My first tough decision came against a guy who looked like he was probably a college student and looked about 20. Mr. 20 called $5 preflop on the button after one other call. I had AQ in the small blind and made it $35 to go. Only Mr. 20 called. The flop came down 2 2 6 and I bet out $60. At this point I felt pretty sure he had a small or medium pocket pair. When the turn came down a Q I thought "A ha! Even if he called me lite on the flop he's sure to bet here if I check." I checked and he checked behind me. Crap. The river was a 6 which was a shitty card and I checked again. I checked, Mr. 20 bet $90, I called and he showed me J2. "Mother fucker!" is what I thought, but what I said was "Mother fucker!" To be clear this was more of a general exclamation than calling Mr. 20 a mother fucker. Mother fucker.
A little later I got dealt A9 of clubs and called Mr. 20's raise to $25. We took the flop heads up and it came down A Q 5 with one club. He bet $45 and I called. I figured he'd bet here with any raising hand so I really hadn't narrowed down what he had with that bet. The turn was the 8 of clubs making me a flush draw. Now Mr. 20 bet out $120. This was a big bet. If I hadn't picked up the flush draw I think I might have given him credit for a better hand than mine and folded, but given the clubs I decided to call. The river was a 6 and Mr. 20 bet out $200. This is where the tough decision came into play. On the turn I thought AK was a likely holding, but I didn't think he'd bet it again on the river. With AQ, AA, QQ, 55 and 88 (the real monster hands) I didn't think he'd bet so big on the turn. He was a tricky guy and I thought there was a real chance he could be firing off a three barrel bluff on me. It seemed fishy and I was getting 3 to 1 on my call so I called. He showed me 66. Mother fucker! I think the hand plays out the same if no 6 comes.
Later I raised to $25 with AJ and got 3 callers. The flop came down A 5 2 with two diamonds and I bet $65. The both called. This was a dicey spot. My hope was that one had a worse ace and the other had a diamond draw but even in that best case I still had to fade a lot of outs. The turn was a black 3. I didn't think they were likely to have a 4 in their hands, but you never know. One guy had $120 and the other had $200 so I didn't have to risk a ton to get to showdown. Even though I didn't really like it I figured a check would be too weak and I decided I could still have the best of it. I shoved. They both called - yikes! The river was the 9 of clubs and I beat A8 of diamonds and T6 of diamonds - hooray!
I had a few good things happen to me and found myself about $400 to the good when my next tough spot came up. I got dealt black QQ, raised to $35 from the big blind and got 3 callers. The flop came down K 7 3 with two clubs. This is kind of a tough spot with an underpair, a shallow stack to pot ratio and being out of position. This time I went with when in doubt, fire and I fired out $100 into the $140 pot. A guy who is a total nut and would call anything went all in for about $80 of it and another more reasonable player called as well. The turn was the J of clubs. Now I didn't know what the fuck to do. Mr. Reasonable could have a K or a flush or he could have 98 or A7 or who knows what. He also had about $600 in front of him. My indecision led to a check this time and Mr. Reasonable bet out $200. This felt like an "I've got it" bet, but there was about $620 in the pot and I thought there was a good chance that if this was a bluff it was getting checked back on the river. The river was a red 2 - Yuck! I checked and now Mr. Reasonable bet out $100. Ugh. I knew it was either a move of total desperation after a failed turn bluff or trying to squeeze some last bit of value out of a flush. I called and it was the latter - he had 97 of clubs. Grrrrrrr!
On the very next hand I got dealt AK. The guy in Seat 3 made it $25 to go, and got called by Seat 4. When it got to me I made it $70 to go. Seat 3 just called and then Seat 4 looked down at his remaining chips and said "well...I guess I'm all in" and made it $112 to go. What really sucks here is that I couldn't reraise. I'd raised the $25 bet to $70 which is a raise of $45. He reraised it another $42. If he had $3 more or I'd raised to $65 instead of $70 I could have shoved here. I was pissed I hadn't taken a closer look at the short stack and thought it though a little more. With no other choice, Seat 3 and I both called. The flop came down T 7 7. Now what? I fired out $200 with the hope that he didn't have a pocket pair, but he insta-shoved on me for $700! GAH! I folded and the turn was a K! Double GAH! The river was a brick and Seat 3 won with JJ! Triple GAH! I think if Seat 4 has $3 more or I make it $65 we get it all in preflop and I stack him.
After this one I was out of sorts and decided it was time to go. I played to the big blind and picked up. I lost $287 over 4 hours. My $10,000 bankroll is now at $13,772 after 73 hours of play.
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