Glutton for punishment

meh.

there was a brief stretch of time during the 2500 NL today that I thought I could win/do well/cash/make the dinner break/make day 2 blah blah blah.

Brief stretch.

My table was the softest I've had. There was a guy who reminded me of the Melbourne players who thought Ace-rag was the nuts. Thing is, the guy would always call to the river and then catch an Ace and then bet out. It was hilarious. He took a huge pot from a good player this way, and I was just thinking to myself- "Dude- he has like Ace-four or somethng- wtf are you doing?"

While I still have seen 42 straight flops with pocket pairs and yet to flop a set, I did win my first race of the WSOP when I got all in with AKs vs QQ and flopped an ace. Got me up to 8000 chips or so and I was feeling pretty good. I got pocket 5's like 5 times, and each time I was up against something like AQ that missed and I was good.

Except the last time.

At 100-200 (i didn't even make the antes!) I call a raise in position with 55, against an aggressive internet type who I barely cover. So we see the flop of T-3-3 with two hearts and he fires out a C-bet of 700. I consider raising him right there but it looks goofy-- if I have A3, TT, AT, or any other hand really, I think I would be calling and let him bet again on the turn. So I call. Turn is an offsuit 4. He checks. I'm so brilliant. It's so easy to put him on any non-pair two high card hand here, and if that is what he has, he's gonna give up most of the time. I had already decided that if he bet the turn I was gonna shove on him anyway, so I was a little disappointed he didn't fire the second barrel. So the pot is about 2700 I think and I have roughly 6000 left. I bet 2K pretty quickly and he tanks. He tanks a long time. He looks so weak. He is trying to summon the courage to make a play at this pot with his whiffed AK and the longer he tanks the more I'm confident that I'm good and that I'm calling if he shoves. He picks up his cards at one point, just barely off the table like he's gonna muck, but then eventually he gathers his chips and ships them in.

Crap.

I have to trust my read here. He is weak, he doesn't like his hand and he's making a move. OK. I call. He looks dejected. "You got me" he says, as he tables pocket 7's. F-word. No dude, you got me and you were making your move with the best hand. Crap on toast.

I have 550 chips left and I ship it in with A8 against two players with AQ and KQ and I catch an 8 to triple up to like 2000 chips or 10 BB's. Nice. Good resteal stack. I'm in the BB with A4s and the button raises and I instashove and he instacalls with AQs and its gg me.