Dead man's hand...

[avisco01]

I'm not totally sure if I should post this here, but I'll give it a shot. Some friends of mine get together every week and we play a small $15 buy-in NL hold'em tournament. The game is usually made up of around 12-16 people. We have had occasions where we'd have 10 or fewer and play a "technical" one-table tournament, but for the most part we generally have two tables with roughly 7 players per table. Being that its such a small "multi-table" tournament, I figure its ok to post this here. If not, I apologize...

Last night, very early on in the tournament I pick up Ah8h on the button. Seven players at the table, all fold to the CO, who I consider the best player at the tournament. He raises 3 times the blind, blinds were 20/40. He had roughly 1300 in chips, I had about 1200. I called figuring he could be trying to steal the blinds, and or buy the button. The blinds folded.

Flop: As 8d 7h

He bets the pot, I call

Turn: 4c

He checks, I bet roughly half the pot, he goes all-in, I called instantly. He shows me a set of fours, the river was a blank, and he takes me out.

A few people comforted me by telling me it was a "bad beat." I already know what I think, I just wanted to get others opinions, thanks.