BBT2 - Strike 1

The Big Game was first up on the big 3 for me to qualify this week. Strike one, and now I look to tonight at the MATH. I was card dead early winning about 2 pots in the first 50 hands. I then woke up a bit and got to the 3600-3800 range for a while. I would get into a tough spot in a Battle of the blinds situation when I had to let my A9 go due to kicker issues post flop facing too much pressure. And then this hand with Kat, which looks like a straight forward coinflip, but is actually a bit interesting. Lets take a look.

FullTiltPoker Game #3928192131: Blogger Big Game (29406550)
Table 6 - 80/160 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:51:14 ET - 2007/10/21
Seat 1: rpinner (8,310)
Seat 3: BuddyDank (2,615)
Seat 4: katitude (2,695)
Seat 5: a104l9 (4,115)
Seat 7: SnailTrax (2,950)
Seat 8: Blinders (3,085)
Seat 9: Fishiswa (4,160)
a104l9 posts the small blind of 80
SnailTrax posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to Blinders [Ac Ks]

I am under the gun, and with a well below average stack, I need to try to make something from this hand. Easy standard raise.

Blinders raises to 480
Fishiswa folds
rpinner folds
BuddyDank folds
katitude raises to 800
a104l9 folds
SnailTrax folds

It will be heads-up. The minimum raise is a bit interesting. I can fold, call, or push. I think a case can be made for all three here. I thought about folding first, but it is just too late in the tourney to be that concerned that I am up against exactly AA or KK the one time I pick up a good starting hand. I put kat on a pretty good hand here though. AA-TT, AK, AQ. Something like that. a smaller pair would have called or pushed vs min raise there. So I thought about just pushing into that range, but figured I am getting called most of the time. So I play it pretty safe and take the nice odds of just calling the 320 more, and waiting to see if I hit the flop before committing.

Blinders calls 320

*** FLOP *** [Jh Ad Qd]

At first that looks like a great flop. I hit my Ace, but then you need to think about the range you are against. The whole range I put her on is ahead of me except exactly TT and KK or AK for a push. I doubt she pushes TT there, but possibly KK and AK I guess. This is a situation at the cash tables that is very foldable because of the stack depths, but more difficult in an MTT. You put the player on TT-QQ, and you have AA. The flop comes QJT, and you just know your already beat when the other guy fires. I check it to kat to get some info.

Blinders checks
katitude bets 1,895, and is all in

Well I guess she caught something. If she did, I got 4 outs max. I checked to leave myself the chance to fold here. I call instead.

Blinders calls 1,895

katitude shows [Qs Qc]
Blinders shows [Ac Ks]
*** TURN *** [Jh Ad Qd] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [Jh Ad Qd Kc] [3h]
katitude shows three of a kind, Queens
Blinders shows two pair, Aces and Kings
katitude wins the pot (5,630) with three of a kind, Queens

You guys play it different pre or post flop? I think I did ok up until calling at the end.