The final hand

I am enough of a geek that I took a lot of notes on some of the hands I played in the $1500 NLH'em toruney on Tuesday and I will be posting info on them later. I am both pleased with how I did and so damn frustrated at several horrible bad-luck hands including the one that busted me for the night. I got good cards much of the day, which is lucky, but I got very unlucky in how many of the good card hands ended up in the end. With a little more luck in that regard, I would be among the tournament chip leaders right now.

I ended up going out in about 500th place. There were 2300+ players in the tournament so I fared pretty well. The top 200 make the money. Here is the story of the final hand I played.

I had about 7000 in chips (the average in the room was around 8000) and we were quite close to the dinner break. I was fairly resolved to just make the dinner break and assess my position at that time. But, I caught pocket Jacks in the small blind. We were playing at the 200-400 blind level with a $50 ante, which meant there was $1100 in chips in the pot before a single player had decided whether he liked his hand. Anyway, I've got my jacks and three guys have already called the $400 blind. I called it too as my pot odds were quite strong and so long as no A, K, or Q come on the flop, I figure I am in very good shape. I thought about a raise but I did not want to get in too deep with Jacks as they are really just a high-middle pair. Plus, the pot was big enough so that it would take a monster raise to get people out and I am not gonna drive out the scary hands to me (A+face) anyway. I felt good about no one having pocket Qs, Ks, or Aces based on the betting so far.

The flop is a dream - 10 9 4 rainbow - and I checked to see if I could trap someone and get even more value off my hand. One guy who has around $10k chips bets $1500 and the other players fold. I move all in on him. By my figuring, he is either making a move (the pot is around $4000 at this point) or has a mid-A and has hit the 10 9 or 4 to go with his ace. I don't really want him to call as he at least has an overcard and the pot is plenty big enough for me to just win it and be happy. He takes his time before deciding to call. He has A-10 for top pair with top kicker. It is a good call but I am a big favorite (approx. 80% chance I win).

Of course, the damn turn brings another ten giving him a set. I had less than a 5% chance of getting a jack on the river and it did not happen. I busted and am done.

The pot had something like 16 or 17,000 chips in it. For perspective, at that point that many chips would put you in the top 10 in chips in the entire room. Wow!!!

I was crushed. So depressing. I got my cards in at the right time. I was a huge favorite. I did everything right (I was even afraid of a call, so I was not being greedy)... and yet I lost.

Arrrggghhhh!!!!!

More on the other hands later...