Lesson Learned - Smart Alecs Lose In Freeroll NLH

It was a pretty dry weekend for me. Every night I ground my way through hours of 2/4 limit hands and went way down before dragging myself back to just above even. Factor in the bonuses and it was a reasonable return, but not much fun.

Since I haven't been playing any SnG recently, I decided to keep my No Limit eye in by playing the Prima freeroll on Sunday night.

For the first time ever, I actually hit the money with ease, only to shoot myself in the foot. The Prima hand history is broken at present, so I can't recount the exact details, but it went something like this.

With around 60 players left I'm in about 20th position chip wise, and enjoying myself, indeed starting to fancy my chances of hitting the final table. When along comes QQ in mid-position. Splendid.

One guy limps from early, and I raise 4BB (something like T2000 out of my stack of around T19000 I think).

It's folded around to the limper, who calls. Flop is Kxx. Dammit. He has me covered. I guess he was about 15th at this point.

He bets T1000. Weak, I think. I ponder for a minute as to what he can have.

AA or KK or AK? Nope, he would probably have re-raised my initial raise.

Something less than my hand, maybe he is trying a tentative bluff? Possibly.

K with a weaker kicker, something like KQ to KT? That's a possibility. Anything less than that against my raise would be a bit wild.

So, on balance I decide he either doesn't have me beat, or he does but with a hand he can't be terribly confident of.

Like the poker genius I am, I push all in, assuming if I'm right he must fold.

He calls. With KTo. Double dammit.

No improvement for me on turn or river and I'm out, with a payout of $3, rather than the $250 for the winner.

On reflection, maybe this was a bit reckless, perhaps even a bit too obvious. Maybe I should have re-raised him the size of the pot, to make it look a bit more devious. Or maybe I should have folded!

On the whole it still looks like a fair move to me, and a slightly dodgy call from him. Though he might argue he had me read, and knew exactly what I had.

Either way, it was good fun, and more entertaining than the zillion hands of 2/4 limit. I may need to make the freerolls a more regular event.