syndicate event #4

still awaiting my noise making for the syndicate series. it didn't happen this time.

i flopped a set of kings early on in a raised pot and bet about 5/6 of the pot on flop vs. 1 opponent. he check-called. the flop was AKJ with 2 spades. the turn was an offsuit Q. he checked, i bet for value and to protect against the flush draw and he raised. i had a strong feeling i was beat, but i had outs, so i called. maybe he had made 2 pair with AQ or had been slowplaying AJ or even pocket Js. now i had about half my chips in the pot.

the river was a brick and he checked. i checked behind and he showed down 9c10c for broadway. when you make a speculative call on the flop like that and then hit your hand, why not bet on the river with the nuts? anyway, i got off relatively cheap, but still expensive in that i lost about half my stack on the hand.

i chipped down with AK after folding to a raise on the flop following my continuation bet with air. damn that hand. i should have either checked or moved all in on the flop based on my stack size relative to the pot. that was a mistake. i think part of the problem was that i felt like a stick of butter in a frying pan. i think that day was the hottest day of the year and that living room is like a heat sink. at least 10-15 hotter inside than out.

i got eliminated when i had 22 on the button with 2 limpers in the pot ahead of me. i moved in as i still had some fold equity but was fairly short stacked and the blinds were about to go up. mark in the BB called my all-in then the cutoff, who had limped, immediately moved in himself. mark had very few chips left and ended up folding after i had completely melted in the pan. the cutoff had AA and mark showed JJ as he folded. he would have spiked his J, but i had no such luck and the AA held. with a limper in the pot, i have never seen anybody limp with AA in the cutoff seat. an invitation to disaster in my mind.

i actually was semi-relieved to get knocked out as i was in my board shorts and into the pool in about 30 seconds flat. wow -- that was about the most refreshing feeling i have ever had after being on a slow brain simmer all day.