Well, I said I'd play in some multi-table tournaments gearing up for Vegas, and so far everything is going well.  First a good result on Sunday night (see my last blog) and last night I managed to get 4th in a Stars $100 MTT.  (Good for about 2.4K)  I played four MTT's last night, got fourth in that one I just mentioned, busted out of the money in two, and then made the money in the other one but lost a huge chunk of my stack on this hand:

(I wasn't going to write about it but "NegMike" (or MidnightMike on pokerforum.ca) was watching the tournament and asked me about this one specifically, ie: what could I have possibly laid down...)

That hand was nuts.  It was the first time my fingers didn't co-operate with my brain.  And I mean it...  I had A6o in the BB and a big stack--a very nice stack, good table image, no need to play big pots against big stacks without a big hand--and another big stack raised me.  I thought for a while, and decided to fold.  EXCEPT INSTEAD OF HITTING "FOLD" I HIT CALL.  No lie.  Then the flop comes 789 with two clubs (I have none) and I have an open-ender.  I check, he bets, and I call, planning to take the pot on the turn regardless of whether or not I hit my draw as long as it's a scare card.  (ie: any club, 5, 6, 10, or jack).

The turn comes an offsuit six and I take my stab.  Problem was, either he hit the board hard or he had an overpair he wasn't willing to lay down regardless of the texture of the board.  So he moved in, and it was the rest of my stack to call, and even though I practically have odds to try drawing to a chop given the pot size and my remaining stack, I have to fold to try and stay in the thing.

I really, really, honestly meant to fold preflop.  Crazy hand.

ANYWAY that was that, but the fourth-place finish in the other tournament was sweet.  I screwed up the last hand (as is usually the case when people are discussing their last hand) but no biggie.  I had 33 in the BB and about 13 BB's in my stack.  Button (big stack) raised 3XBB and I moved in, figuring that I had enough chips to get him to fold a lot of hands (read the next paragraph to learn why that is completely wrong).  He had TT and called, no help for me, and that was that.

In and of itself, I didn't play the hand that badly.  I had a pocket pair in a four-handed game and was defending against a possible steal from a big stack, using my not-insignificant stack size as a weapon.  Happens all the time.  The problem with the play was that I forgot to take into consideration the fact that this guy would call me with a hand like 89o.  He was a CALLING STATION.  And, he wasn't raising a whole lot, so it probably wasn't even a steal on his part (ie: 89o).  He was just doing a whole lot of calling, in general.  But even if it WAS a steal with 89o, he would have called, because that's how he rolls.

So, I ignored my carefully thought-out read of this player's style and made the worst move possible (moving in with the threes) considering how this guy plays.  I forgot to ask myself the big question: do I WANT to be called???  The answer with pocket threes is pretty much always: no.  Not really.  Happy to pick up what's in there, thanks.  If I had just talked my way through the scenarios, I would have folded, or maybe called to try and flop a set.  My conversation with myself would have gone like this: if I move in, will this player call me with a wide range of hands?  Yes.  Do I want to be called?  No.

Seems like an open and shut case to me.  Sigh.  Oh well, at least I learned something.  Again.

I feel really good about poker right now.  I'm thinking about the game, I'm playing well, making it deep in these tournaments at Stars.  The only question is: will it all work in Vegas?