Strike 2

I played well again in today's WSOP Satellite, but to no avail. 353 entrants meant that top 6 would win seats into the main event this year.

I didn't really suffer any bad beats... I got dealt 3 moderate hands but each one put me to the test. I flopped a set with a board of 3 diamonds and got check-raised all-in. I knew he had only one big diamond, and I made the call knowing that if I could dodge a diamond or pair the board, I would be in great chip position early. I did both as the board brought two clubs and the river paired the board with aces. Another hand saw me pushing all-in on the turn with pocket 9s and two overcards on the flop when the board paired one of the overcards. The guy let his timer tick all the way down (40 seconds!) and folded. He was on the draw... by second 30, I was praying for a call! I just made one mistake by overbetting pocket kings preflop in EP with blinds at 200-400. I was hoping it looked like a desparation move with a small pair hoping to get a K-Q or A-Q to call. They all folded and I just kept telling myself it's better to win a lot of small pots, not just one big pot.

After the pocket kings, I didn't play a hand for two orbits. Got dealt 5 high in the both the BB and SB the first time in raised pots and then I got dealt pocket 9s in the SB.

***** Hand History for Game 3876084637 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:21637318 Level:7 Blinds(300/600) - Sunday, April 02, 22:40:21 ET 2006
Table WSOP Satellite(651694) Table #10 (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the buttonTotal number of players : 10
Seat 1: seawolf108 ( $9328 )
Seat 2: taz999 ( $16762 )
Seat 3: Mighty_Max ( $11546 )
Seat 4: NoBlackAces ( $4086 )
Seat 5: LloydBonafide ( $2896 )
Seat 6: MsClean_ ( $3236 )
Seat 8: Blue_LabelA ( $12675 )
Seat 9: MyBoysLandC ( $5626 )
Seat 10: xxPicassoxx ( $8576 )
Seat 7: bobbytodd ( $15743 )
Trny:21637318 Level:7 Blinds(300/600)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to NoBlackAces [ 9c 9h ]
bobbytodd folds.
Blue_LabelA folds.
MyBoysLandC folds.
xxPicassoxx folds.
seawolf108 folds.
taz999 raises [1900].
Mighty_Max folds.
NoBlackAces is all-In [4086]
LloydBonafide folds.
MsClean_ folds.
taz999 calls [2186].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Td, Jh, 2c ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
** Dealing River ** [ Ts ]
taz999 shows [ Ad, Jd ] two pairs, jacks and tens.
NoBlackAces shows [ 9c, 9h ] two pairs, tens and nines.
taz999 wins 9072 chips from the main pot with two pairs, jacks and tens.
Player NoBlackAces finished in 112 place

Here's my thinking. Comments are of course appreciated. Taz999 is the bigstack of the table. He is about T5,000 chips above the average and it folds to him in the cutoff. A raise of 1900 = 3.16 x the BB. An obvious steal attempt. My dillema was that I did not have enough chips to call and see the flop only to fold to overcards. Of the 50 cards left in the deck, 20 of them were bigger than 9. Even if the flop comes 8 high and I push, he is committed and would have to call another T2,200 with a pot of T6,600... getting EXACTLY 3-1 on his money with possibly two overcards and two cards to come.

I know my pre-flop push won't scare him off, so all I can do is put my money in the middle with the best hand and hope the numbers support my decision. He was suited with diamonds (I had the 9s of clubs and hearts) and when the cards flipped over, I was BARELY a 51% favorite. The jack hit the flop and I go home packing.

1 hour and 40 minutes and I only made one mistake... a mistake that didn't cost me any of my chips, just cost me the chance to win more chips. I lost after I was short-stacked going up against the chip leader even though I put my money in with the best hand.

I know that if I continue to play near flawless poker, one of these times I will get lucky and win.

I know it.