Ace-Queen At The World Series of Poker Part III

Read part I and part II of Niall Smyth’s World Series of Poker blog here and check him out at PaddyPowerPoker.com:

The Bad
Now I’ve had a bit of time to think about it, there were different spots that kept cropping up where I bleed a lot of chips. If I fancied playing a hand like a connected suitor I would call a raise most times, instead of three-betting some. This also gave the aggressive players the chance to squeeze more often and on the times when I did make a stand I’m playing a big pot out of position with marginal hands. How I should have overcome positional advantage was to play trickier which leads me to this next hand.

I look down and I’ve A-A I’ve raised two out of the last three hands so I open it again, well I’m very happy when one of the aggressive players decides to reraise me. Now I thought for a while and I decided to three-bet but to do it on the big side because I wanted to look weak. Even though the guy tanked for a long while he ended up folding.

While this isn’t terrible is should have taken a bit more risk and just flatted his three-bet with the chance to win a bigger pot instead of hoping he has a big hand or decides to make a move.

Then we have the 6-6 hand where I’m on the button, I raise it up and the small blind three-bets. I debate between four-betting and calling, while four-betting is probably best I don’t mind either play as I had position.

So we take the flop it came K-high with two hearts, it gets checked to me and I bet and he calls, the turn and river goes the same way and I get called down by two-pair. I ended up losing a big pot to the other big stack where I turned a hand that had some showdown value into a massive bluff and this pot really sent me on the downward spiral.

Then there was my knock out hand and funnily enough it came with A-Q.

God the more I write this blog the more I hate A-Q haha… So the blinds are 600-1200 with a 200 ante I have around 30k. I had been down to 17k but had pushed all in three hands in a row to build up. I raise under the gun to 3600 and end up getting two callers – one of the aggressive players and the small blind a tight enough player.

The pot now lies at 12k the flop comes J-10-6 with two hearts, I bet out 8k and was more than willing to get it all in on that flop as its never too bad a spot with two overs and an inside straight draw. Anyways instead I get two callers and the turn is an Ace.

At this point the pot is 36k and I have 20 behind so I’m first to act and push all in.

When I look back I think this is pretty terrible as the only hands that call me are crushing me, I can just check and fold if there is a lot of action even if I have a third of my stack in the middle. I get a caller and a push all in.

One player had flopped a set, the other turned a straight. This was late in the night and I was looking more at the pot then the position I was in at the table. I have to say it was a disappointing way to go out but c’est la vie – you live you learn.

That was the story of my day two, an experience to say the least. I had swings from 108K-49k-100k in the first level alone and the trend continued the rest of the day. I never got any momentum when around 100k. It was always two steps back one step forward which eventually ended in elimination.

I’ve a lot to think about after this tournament as I’ve learned a lot. The most important thing being I’ve a lot more to learn about this game. Hopefully this will push me on to better things. They do say you learn nothing from winning only in defeat. So after 0 for four cashes in this series I must know a hell of a lot more then when I started.