Jack o' diamonds is a hard card to play
I've made a few wrong plays in this tournament, but I think I played this one correctly. See what you think.
! Your hole cards are Jh Jd
Every player seems to have his nightmare hand, and mine is a pair of jacks. You can't turn it down, but it's often not quite high enough to win. In November 2006 I paid 9600 (out of 19250) to someone who eventually turned out to have AA (lucky I had the good sense to get out instead of calling the final bet of 5400), and although that season I went on to survive until May 9th and 49th place my perception of the hand suffered rather. In fact on that May 9th I was eliminated by someone who paired his J on the flop. (I had an open-ended straight flush draw - any K or 9 for the straight, any club for the flush, or any Q for a higher pair, but no: what came out was another J). I've only had JJ once since then - in November 2008 when I reraised pre-flop and then got out quickly when A77 was turned over.
! imc blinds $40000
! James Scharf raises $100000
James is the overall chip leader with 1,197,850. I am the table's short stack with 364,200. I'm pretty new on this table, but the history tells me that James usually has something decent when he opens the betting, though he's been known to call a high bet with only A/x or K/x. I'm putting him on probably an ace and another high card, maybe a good king-high hand or an outside chance of a decent pair. But I can't not play the jacks at this stage. Everyone else folds.
! imc calls
! Pot right ($342000), flopping/dealing/drawing cards
! 2 players
! Flopped cards: 6h 10d Kh
Drat, missed. If there were an ace on the board I'd check and fold, but with only just over 200K would be in a very bad position for future hands. If he has a K I'm probably finished, but otherwise there's a decent chance. Two hearts on the board mean a slightly better than 1 in 16 chance that he has a four-flush (slightly better because you're more likely to bet a suited hand than a non-suited one). My only options here are check-and-fold or push - if he's interested in staying in then he'll raise enough to put me all-in anyway. There's only the chance that if the flop missed him he'll fold, and to make that happen I have to bet high.
! Ian Collier bets $218200 and is all in
! James Scharf raises $833650 and is all in
! Pot right ($1612050), flopping/dealing/drawing cards
! 2 players, 2 all in
! Flopped card: 10h
! Flopped card: 4d
! Hand over, current board is: 6h 10d Kh 10h 4d
! imc has: Jh Jd
! James Scharf has: Ah 9h
What rotten luck, he made a flush! Even after the 10h fell it wasn't completely over for me - another 10 or a J would have made a full house. But it wasn't to be.
I finish 36th (out of 1072 starting players) and win 56,816 virtual dollars. In practice this means my initial investment of zero real dollars is multiplied by 5.6816 and returned to me. I knocked out one player. Unusually, oldbloke is still in. :-)
Only five months till the next one.
! Your hole cards are Jh Jd
Every player seems to have his nightmare hand, and mine is a pair of jacks. You can't turn it down, but it's often not quite high enough to win. In November 2006 I paid 9600 (out of 19250) to someone who eventually turned out to have AA (lucky I had the good sense to get out instead of calling the final bet of 5400), and although that season I went on to survive until May 9th and 49th place my perception of the hand suffered rather. In fact on that May 9th I was eliminated by someone who paired his J on the flop. (I had an open-ended straight flush draw - any K or 9 for the straight, any club for the flush, or any Q for a higher pair, but no: what came out was another J). I've only had JJ once since then - in November 2008 when I reraised pre-flop and then got out quickly when A77 was turned over.
! imc blinds $40000
! James Scharf raises $100000
James is the overall chip leader with 1,197,850. I am the table's short stack with 364,200. I'm pretty new on this table, but the history tells me that James usually has something decent when he opens the betting, though he's been known to call a high bet with only A/x or K/x. I'm putting him on probably an ace and another high card, maybe a good king-high hand or an outside chance of a decent pair. But I can't not play the jacks at this stage. Everyone else folds.
! imc calls
! Pot right ($342000), flopping/dealing/drawing cards
! 2 players
! Flopped cards: 6h 10d Kh
Drat, missed. If there were an ace on the board I'd check and fold, but with only just over 200K would be in a very bad position for future hands. If he has a K I'm probably finished, but otherwise there's a decent chance. Two hearts on the board mean a slightly better than 1 in 16 chance that he has a four-flush (slightly better because you're more likely to bet a suited hand than a non-suited one). My only options here are check-and-fold or push - if he's interested in staying in then he'll raise enough to put me all-in anyway. There's only the chance that if the flop missed him he'll fold, and to make that happen I have to bet high.
! Ian Collier bets $218200 and is all in
! James Scharf raises $833650 and is all in
! Pot right ($1612050), flopping/dealing/drawing cards
! 2 players, 2 all in
! Flopped card: 10h
! Flopped card: 4d
! Hand over, current board is: 6h 10d Kh 10h 4d
! imc has: Jh Jd
! James Scharf has: Ah 9h
What rotten luck, he made a flush! Even after the 10h fell it wasn't completely over for me - another 10 or a J would have made a full house. But it wasn't to be.
I finish 36th (out of 1072 starting players) and win 56,816 virtual dollars. In practice this means my initial investment of zero real dollars is multiplied by 5.6816 and returned to me. I knocked out one player. Unusually, oldbloke is still in. :-)
Only five months till the next one.