Today I visited Harrah’s here in New Orleans… as amazing as this sounds, this is the first time I’ve ever played there. I went with my friend Mark (a sometimes writer for this site) to play in the weekly tournament. Unfortunately, because of the recent WSOP, the tournament doesn’t start up until next month. Anyway, while we there, we decide to play the $1/2 no limit.

I bought in for a $100… Max buyin was $200.

The game was very uninteresting for about the first hour. I was up $20. Down $20. Same old.

Then came this hand. (I will describe it here with my thought process at each point I had to make a decision. There are a few points of contention one could make about how I played this hand, but I believe I played correctly given the situation).

It’s a full table (9 players). I’m on the button and I have

Cutoff folds. Next guy limps. The next guy folds. The next guy raise to $10. Everyone folds to me.

I call.

My thoughts: I know that my call can be questioned here. Here I am with just a lousy QT offsuit when obviously the player in middle position represents a stronger hand… at least an Ace. My thought here is that I’ve been getting bad cards most of the game. The best two hands I’ve had for an hour are AJs (which I had to fold after the flpp) and pocket 8s (which I played horribly). I was playing tight and everyone at the table knew it. I wanted to loosen up my game a little and figured QT is a good hand to do it with… with only the blinds and limper left to act behind me, chances are it wasn’t going to be re-raised (although that’s a possibility), but I was gambling… and if I miss with QT, my position allows me to get out without losing any addition money. In addition, the bettor was playing very loose. I’d already seen him blow through his first stack and rebuy… QT up against him doesn’t necessarily mean I’m way behind. I’m guessing at this point he has at least an Ace or middle pair… I’m in the dark about his kicker though… could be anything.

The blinds fold. The limper calls. Three handed.

The flop comes

The limper checks. The bettor bets $20 into a $35 pot.

I take about 10 seconds to “decide” and then call.

My thoughts: Mark even questioned my play here. “Why not re-raise with trips?” There are two reasons for this. 1. With the exception of the 2 flush on the board, the board wasn’t incredibly scary. I know at this point that I have the best hand with very limited draw potential, unless the bettor happened to be holding on to AQ or something similar or a little bit better, two clubs. If he has two clubs and another club falls on the turn, I have a reasonable flush draw… But either way, neither of these scenarios was very likely. 2. I still had a bettor to act behind me. I wanted the limper to get in on the action as well… right now, I’m 95% sure I have the best hand and I want someone to catch something and continue to play.

The limper calls.

The turn comes

The limper checks again. The original bettor bets $40 into a $95 pot.

I take a bit more time this time to make my move here… but really I’m just spending the time trying to calm myself down. I have the absolute nuts and now it’s time to figure how best to extract the most I can from the players remaining. Finally after a little time, I reluctantly call.

My thoughts: The bettor has something… and good for him. I’m hoping it’s a pocket pair, the higher the better. And also, I still have that limper to act behind me. I’m hoping he’s been playing a middle pair or praying he caught that 4, so he’ll play too. I don’t want to scare anyone out of this pot. I want to keep people in.

Unfortunately the limper folds. Heads up now.

The river comes

The bettor puts me all in for my remaining $50. I immediately call and everyone at the table gasp when the bettor flips up A4 for a full house and I flip the Q for quads.

So, would you have played that differently?

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