[mrmuzeman]

The 2nd hour

For the second hour the blinds rose to 50/100 and I picked up my first real hand – AA. 2 big red Aces. I was under the gun (the first player to act before the flop) and had to decide how much to bet. I figured that 400 was a fair bet. As I was out of position I didn’t want any more than 1 caller here so 500 crossed my mind but I thought that might spell out my hand too much. To my surprise (as there had been a lot of raise and take as I said) I got 2 callers. The loose Scandy to my left (*sigh*) and the next loosest player on my table from the button. So im out of position on the flop against the 2 loosest players at the table but cheer up you’ve got AA my boy!

The flop came a terribly awful conjoined flop of 7 8 9 – All clubs. Probly the worst flop possible barring putting a picture pair on the board (eg. QQ5). I had red aces so no nut flush draw for me. I had quite a decent decision to make here. There was 1350 in the pot so if I were to bet id have to make it 1K minimum but maybe even as much as 2K to take the pot right there as that’s a very scary board. My problem here really arose here though from being first to act against 2 seemingly loose opponents. You cant go through your poker life worrying about the nuts or near nuts but this flop was stupidly draw flush/straight draw heavy with a very real possibility of someone beating me right now. 65 or J10 has the made straight, 2 clubs has the flush, a loose player sneaking around with 98 or 97 has 2 pair not to mention a set of 7s, 8s or 9s. Also if I bet I may get called or raised by any of these hands PLUS any 10 for an open ended straight or an Ace of Clubs searching for a flush draw.

All in all I weighed it all up and pretty much conceded the hand right there by checking. Id wasted a mere 400 chips which didn’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things and figured I could get my money in, in a better spot later. So many cards hurt me on the turn and what do I do then with players to act after me? The Scandy to my left bet 1K and the button called so I folded. It went to showdown and the Scandy had QQ (with Q of clubs) and the button had 97s for 2 pair. I was slightly annoyed at having to muck my first real hand but it proved a good decision and I still had about 9.3k or sumthing. I limped with AQ and the flop was no help and that was the end of the first 2 hours and a 15 minute break. Phil Taylor (the world champion darts player) was first out the tourney - 150/1 my arse.