All hands shown actually took place. To limit your experience, use the following search words--
BAD BEAT: when Lady Luck wasn't there for me.
GOOD BEAT: when Lady Luck was on my side.
DEFINITION: examples that define a poker term.
BAD PLAY: an error made during a hand.
LAYDOWN: folding a possibly beaten hand.
QUIZ: test yourself
Here's an interesting example where both players probably did the correct thing on the flop. I had top pair while my opponent had a K while his T matched the suit that was on the board. However, he would have been in trouble if I had a higher T of clubs. Additionally, my opponent would be at a serious disadvantage if he did not have a club at all. But during a turbo tournament, you have to gamble because the blinds will eventually get you.
AT is weak, especially after a raise. Rather than calling, a better move is to raise which helps prevent lesser hands from playing. However, that would also have made it heads-up against a dominating hand. AT would have won, flopping top pair, but sometimes folding dominated hands also prevents you from getting a bad beat.
With QT and acting first in the round, you are subject to difficult decisions. In this case, I decided to call the pot bet on the flop to see if my opponent had a queen. However, even if he doesn't have a queen, he could have some kind of draw. Most players do not bet the flop on a draw, so I suspected he had a queen and hoped my kicker was higher.
The turn put a possible flush out there and we both checked. Checking here keeps the pot smaller, but I could have bet out as a bluff. It's risky, but a bet on the river could seal that effect.
The check by my opponent let me think he was afraid of the flush and also made me wonder if he had a queen. I bet out thinking I may have the best hand, but I was wrong. Playing QT in early position unsuited can get you in trouble and the trouble gets worse as the hand progresses.
Playing scared poker is playing losing poker. In this example, I flopped the top two pair after an unraised pot. With several players acting after me, I worried that one of them might have limped in with two spades. I decided to make a pot bet on the flop to try to thin out the field. It worked by getting two players to fold.
However, I was still in the worst position with three players still acting after me. An ace hit the turn, but it wasn't a spade. I still worried about the flush out there and decided to check to try to get some information. One player bet about 2/3 the pot and the player after him called and was all-in. At this point, I thought that at least one of them had a good chance of having the flush. Otherwise, why put your money in the pot?
Poker is one of those great games that are analogous to life in many ways. It is important to stay in the present, to live in the now and forget about one's past experiences. In this case, I had felt burned so many times by a board that flopped the same suits. I would flop top pair or even a set only to see that someone had flopped a flush. With these negative experiences in mind, along with being scared that I would go broke on the hand, I made a bad fold.
I was out played in this example by aggressive betting. My opponent probably thought he had the best hand with top pair and the nut flush draw. I would not have been surprised if I had bet out first and he had pushed it all-in. In that case, I probably would have had to call even if I knew he had a flush. Since I had two pair, I would still have a few outs and would have been a 10% dog. But with all the money in the pot, it would have been very close to a proper pot odds call.
Be careful when your opponent in one of the blinds calls your raise, check calls your flop bet, check calls your turn bet, and then bets out on the river. This pattern generally means a big hand. I thought my opponent could have a straight, but decided he had two pair and that's why I raised. I was just lucky he didn't re-raise me, but I probably would have folded if he had.
You always need to be careful with limped pots because junk hands can sometimes flop big. Also, if you re-raise someone and they raise your entire stack back, you'd better have some outs because you could be a huge dog.
Pocket jacks are pretty good, but not after a big re-raise. In this case, the re-raiser was a bluffer or on tilt, but the initial raiser had pocket kings that would have dominated me.
I generally like to limp with KQ suited in early position because there have been too many times I've been burned with bigger hands. AA, KK and even QQ or AK and AQ have you in trouble. When the pot is raised, I don't have a problem folding.
My pre-flop raise may have deceived my opponent since most people don't raise with J9 suited. I had been watching my opponent earlier and noticed some questionable plays on his part. So when he limped into the pot, I suspected this play might work.
I was lucky to flop top pair, but worried a little about the potential for a flush. The turn didn't put a third club out there, but did put a possible straight out there. I figured that a gutshot straight would beat me, but I wanted to be sure to make him pay for a flush draw. Having watched this player, I knew he would gamble with a draw.
Interestingly, this is the kind of hand that generates pots that create a winning or losing session. In this case, my opponent was getting 2-to-1 on his money. Any pot bet gives your opponent 2-to-1 to call. Since he had an open ended straight draw and could win with a set or two pair (giving him 14 outs), he had a 30% chance to hit the winning card. Therefore, he was very close to getting actual pot odds.
After thinking (screaming and shaking one's head) about this hand, I wonder if calling the re-raise might have been a good alternative. I'm not sure if it would have changed anything, but it's still an alternative.
The frustrating thing about this hand was that the guy who won it was the one I wanted to bust so badly. As usual, your last hand in a tourney is always the most painful.
I didn't have a lot of chips so I don't blame the call. Still, getting beat by someone on the run never feels good. Had I won this hand, I would have probably cashed.
I found out later that this player liked to bluff. Was I bluffed off this pot? I wonder if he might have thought he had the best hand with a pocket pair. When two queens came off, he could have thought I did not have one. Or did he have one?
