Oregon Trail Poker 2/22/07

On the surface I played very well. Out of 27 people I finished 4th and this was my first time playing with these people. But let's look a little closer.


First, I played too many hands out of the gate. I was limping in with marginal or weak hands and bled off a couple hundred before I realized what I was doing.

I played well briefly, including properly re-raising when I had A/Q suited in the big blind and raising strong even when the flop missed to push out a better hand. But I folded a couple times when I should not have, played cautiously instead of confidently.

Regardless, I was in good shape when I got to the tables condensing to 2. I reverted to folding some I should have kept, calling instead of raising, not raising when I thought I should...playing scared.
I also did not believe my reads. For example, 4 handed they called to the small blind, I raised to 3 times the big blind, fold to the small, he went all-in. I read small, weak hand...but folded my a/7 suited. He showed...3/5 off. Right read, wrong play.

I won a couple hands. Then in the big blind, just the 2 of us again. I had A/9 suited (which I should have raised up and did not). The flop came three deuces. He jumped. I read he had the quads. He checked. Remember...I read him for quads, bet 1200. He just called. I thought maybe I had misread him. On the turn, a blank, I went all in instead of checking and he of course called with the deuce. I read him ,did not believe it, and played into his hands. He outplayed me, which really hurts because watching him...he is a weak player. What does that say about me? So I got 4th DESPITE myself, not because of myself. Good result but poorly played.