I didn’t win. Not sure what it was but I wasn’t really into the game tonight and don’t think I really played that well. Maybe it’s the winner take all structure. You know that unless the deck hits you in the face that it’s going to be an uphill battle all the way and there’s a feeling that it would be better to go out early than fight and claw your way to second or third and walk away empty handed.
My bust out hand was AJs UTG. I normally raise this hand in limit games trying to drive out the Kx and Qx junk hands who might try to limp but like limping with it in tournaments when I’m out of position and only one or two people are going to see a flop anyway. It got raised behind me and everyone folded to me. Now, here was my thinking . . . I actually put him on the exact hand he held, AQo. I’m not even sure why but that was the only hand I was willing to give him credit for. I knew I was an underdog here but a few things were going through my mind:
1. I limped UTG. If I put in a big re-raise here he might put me on a large pair QQ – AA and lay it down looking for a better spot. Unlikely but had he lost the hand he would have been fairly crippled and I was hoping he was more interested in staying alive than finding out if his AQ was good here.
2. I incorrectly thought I was a slightly better dog than I actually was. PokerStove put me as a 70%/30% dog and for some reason I was thinking I was closer to a 60%/40% dog with the suited hand.
3. If I don’t double up here, I gotta double up soon anyway or else I’m just going to get short-stacked and have to fight to stay alive with little chance of actually winning.
I pushed. He thought long and hard about it and finally called. Flop came two of my suit and now I had a lot of outs. Outs that never came and I busted.
Oh well.