Another William Hill bad beat..

[monkeymagic]

Jeez, It's days like this that I wonder why I bother!

Perhaps it's my fault for calling with just a pair of 8's, but it was such an early stage of the tournament and only 52 chips to see the flop, so I thought 'why not?'..

What the heck was 4acepoker doing playing a 6 and 7 of spades in the first place.... Grrrrr!

NB: My poker name on William Hill is Mango99..

------HAND 7------
Game #99474094: Texas Hold'em Pot Limit (7/15) - 2004/08/14 - 15:31:36 (GMT)
Table "STT1 93339 - 1" Seat 7 is the button.
Seat 1: Nobby3242 (955 in chips)
Seat 2: Iain27095 sits out
Seat 3: Tricky003 (1127 in chips)
Seat 4: Emellie (808 in chips)
Seat 5: Mango99 (955 in chips)
Seat 6: Corsica (948 in chips)
Seat 7: 4acepoker (961 in chips)
Seat 8: Arnie2705 (1298 in chips)
Seat 9: racade2 (1000 in chips)
Seat 10: DevonAces (955 in chips)
Arnie2705: posts small blind 7
racade2: posts big blind 15

----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Mango99 [8h 8s]
DevonAces: raises to 52
Nobby3242: folds
Iain27095: folds
Iain27095 sits back
Tricky003: folds
Emellie: calls 52
Mango99: calls 52
Corsica: folds
4acepoker: calls 52
Arnie2705: calls 45
racade2: folds

----- FLOP ----- [2c 8d 5c]
Arnie2705: checks
DevonAces: checks
Emellie: bets 275
Mango99: calls 275
4acepoker: calls 275
Arnie2705: folds
DevonAces: folds

----- TURN ----- [2c 8d 5c][9s]
Iain27095 sits back
Emellie: bets 481 and is all-in
Mango99: raises to 628 and is all-in
4acepoker: calls 628

----- RIVER ----- [2c 8d 5c 9s][3c]

----- SHOW DOWN -----
Mango99: shows [8h 8s] (Three of a kind, Eights, Nine high)
4acepoker: shows [7s 6s] (A Straight, Nine high)
Emellie: shows [5s 2s] (Two Pairs, Fives and Twos, Nine high)
4acepoker collected 294 from Side pot
4acepoker collected 2543 from Main pot

----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot 2837 Main pot 2543 Side pot 294 | Rake 0
Board [2c 8d 5c 9s 3c]
Seat 1: Nobby3242 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Iain27095 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Tricky003 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Corsica folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: 4acepoker (button) showed [7s 6s] and won (2837) with A Straight, Nine high
Seat 8: Arnie2705 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 9: racade2 (big blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 10: DevonAces folded on the Flop

[FreeZey]

I agree with 4acepoker’s preflop decisions. He was in a late position, the bet wasn’t a significant percentage of his stack and even though his cards weren’t very highly ranked they were suited connectors with good potential for strength.

However I don’t agree with his call on the flop. His flush was dead and his only out was an outside straight draw.
With a pot limit raise and a call the pot odds he was getting were 4:1 (1100:275).
His straight draw odds were 5.875:1 (47:8)*
He wasn’t getting the odds to call and with two players showing strength he going to be up against at least one legitimate (non bluff) hand.

*(Factoring in implied odds sometimes allows these odds to be shifted enough to justify a call. But this would require everyone to check on the turn card then call his all-in on the river card. He was unlikely to get a free card on the turn judging from the action on the previous rounds).

As far as you played it I think pocket 8’s were well worth the preflop call for 52. Their concealment lends them a lot of strength in certain situations. The first hand I ever won in a casino was pocket kings, which beat a player holding a top pair of queens with an ace kicker.
The flop was almost perfect, you had the nuts at that point. But I don’t think it was strong enough to slow play with a call, since there was a possible straight draw and flush draw there. Reraising Emellie 825 might have been the way to go since it would hopefully knock out the drawing players leaving only made hands (like two pair) which you had beat.
Then again even if you did this 4acepoker might still have called and won. It would just have been a bigger mistake than the one he originally made.

Just my 2 cents.

[monkeymagic]

Thanks FreeZey for another excellent hand analysis It made me think of a couple of points that I hadn't seen / considered before.

I think in retrospect now, that I agree with you and I should have gone all-in after the flop, at a point when I had the nuts.

I'm definitely learning though, getting slowly but surely better..