$10-20, Could I have won this pot?

Tenhanded $10-20 game.


I get dealt 88 in the cutoff. Three limpers to me, I decide to limp in too. Button and blinds call.


Flop comes 9d8c2c, woohooooo, I love this game!

SB bets out and all(!) call to me, I raise, everyone calls again, yum, I'm going to win a biggie here.


Turn is the very pretty 3s.

I'm really starting to think I may not get sucked out on this time.


Now the strange thing happens, MP (Complete sucker who plays anything) bets out, WHAT? Did he hit a two pair or may a set of treys? Anyway, I'm in heaven.

Folded to me, I raise and am very happy to see the cutoff and everyone else fold. Starts counting the pot for myself and find out that I will be ahead a little after this one. MP is the only caller.


River is Kc, MP bets out again, I think to myself, "thank you for the money sucker, no way you have the flush" and is just about to raise when I get flashbacks of all the other 743945 times earlier some clown have beat me when I have a great hand but it's possible it is not the best.


So, I want to raise, but am pretty sure I am beat so I decide to just call.


Indeed I am beat, this guy turns over 94c for the flush and I'm saying quietly to myself, "Why god, why?"


Was there anything I could have done differently that would have won me this pot?


All comments welcome.

no

Opponent flopped top pair and a flush draw. On the turn he still had top pair and a flush draw. He's in all the way. The only way for you to win is to quickly throw the last club on the floor and hope they put out a new river card.

FatLoser,


You played correctly and there was no way you would win the pot THIS TIME. But in the long run playing correctly or as close to correctly as possible in good games will get the money and the guy who played garbage but dragged down this pot will certainly lose. But you know that or should.


Consider working on your attitude when you get a “bad beat”. My definition of a bad beat is when someone makes a clearly bad play (in this case calling BTF with the 94c) and gets there against you or someone else. If you are at a table and see frequent bad beats you are in a good game. If you don’t see bad beats or bad plays you probably are not in a very good game (the exception is when you are be in a weak/tightish game where you win by running over your opponents). So if I’m playing and don’t see “bad beats” I start getting the creeps and look for another game.


Your play on this hand was fairly obvious and correct. Look for hands where your decisions are tough regardless as to whether you won or lost the hand. That will help your game. Smile inside when you see “bad beats”, but also realize that the definition is somewhat strict. However, if you still get frustrated, call 1-900-BAD-BEAT. Ask for Dirty Wally.


Regards,


Rick

hi fat loser,

i lost to the same guy with pocket aces and flopped set against his pocket 4s who made runner-runner flush(and no straight draw for him).you cant move this guy out of a pot,but youre gonna collect a lot of money from him in the long run.so while i didnt like to lose that pot i,m always happy to play against these kind of player .so smile and look forward to your next winning session!

gl asteroid

Rick, thank you for your reponse. I used to have an attitude problem with bad beats until I understood, as you point out, that's what make the game good!


I went to this lecture about success about a month ago, it was an american who I was told was very wellknown over there (I'm a swede).


However, in his lecture he mentioned something I've been living by since.


He said; "Whenever you experience a setback, dont take a step back, get ready for your comeback!"


I think that's is something that has helped me at the pokertables a lot, mostly when handling bad beats.


Asteroid: Is this guy new in the game? When I sat down he had $600 and now as I write this his stack is approaching $2500. Btw, he just played J2o for a raise from the sb. Flopped a pair of deuces, went all the way and won when he made a runner-runner flush with the jack on the river.

These next days will be interesting...


See you at the table!

No problem with the way you played this hand;as you noted, however, the MP will 'play

anything'.It seems that, in my experience,weak players will play most any two cards, most of all

when those cards are suited.


Once the flop hits, there's probably no way you can get rid of this patzer, nor do you want to, so I,too, would have charged him as many bets as possible and prayed that a straight or flush

card didn't hit the board.


perfidious

You played correctly (no raise before the flop) and there was no way you could have gotten him off the hand.