Howdy,

This is my first poker-related post here. I've been playing for less than two months. I'm not great, but I'm not losing much, either. I've played online ring games from play money through real money .01/.02 NLHE, .02/.04(whatever the lowest stakes were) Stud, .05/.10 NLHE, and .10/.25 NLHE. I've played in a number of one and two-table ($5 & $10) NLHE S&Gs, and One MTT NLHE Turbo tourney. I've played several hundred hands heads-up with my Buddy sitting around discussing poker and just playing with chips and no money involved. Win some, lose some; not particularly embarrassed by my play at these stakes.

I've read a ton of material online (thanks to this place for some of the best info and advice I've seen), Winning Low Limit Hold'em by Lee Jones, and Zen and the Art of Poker by Larry W. Phillips (not all good advice, but some of it is good and fits nicely with my familiarity with Eastern philosophies). I'm halfway through Sklansky's Theory of Poker and halfway through Harrington on Hold'em, still actively reading both. And any other info I can find, like Card Player and All-In magazines, plus watching all the poker I see on TV.

I'm still working on keeping notes, noticing everything, and trying to get reads. I'm not up-to-snuff with odds, but I understand the ideas and am trying to get it together. While I'm practicing I do my best to make educated estimates and try consciously to make fewer mistakes.

This hand happened last night. For some reason it got under my skin and I've been thinking about it a lot.

It's about a third or so of the way through a two-table, $5 S&G. Still two tables going.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t150 (9 handed) converter

SB (t9008)
BB (t1215)
UTG (t4405)
Hero (t1860)
MP1 (t1685)
MP2 (t3950)
MP3 (t1050)
CO (t1385)
Button (t2442)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 5, 5.

Ok, so small pocket pair, I figure, even though I'm in early position, I want to give limpers little reason to call. Big pair, I'd just call, but I figure raising to 2xBB should do the trick. I'm hoping to see a good flop for the minimum raise, preferably heads-up.

UTG folds, [color:#CC3333]Hero raises to t300[/color], MP1 folds, MP2 calls t300, MP3 folds, CO folds, Button folds, SB folds, BB calls t150.

I don't have great reads, and it's easy to look back and see possible cards, but online poker happens kinna fast and I'm still working on all of it. I figure MP2 might have a medium pair or a couple over cards. Anything better I'd expect a raise, or he's slowplaying a big pair. BB has been fairly quiet, and folds to a lot of my raises. I don't put him on much, since it was a relatively cheap call, but I know anything's possible there, and he's been average-tight from what I've seen. (remember - my skills at reading are rough and mostly guesses still.)

Flop: (t975) 4, 5, J [color:#0000FF](3 players)[/color]

Nice. Set of fives. I like small sets. I get a lot of chips with small sets. The board isn't scaring me much, possible flush draw, set of Jacks? Pair Jacks and a Queen?

BB checks, Hero checks, [color:#CC3333]MP2 bets t600[/color], BB folds, Hero calls t600.

2/3 pot bet. More than a feeler, but still worth a call with a set he probably can't put me on. I was lucky to get info without having to bet first, but a little feeler might have been a good idea. In early position I will play a flop like this soft, since nobody raised me pre-flop.

Turn: (t2175) J [color:#0000FF](2 players)[/color]

OK. Board paired way higher than my set, but this gives me a full house. I see this full house as possibly vulnerable. I read in a few places that sometimes you want to bring a pot down right now, if you're worried about getting drawn out. In this case I worry about a higher full-house coming for this guy on the river, if he doesn't already have four Jacks. I don't know that I can rule out the Jacks, but I don't want to mess with this thing anymore. It's a nice chunk of chips, and while I might take this guy down a lot, I don't think I have the absolute nuts (not even close). If I go all in and this guy folds, GREAT, but if not, at least I got all my chips in with a nice hand.

[color:#CC3333]Hero bets t960 (All-In)[/color], MP2 folds.

Great! I won. I didn't get the max I might have, but I didn't lose my stack, either. I almost doubled up on the hand, and felt I did well.

Final Pot: t3135

Then this guy says, "nice bluff."

I thought about it for about fifteen seconds and replied, "55"

Then he says, "then that was the dumbest bet ive ever seen, but i doubt u had 55"

WTF?

I won the hand. He folded. Maybe it wasn't the biggest pot I could get, but I didn't think it was bad at all.

I'm no stranger to trash talk, but for some reason this guy got to me. I eventually finished in 8th place overall, and called it a night. I don't think this effected my play much that night, except that I felt like I had exposed something important to this guy about my game. Regardless, I know I lost because of a couple bad calls I made, in pots he wasn't even involved in, not because i was tilting.

I guess I could have checked the turn to see if he'd bet, but I honestly didn't want to see that last card. The chips I had left were less than half the pot, and while it most likely gave him bad enough odds to fold if he was drawing, he certainly could have called me if he had a hand. Maybe he thought I was dumb for going all in with two jacks on the board, but I had a hand worth putting my money in on. That sounds like me talking myself out of making that all-in raise in that situation in the future.

So I'm wondering, was there anything I could have done better, aside from risking being sucked out to get another 960 chips? Do you guys see me revealing any vital info in all of this, especially since it's the internet and he can't see me sitting in my chair looking puzzled? I guess I look a little weak and conservative, especially if he believed I had the hand I said I had.

I shouldn't have said anything about my hand, but I figured he wouldn't believe me anyway.

I think I really just need to see that as sour-grapes and a sign he might play a pair like I play a set. Those things should roll off my back, but I really got to wondering about this hand.

What do you guys think?