I played in a NLHE tournament over the weekend, a home game hosted through one of my brother's friends from church. It was a $20 buy-in with unlimited rebuys but no add-ons, up until a certain time limit.
The final four players and their chips were as follows for the hand I would like your opinions on, there was $280 in play:
A (on botton) $180
B (small blind) $50
Me (big blind) $40
D (under the gun) $4
Some background: player A had rebought in twice because of very loose play, and a lot of luck. He cracked pocket A's with T5o, and then in a 3 way pot he busted pocket K's and pocket A's with pocket Q's. These two hands gave him the chip lead, but he was playing the chip lead well by raising the pot pre-flop a lot.
D UTG folds
A calls $2
B folds
I check
POT: $5
FLOP: Td, 3h, 4s
I check
A checks
POT: $5
TURN: Ad
I bet $10
A calls $10
POT: $25
RIVER: 6d
BOARD: Td, 3h, 4s, Ad, 6d POT: $25
I bet $15
A raises to $30
I move all-in (under $20)
A calls
A shows Qd 7d and getting the flush, beating my straight.
I was disappointed with the result for a number of reasons; only top 3 places paid so had I laid down the straight and waited until the short stack had been blinded I would have been in the money (and the short stack went out on the very next hand), the straight was the best hand I had all night, I felt like despite the chip advantage I had a chance at winning since up to that point I had played excellent poker for me.
Over a 5 hour span I had one pocket pair and nothing better than AJs to start with, which is kind of rare as I usually get big slick or some low pocket pairs over that amount of time. And I was unable to play any smaller suited connectors because I was at the aggressive table where the pre-flop betting was around $3-$6 pre-flop when I was still around the starting amount of $20. I actually made the final table with a little over $20 and then loosened up to get up to around $60 before losing a couple of pots and settling at $40 for the above hand.
Not being in the money is just a small part to me, before I moved all-in I knew I was taking a risk with the flush out there and that I only needed one more place to be in the money, but I was playing to win and to do so I needed to double up with my best hand. However I wanted to be in the final 3 because player B is my brother and he is a solid player and I think we could have outplayed A--we were not playing together but unless we each ran into monsters at the same time we would have tried to cash in on the chip leaders loose play.
I guess I am just seeking to see if I made a mistake on this hand, because I am trying to determine honestly if I am an OK player or not. It was a tough loss for me because I thought I was playing so well, and I consider myself decent enough but I also know most people believe themselves to be better than they are, and if I am deluding myself I would like to know.
In the monthly home games I play, I am the only person to win it more than once (3 times out of 7), and I have won other home games too but I have also gone out early so I am inconsistent. All of this is just making me re-assess things and my confidence is shaken a bit, hopefully you guys can help me out because I really like playing and am interested in improving. Reading SS helped me out a lot, and while I have read HOH (both) and consider my knowledge improved I have not been able to apply all of Harrington's stuff to the game's I play in just yet.
Thanks, and sorry for the long (whiney) post!
