How do I fix this gaping hole?

[Jim Morgan]

A minute ago I posted a hand where the BB raised with AhKh from the BB with 7 way action. I want to revisit that hand from my seat. I was the Small Blind and I held ThTc.

I was concerned that the BB had an overpair and that I might wind up paying off with very few outs. And of course, the other players might beat me too. I considered checking to see what would happen, but I decided to try to put the BB in a sandwhich. If, as I hoped, he had something like 2 overcards, I wanted him to fold RIGHT NOW. In retrospect, I think this was a foolish dream. Yes, folding may be his best play with hands like AhKh, but will he actually do it?!

Probably not.

I'm not sure ANYONE in that game would be capable of making that play. And maybe with 15-1 pots odds, it is simply a bad play.

Anyhow, betting out is not a terrible play even if my aim to knock him out was a misfire.

Now things start to get ugly. The BB calls, and by doing so I figure he is either A) Holding two overcards or B) A complete idiot who is slowplaying a hand when the board screams to do otherwise.

Someone raises and one more player calls. The other 3 players fold.

Now is where my gaping hole starts to show....

Huge mistake #1: I just call.
This is nuts. I have now actually been presented with a legitimate chance to knock out the BB with his presumed 2 highly dangerous overcards, but for some reason I started thinking I was already beat by the raiser or maybe even the BB was simply williing to call with his big pair. He may have even decided to save a raise for the turn, (as suggested in the recent book low limit book by 2+2).

So, of course, the BB calls.

Now the pot has 11 big bets.

The turn comes a Jd. [9d 5s 3s][Jd]

I check, the flop raiser bets, the other playre calls and I FOLD! Yeah, the turn may have hurt me and I could easily have the worst hand, but somehow I forgot that the raiser could have something like A9 or spade draw. Even if flopped 2 pair, the pot is so big that I really must call. Only a set, Jacks up, or an overpair has me so far down that folding is correct.

The BB also folded. A blank hit the rievr. The raiser had 9s4s. The caller had K9 and won the pot.

I think in retrospect I should have re-raised the flop. Assuming the BB does not re-raise, I should then back down and simply check and call the rest of the way, but probably folding to more raising, especailly from the BB.

Clearly I really screwed this one up. I know that my emotions had something to do with this. I was in a negative frame of mind after missing a monster draw in a huge pot a couple of minutes ago.

I have heard people say that a poker player must have "heart". It seems like this hand demonstrated that I lack "heart" in some situations. How do I get this thing called "heart", and how do I avoid overdoing it and simply paying off all day long?

Jim

[thesharpie]

I think I like a check from your tens on the flop. By betting you're hoping villain raises and protects your hand with a worse one, not that he folds. Here I'm not sure it's a good idea since unless you have a LAGgy read he's probably not raising with something you beat unless he has something like a FD+OCs, also even if he does raise you're offering ~9 to 1 to everybody, if the first guy coldcalls anyone can call profitably with draws as weak as 4 outers. I prefer seeing what the action will be in a field this large. I'm tired.