Saturday's Lesson Has a Short ROI

I had to put this post up because this just happened last night while playing poker online, and the first thing I thought of was the scenario from Saturday’s CCPL event. In that hand I flopped trip Aces and found myself in 3^rd place and paying someone off in a 3-way pot because I had played it wrong. Well, this hand has a similar feeling to it, but I managed to play it the way I should have played the hand from Saturday. To set the stage, this happens to be the very first hand I am playing of the evening. I sat down with $100 and waited to post. As you go through the hand history I will try to put what was going through my head. So here I am in the big blind:

Full Tilt Poker Game #6317448653: Table Lost Miner - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:11:46 ET - 2008/05/07
Seat 1: tommy_corn ($256.20)
Seat 2: rlatjsdo ($206)
Seat 3: jim16 ($161.30)
Seat 4: SikNast ($0), is sitting out
Seat 5: iluvemisa ($492.60)
Seat 6: CaptnGoose ($98)
Seat 7: Phantom Aces ($100)
Seat 8: dadpoker9 ($199), is sitting out
Seat 9: cptSlow ($231.25)
CaptnGoose posts the small blind of $1
Phantom Aces posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Phantom Aces [As 5h] - a moderate holding, I’ll either fold or check.
cptSlow calls $2
tommy_corn folds
rlatjsdo folds
jim16 calls $2
iluvemisa folds
CaptnGoose calls $1
Phantom Aces checks – whew, no raise!
*** FLOP *** [4s 3d Jh] – not a great flop. I will definitely check and hope to see a turn
CaptnGoose checks
SqueezR sits down
Phantom Aces checks
cptSlow checks
jim16 checks
*** TURN *** [4s 3d Jh] [2h] – Yahtzee!!
CaptnGoose checks
Phantom Aces has 15 seconds left to act
Phantom Aces bets $6 – rather than slowplay my hand I decide to bet a small amount
cptSlow calls $6
jim16 raises to $21 – awesome! I was looking for someone to do this!
CaptnGoose has 15 seconds left to act
CaptnGoose raises to $50 – OK…What the hell is going on?
Phantom Aces has 15 seconds left to act – Looking at CaptnGoose’s stack, he’s just check-REraised and committed half his chips. He’s not folding, and he has to be strong. Either that, or this will be a great bluff. Also, jim16 is getting great odds to at the very least call CaptnGoose’s check reraise. I’ve only got $6 invested here, and although I don’t like folding here because I’ve got the 2nd nuts, it’s very possible that somebody limped with 5-6 here and I’m drawing to a 3-out chop, possibly worse if they have the 5h-6h.
Phantom Aces folds - One of you buttmunchers better have the 6-high straight!!
cptSlow has 15 seconds left to act
cptSlow folds
jim16 has 15 seconds left to act
jim16 raises to $100
CaptnGoose calls $46, and is all in
jim16 shows [5c 6s] – sweet!
CaptnGoose shows [5d 6d] – sweet again!
Uncalled bet of $4 returned to jim16
*** RIVER *** [4s 3d Jh 2h] [Kd]
jim16 shows a straight, Six high
CaptnGoose shows a straight, Six high
CaptnGoose ties for the pot ($104.50) with a straight, Six high
jim16 ties for the pot ($104.50) with a straight, Six high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $212 | Rake $3
Board: [4s 3d Jh 2h Kd]
Seat 3: jim16 showed [5c 6s] and won ($104.50) with a straight, Six high
Seat 6: CaptnGoose (small blind) showed [5d 6d] and won ($104.50) with a straight, Six high
Seat 7: Phantom Aces (big blind) folded on the Turn

It was nice to see that I was able to make good decisions here. Since one of the players had me covered had I either called or raised there, I would have ended up losing my whole stack to the player who had me covered. So the way I look at this hand was that I saved $92 by making that small bet on the turn and then learning what everyone else had. Had I checked on the turn, I don’t know if I could have gotten away from whatever action that may have happened after that because I probably would have been one of the raisers. Now, I'm still not happy about how I played my trip Aces on Saturday, but at least I was able to learn from that mistake.

OK. My next post will have those WSOP circuit stories that my friend told me about. See you at the tables!