Blind are 100/200 and a player with 12k in chips (which is well above avg in the tourney) bets $1100 in Early Pos. I look at KK in MP, so I call. (I have about $9k in chips, also far above avg) With a raise this big, and me with the KK, I am either looking at AA, QQ, JJ or this player just decided to check out. Based on his stack size, the latter seems unlikely. But it seems premature to lay down KK now, and I did not want to re-raise and get into a possible all-in situation if he had AA.
The flop is 3h6hQd. He checks and I bet my standard 1/2 pot bet. In this case, that's about $1250. He re-raises me another $1250 and the warning bells go off. I think he has AA, but I want to put him on JJ because of the pre-flop bet. Here is is trying to see if I have a Q or played AQ.
The turn is a 5c and he comes right out and bets $3500. Since I have 5k and change left, he is putting me in effect all-in. At this point, he has to have either AA or QQ for a set of queens. But, somehow I discard this information and put him on JJ. Why?
Let's stop and think about it for a second. Why do I put him on JJ?
Well, because I can beat JJ. This, my humble readers, is a fatal problem. I gave myself an excuse to call. Does this seem like JJ to you? With a Q out there? This may be a good player, but its not Phil Hellmuth. Can I really justify a call here?
Well, I could say this. We started with $5k in chips. I through some good playing of QQ, QQ (again) and 88, have 9k in chips and never even had to see a showdown. Now, I would be back at $5k (and change) and have to work it out all over again. THAT THOUGHT, AND THAT THOUGHT ALONE convinced me to make a bad decision.
I can not emphasize this enough. I could have played ONE winning hand and gotten back to $10k, even more than I had to start this one hand.
You can not let the fact that you need to let go of a huge hand cloud your judgment. Still, in the back of your mind, you have to be thinking... Did he have AKs? Did he fool your humble narrator?
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