ANNA KOURNIKOVA!

This is both the greatest and the dumbest call I have ever made in my life. I would like to preface this hand by letting you know that I had no previous reads or tells on player 3 and I had no weird premonitions that he was bluffing. I had no good reason to think this. I made the call for one reason and one reason only: pot odds or something?

Poker Game #xxx: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/04/22 - 22:05:51 (ET)

Table II 6-max Seat #6 is the button

Seat 1: PLAYER 1 ($151.45 in chips)

Seat 3: PLAYER 3 ($41.95 in chips)

Seat 4: ME ($43.40 in chips) I came in with 50.

Seat 5: PLAYER 5 ($120.55 in chips) Best player at the table; table captain; solid and pretty shrewd for a small stakes player, tends to attack blinds and limpers with raises 4 to 5 times the big blind.

Seat 6: PLAYER 6 ($50.75 in chips)

PLAYER 1: posts small blind $0.25

PLAYER 3: posts big blind $0.50

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to ME [Ac Kh]

ME: calls $0.50 Yes, I limped with AK. This has nothing to do with being a tricky and trappy player only that I was attempting to trick and trap Player 5. As I said before, he often attacks early limpers. I attempted this very thing in the previous hand with AQo (didn't show it down), and he folded, so I'm taking another stab. Also, I had been limping with a lot of cards, seeing about 40% of the flop and rarely raising pre-flop.

PLAYER 5: raises $2 to $2.50 Exactly what I wanted, I plan to re-raise to about $7.5-8 and assume he will fold. Hope he doesn't hold a high pair.

PLAYER 6: folds

PLAYER 1: folds

PLAYER 3: calls $2 I don't know much about this player, but he has now become my target to make money on the hand. I want Player 5 out. Knowing Player 5 could have made that raise with any two decent cards to attack my limp, I expect him to fold. I also know he'll call with the right odds and if he thinks player 5 will also call, so I feel I have to bet a "high number". This is something I do to get points across at the poker table, whether in a tournament or in a cash game. The last thing that goes before a player's mind while making a call or re-raise of another person's bet is that dollar amount on the push-button. That's why I like to make bet amounts that make an impression. In tournaments it's a lot easier to do because the amounts are generally credits and are higher in number than the dollar amounts I play with at the table, allowing for more creativity. For example, if the "correct" bet amount (to me) is about 250 to 300 and I have a monster hand, I'm more inclined to bet an amount like 290 than 300. If I'm bluffing, I'm going with exactly 200 or 300.When you go to Wal-Mart, is there any item there that sells for $3.00 on the nose? No, it's going to sell for $2.95 or $2.99. And guess what, dumb people are more likely to buy it. It's the same concept. In this case, I don't want to make a sale, so I want to bet as high as I can. 10 looks like a big number, so I raise to $10 more. Player 5 will see a big, glaring 2-digit number that ends in a zero when he is trying to make this call. This is also the point in the hand where I realize I'm either going to make or lose a lot of money and I actually think to myself, "T, don't be scared to make a good call post-flop call when you don't hit". In other words, I prepare myself to make a move when no ace or king hits.

ME: raises $10 to $12.50

PLAYER 5: folds "TEN DOLLA!!"

PLAYER 3: raises $11 to $23.50 I actually don't really care about this that much, let's just see the flop and figure things out. He didn't take the chance to re-raise earlier but I figure that's mostly because I think I was coming off as being a weak player at the table and player 5 was coming off very strong. He's probably got A-x or 6-6 or KQ or something. Don't ever have a fear of flopping; the other player has just as much on his plate as you. Remember, most flops miss most hands...

ME: calls $11

*** FLOP *** [2h Tc 8s] Crap. The pot is almost 50 and each of us have about 20 left. I'm pretty much pot committed, and I pretty much know he's going all in, assuming I didn't hit this and that I won't be able to make a call with two high cards. Honestly though, my story adds up on my side as AK, Queens or maybe Jacks and his story looks about the same.

PLAYER 3: bets $18.45 and is all-in Not a bad move witih any two cards considering the pot.

ME: calls $18.45

*** TURN *** [2h Tc 8s] [9h]

*** RIVER *** [2h Tc 8s 9h] [4s]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

PLAYER 3: shows [Jd 5d] (high card Jack) The son of a bitch had J5s. I'm really glad he didn't hit a jack or a five. I think he put me on AK or AQ and knew that flop didn't hit me and that I would fold. He was right except for the last part.

ME: shows [Ac Kh] (high card Ace)

ME collected $84.65 from pot "I'M GOING TO WRITE THIS IN MY BLOG!!!"

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $86.65 | Rake $2

Board [2h Tc 8s 9h 4s]

Seat 1: PLAYER 1 (small blind) folded before Flop

Seat 3: PLAYER 3 (big blind) showed [Jd 5d] and lost with high card Jack

Seat 4: ME showed [Ac Kh] and won ($84.65) with high card Ace

Seat 5: PLAYER 5 folded before Flop

Seat 6: PLAYER 6 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

We didn't really learn much, here. I mostly made a pot odds play. I'd probably usually fold in that spot because 20 dollars is 20 dollars. Anyways, Goodnight.

FTR- I really did feel my Ace-high was good.