HAND OF THE DAY: 08.20.08

$163 MTT with 662 entrants, 16 remain:

The event paid 63 players. At the bubble, I was short enough that my aim was to linger until I made the money, which I accomplished. After the bubble burst, things went my way and I got a bunch of chips. I was trying to play smart so I could get to the final table where all the real money is. At this point, I had $177k in chips and a new player was moved into the seat to my left. He had $188k, the only other player at the table to have me outstacked. I got dealt Qd-Qh in second position and raised to $9,555. He reraised to $26,666 and I called, figuring it was prudent to take a flop before charging ahead.

FLOP: Ad-8d-3d
ACTION: * / *
ANALYSIS: I hate the ace but I do have the second nut flush draw. There's no reason for me to bet although I will call any bet that he makes. He checks behind me which is fine by me. The only hands that have me are the A-K or K-K with the king of diamonds. Anything else, and I've got at least a fighting chance.

TURN: Ad-8d-3d / 7d
ACTION: B ($32,500) / C
ANALYSIS: I catch my flush and bet for value. He calls, which could be good or not. He's in position, so if he's sitting on the king of diamonds, he doesn't need to let me know right away. If he's sitting on the jack of diamonds, then that's good news for me. He may even have three aces for all I know, and if so, then I've just taken the lead.

RIVER: Ad-8d-3d / 7d / 3s
ACTION: B ($75,800) / R ($128,000 all-in) / x
ANALYSIS: In hindsight, I hate my bet here. After I bet, I knew I put in too much. I only had $45,000 or so in reserve. I had chosen the amount of my value bet based on the size of the pot rather than the size of my stack. I rather wish that I had checked altogether and either called his pot-sized bet or folded to his all-in shove. I was making a value bet with the second nut flush but still, I am losing to Ax-Kd, A-A and Kx-Kd, three of his likely holdings, so I should have been content to play a smaller pot at this point. Once he raised me, I knew I was beat. Either he had the Kd or the full house. I gave it a good think, but the fact that I had put in such a hefty bet on the river and he raised me anyways told me that he wasn't concerned in the least that I had him beat. It was an easy laydown. I told him that I needed to know his hand for my blog and he did indeed own up to the Ax-Kd. Well, at least I didn't shove preflop which would have ensured my demise, and at least I didn't call his shove which would have ended my night. The major mistake came when I value bet the river with such a hefty bet. A smaller amount would have sufficed or even a check/call considering the situation. After 4.5 hours of play, I made a bad bet which cost me most of my stack and I was out soon after, running T-T into Q-Q to finish in 15th place.

In other news, I won over $1400 today playing HORSE at Full Tilt in the ring games. It is actually more fun to play the mixed game than to toil at NLHE all day and since it is a limit game, I can't lose my entire stack on one bad play. I made a number of small mistakes during the session, but small mistakes just reduce the profit, they don't turn a winning session into a losing session like the big mistakes in the no-limit games.