A creative way to use suited connectors ...

Got a bit ... creative, calling with a suited connector in early position. But the table was hardly betting at all preflop.

Game started at: 21:23:54 06/19/04
Game ID: 477085 60/120 TPPC 76 $1000.00 FREEROLL , Table 36 (Hold'em)
Seat 4 is the button
Seat 1: Tblaze (5400).
Seat 2: Dr.bbBrain (2585).
Seat 3: sarflondonguy (490).
Seat 4: Shan (605).
Seat 5: jivemasta (840).
Seat 6: SCOOBYJSP (1220).
Seat 7: REDDOG (2670).
Seat 8: michael1123 (3390).
Seat 9: paulon98th (2490).
Seat 10: takeaway (6620).
Player jivemasta has small blind (30)
Player SCOOBYJSP has big blind (60)
Player michael1123 received card: :6d:
Player michael1123 received card: :5d:
Player REDDOG folds
Player michael1123 calls (60)
Player paulon98th folds
Player takeaway folds
Player Tblaze calls (60)
Player Dr.bbBrain calls (60)
Player sarflondonguy folds
Player Shan calls (60)
Player jivemasta folds
Player SCOOBYJSP checks
*** FLOP ***: :5h: :6c: :5c:
Player SCOOBYJSP checks
Player michael1123 checks
Player Tblaze checks
Player Dr.bbBrain bets (560)
Player Shan folds
Player SCOOBYJSP folds
Player michael1123 calls (560)
Player Tblaze folds
*** TURN ***: :5h: :6c: :5c: :4h:
Player michael1123 checks
Player Dr.bbBrain checks
*** RIVER ***: :5h: :6c: :5c: :4h: :qd:
Player michael1123 allin (2770)
Player Dr.bbBrain allin (1965)
Player Dr.bbBrain mucks cards
------ Summary ------
Pot: 6185. Rake: 0
Board: :5h: :6c: :5c: :4h: :qd:
Player Tblaze does not show cards. Bets: 60. Collects: 0 Loses: 60
Player Dr.bbBrain does not show cards. Bets: 2585. Collects: 0 Loses: 2585
Player sarflondonguy does not show cards. Bets: 0. Collects: 0 Wins: 0
Player Shan does not show cards. Bets: 60. Collects: 0 Loses: 60
Player jivemasta does not show cards. Bets: 30. Collects: 0 Loses: 30
Player SCOOBYJSP does not show cards. Bets: 60. Collects: 0 Loses: 60
Player REDDOG does not show cards. Bets: 0. Collects: 0 Wins: 0
*Player michael1123 shows: Full House (5/6) :6d: :5d:. Bets: 3390. Collects: 6185
Wins: 2795
Player paulon98th does not show cards. Bets: 0. Collects: 0 Wins: 0
Player takeaway does not show cards. Bets: 0. Collects: 0 Wins: 0
Game ended at: 21:25:29 06/19/04

There I showed "slow play good" as Humphrind said. Here I show, "slow play bad".

I really wasn't trying to play my pocket aces this slow. I was in first position, so I limped in hoping to get a couple more calls before someone at least minimum raised, and then I could make a nice reraise, to get some money in the pot and not just steal the blinds. ... That didn't happen.

Game started at: 21:35:57 06/19/04
Game ID: 477299 100/200 TPPC 76 $1000.00 FREEROLL , Table 36 (Hold'em)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: Tblaze (5340).
Seat 2: Roll Tide (2520).
Seat 3: sarflondonguy (1370).
Seat 4: Shan (1090).
Seat 5: jivemasta (1060).
Seat 6: SCOOBYJSP (740).
Seat 7: REDDOG (2380).
Seat 8: michael1123 (7135).
Seat 9: paulon98th (2210).
Seat 10: takeaway (5185).
Player SCOOBYJSP has small blind (50)
Player REDDOG has big blind (100)
Player michael1123 received card: :ac:
Player michael1123 received card: :as:
Player michael1123 calls (100)
Player paulon98th calls (100)
Player takeaway calls (100)
Player Tblaze calls (100)
Player Roll Tide folds
Player sarflondonguy folds
Player Shan folds
Player jivemasta folds
Player SCOOBYJSP folds
Player REDDOG checks
*** FLOP ***: :2c: :js: :5d:
Player REDDOG allin (2280)
Player michael1123 calls (2280)
Player paulon98th folds
Player takeaway folds
Player Tblaze folds
*** TURN ***: :2c: :js: :5d: :qd:
*** RIVER ***: :2c: :js: :5d: :qd: :7c:
------ Summary ------
Pot: 5110. Rake: 0
Board: :2c: :js: :5d: :qd: :7c:
Player Tblaze does not show cards. Bets: 100. Collects: 0 Loses: 100
Player Roll Tide does not show cards. Bets: 0. Collects: 0 Wins: 0
Player sarflondonguy does not show cards. Bets: 0. Collects: 0 Wins: 0
Player Shan does not show cards. Bets: 0. Collects: 0 Wins: 0
Player jivemasta does not show cards. Bets: 0. Collects: 0 Wins: 0
Player SCOOBYJSP does not show cards. Bets: 50. Collects: 0 Loses: 50
*Player REDDOG shows: Two pairs.5s and 2s :2s: :5c:. Bets: 2380. Collects: 5110
Wins: 2730
*Player michael1123 shows: One pair of Aces :ac: :as:. Bets: 2380. Collects: 0
Loses: 2380
Player paulon98th does not show cards. Bets: 100. Collects: 0 Loses: 100
Player takeaway does not show cards. Bets: 100. Collects: 0 Loses: 100
Game ended at: 21:36:53 06/19/04

I don't need the hand history for this, but its kind of interesting.

The next hand I get pocket 7s, and I'm on the big blind while red dog is on the small blind. Everyone folds to us, and he completes the bet. I immediately go all in, trying to give the impression that I'm on tilt from him taking down my aces (bet nearly 5k against a $100 blind!). He thinks about calling for a LONG time, and says that he should call (obviously thinking I'm completely out of my mind - but really I'm still pretty happy about that boat and don't think I was completely wrong in just calling with the aces in first position). With him just calling in the small blind, and likely to strongly undervalue my blind, I was "representing tilt", and hoping he'd call. We were virtually dead even in stack size now too. Maybe I was on a bit of tilt to risk that, but I'm sure not as much as he thought, and that's what I was going for. Sadly, he folded. I'm sure he had one over, but I don't think he had two. Maybe A or K small kicker, with how long he thought about it.

Argh. Out of 279 people, and 3 hours into the tournament, I finished 15th. Top ten paid.

1st - $250
2nd -$150
3rd - $120
4th - $100

and down by ten from there

Unlike how I do when I finish in the money however, I was never a big stack (except for that very brief moment between the fullhouse and the aces getting busted), and therefore never able to apply pressure down the stretch (except for a few times as a short stack I had a hand like AQ and was able to push in and pick up the blinds, just to stay alive).

Kept waiting for good cards, and they never came (besides when I picked up a couple blinds). Ended up limping out of the tournament on a big blind all in with K5s, and hit top pair on the flop, but pocket aces took me down. Kind of ironic, since my pocket aces losing against the big blind were the turning point of the tournament for me.

If you're going to go for the limp/re-raise trick with AA and no one bites pre-flop, you have to be wicked careful on the flop or you just end up trapping yourself like that...