Poker Entry No. 3 Updated

In the continuing saga of past poker post being reviewed by a more experienced me, here is what has been previously titled as "Poker Entry No. 3." The game was originally played on October 9, 2004, where 17 players paid a $25 entry fee. There were no rebuys and I finished in third, winning $50.

Here is the original text and my current opinions and critique will be in parenthesis:

This was an extremely fun game. It was in Weatherford and the guys who played in it were a lot of fun, however, not that good. Clint, Chad and I entered the tournament and if Clint hadn't had his pocket aces taken down by A-K it would have been Clint, Chad and myself in the final three.

I made two mistakes, however, I salvaged the mistakes by winning one hand and keeping the other mistake to a minimal loss.

First mistake: I limped in with K-5 suited to see a flop. I had about $110 and to limp was $2. I hit two spades on the flop with the highest card on the board being a 9. The first guy, Barry, bet $5. The second guy, named Chad but not our Chad, went all in with another $31. I should have thrown away the hand right there, however I said to myself, I can manage a $36 loss with these guys and be okay. So I decided I wanted to call Chad's bet, however, I had Barry behind me. I thought if I go all in also, Barry probably won't call. Nobody, unless they had a great hand would call two all ins. So I pushed all my chips in after thinking about all this in about two minutes time. Barry asked how much more it was to call. Not a good sign. I said $72. He called almost immediately. Well, I'm beat. My tournament is over (Yeah, this is really bad. What was I thinking?).

Barry flipped his cards over and said he had an open-ended straight draw. He called two all ins on a straight draw. Wow! Yet I can't complain too much because I called an all in with a flush draw. Chad had A-J of diamonds. He had nothing, yet he was winning at the time. I needed a spade badly (or a pair). The turn came with a king (look at that pair). Now I'm in the lead with a pair of kings. Chad needed an ace that wasn't a spade and Barry needed a Q or a 6, again not a spade. I was happy with my winning hand but I wanted a spade to be sure. The last card was a red 2. I won the hand. It sent me to $250 (Although the outcome wasn't near as bad as it should have been, this loose play was rather poor in my opinion. I called off a third of my stack and risked my entire stack on a flush draw when the odds were not even close to what they should have been to make those moves).

Lesson #1: That hand was a miracle for me. It's also what got me to the final table, however, I shouldn't have called Chad's all in for that much on a flush draw (At least you knew that after the fact).

Second mistake: I was dealt pocket jacks. The table had four of us at it, and one of those was our Chad. I raised $25, with blinds being $5-10. One guy, named Joe, just called and the second, Smiley, raised another $20. Not a legal raise, but I didn't say anything. Instead, I raised another $25. Joe called both bets and Smiley called. I'm beat right now by one of them and the other probably has overs. I'm guessing A-K (That is a pretty good assessment). The flop came with a Q and two undercards. I'm second to act. Smiley bet $20. I should fold, however, now I have pot odds (Really? You're really gonna go with that. Okay Slope). I call and Joe calls. The next card is a blank. There is no flush draw or feasible straight draw. Smiley bets another $20. Again, I should fold but I called for the pot odds of hitting a Jack or winning the hand, which I'm pretty sure I wouldn't without the third Jack (Well, at least this time you have better pot odds than before, so I'm not surprised by the call). Joe also called. The last card was another blank. Smiley checked. I knew better than to bet. I checked also. Joe checked out of fear I suppose. I flip over my jacks not too confidently. Smiley proudly and loudly yells kings. He had the pocket pair. Joe confidently turns over his aces and said, "Yes, aces." Another pocket pair.

Lesson #2: I shouldn't have re-raised (Eh, that isn't necessarily horrible, but I wouldn't have called it down like you did). I didn't drive the point I wanted with these guys. They just don't have the skills to understand what a re-raise means. However in hindsight, I wouldn't fold with pocket aces or kings either.

Except for these two mistakes I played very well. The tight, but aggresive play is doing very well for me.