinds of bad beats and weird draws. I’ve forgotten most of the hands, except this one.
Blinds are at 300-600. There are only five players left and play is fairly tight. The blind is raised to 1,600. I have A-9 in the small blind. I call. The flop is A-10-8. I feel good about my hand, a pair of aces with a good kicker. I put 2,800 into the pot. The other guy thinks about it for a while before moving all in. It’s another 4,900 to me. I have about 7,000 left.
The raiser is a tough one to figure. He used to play conservatively. Very value-based. To a large degree, if he raised, you folded. But he’s been studying poker and his game is vastly improved. I know I can’t read him well, but he has been pushing big all night. It’s obvious he’s been stealing pots a lot.
So… I got the pair of Aces. I figure he has an Ace also. What beats my 9 kicker? If his kicker is 8,10,J,Q,K then he has me beat. That’s a lot of cards to beat me. But it’s 4,900 to get roughly 13,000, those are good pot odds. But if I’m wrong I’m basically out of the tournament. And he did raise pre-flop. That’s what convinces me. If he had A-4 or A-5, it’s less likely he would have raised pre-flop. I figure him for A-J. Grudgingly, I fold. He turns over the A-7. Aaauuuggghhh!!!
I ended up playing him in heads up. I got a lot of Aces and face cards. He was disposed of quickly. I won!
I’m $110 richer. I’m also tied for first place in the league standings. I think I’ve finished in the money the last four weeks. That’s a pretty impressive run.