Hella Hold'em

Sucky night on the tables. Bubbled in two $10 SnG's on Full Tilt. I think I've set a record for the number of bubble-outs in a row this week. Also dropped $10 on the cash tables - not tragic but combined with the unprofitable bubble incidents makes for a bummer of a night.

The most disappointing was the first SnG - I got off to an early chip lead, and was chip leader by 2k chips or so when we got down to 4 players. In the span of 3 hands, I lost my entire stack. The first was holding my nemesis hand, AJ. It didn't cripple me but cost me a chunk of chips, as I ran into an un-raised AQ. That's one reason AJ is so tricky when an Ace flops; most people will raise preflop with AK, so you have that bit of knowledge of the possibility of an AK out there when you see action on the flopped Ace after a preflop raise. Not everybody raises AQ, though, and when you run into it - well, AJ just sucks. The second hand was your typical "aces getting cracked" story.

The third I may have misplayed. Or not. I don't know. Feedback appreciated. I'm against a "good" player - decent starting hands shown down, a proper amount of blind stealing, aggressive play when he held a hand (raising bets, etc). I'm in the small blind, he's in the big. It's folded to me, and I call with A8 clubs. BB checks. Flop comes 8-8-x rainbow. I min-bet to encourage action (the X was not an overcard, and I don't want him to fold - yet I'm in a "no free cards" phase right now). He calls. Turn comes a Q. I 2x-bb bet. He calls. River comes a blank. No straight or flush draws out there - 8-8-Q-x-x. I bet half the pot, and he puts me all in.

I've got the 3-of-a-kind 8's with my Ace kicker. Did he catch 2 pair on the board somewhere? The x's are undercards to my 8's so even if he hit a set with those, I'm still good. Do I fear that he caught a whacked out full house? If I lay down big hands in fear of the boat all the time - well, that to me is ridiculously overconservative and not likely to be profitable in the long run.

I'm pot committed at this point, with less than 1,000 chips left. I think my hand is good. I call.

He had QQ for the flopped boat. No preflop raise. Played me like a fiddle.

I've replayed this hand a lot of different ways, and I don't think I could have avoided losing all my chips in any way, shape, or form. Heads-up I like the A8 suited. The middle kicker doesn't bother me when my only opponent is the big blind. I could have raised preflop - but with QQ, he wasn't going anywhere. Maybe he'd have re-raised me all in, and I'd have had the chance to fold right there. Considering his knack for slowplaying, however, that's probably an unlikely scenario. I could have not tried to be tricky and bet more - but he flopped a boat. He wasn't going anywhere no matter what I bet - just as much as I wasn't going anywhere, having flopped trips heads-up.

I can sit here all night and play coulda-shoulda-woulda. It wasn't a bad beat; it was just bad luck. I had a big hand run into a bigger one. But damn was it disappointing, after my play and accompanying chip stack looked so promising going into 4-handed play.

I'm just disappointed, that's all. Tomorrow is another day.