Handing out some bad beats

A lot of the stuff that I post here is me bemoaning my bad luck (I do post the odd 'mega' hand), and very rarely have tales of when I came from a mile behind to suck out.

Well, it happened twice in a matter of minutes this evening when playing in a WSOP satellite tournament on Ultimatebet.

The game had been going just over an hour and had got down from 9 players to only 4, with the blinds at 75/150 (level 7). We had been 5-handed for about 20 minutes and now down to 4 I was guaranteed at least another shot at this level, so I started to open my game up and raised from the cut-off with pocket 7's; I got one caller. The flop came down 3 spades; one of them a 7!
I had to believe my opponent didn't have pocket spades, so bet the pot and got flat-called; I had a feeling I was in trouble. The turn was another spade and I'm now almost dead. My opponent bets enough to put me all-in and I have no choice but to let it go, after doing over 1/2 my stack.

I'm totally card-dead for the next 7-8 hands, two-orbits worth of blinds and I'm starting to get short-stacked. I've got the massive chip-leader to my left and know I have no fold equity, so trying to steal blinds is not really an option.

The BB comes round and I've got Ah-10h. The UTG (big stack) flat calls, as does the SB. I see free flop and it comes 9c-7h-9h; I've now only got about 6 BB's left and against just about any hand (except a Full-House) I'm no worse than 50/50, with the nut-flush draw, so I shove (really hoping for a fold).

The UTG mucks and the SB can't call quick enough; turning up Kc-9s. I can still win with any heart, but the turn brings me some additional outs, with the Ad. I'm begging for the heart, when the Ac appears on the river to fill my boat. It was an insanely bad-beat for my opponent, usually the kind of thing I am on the receiving end of.


4-way action continues for another 15 minutes, or so, and my stack is dwindling after losing a race where I called for most of my chips with pocket Queens against A-J suiteed. Of course, there's and Ace on the flop, followed by a J on the turn.

I'm in the BB next hand and the UTG raises enough to put me all-in. I've no choice but to call and when I see him turn over pocket 5's I'm reasonably happy; my two overcards is the equivalent of A-K versus Q-Q; I'm about a 45% dog, but have live overcards.

Hope turns to dispair as the 2s-5d-8c flop makes his set. I do have a gut-shot and it seems my only hope would be to spike a 6. The 10h on the turn now gives my up & down possibilities and, would you 'adam & eve' it, the jd on the river makes me a straight.

Again, this is something that usually happens against me so I am very happy to be dishing out these beats. This double-through (inc the blinds) puts me in a good position and I end up finishing 2nd; qualifying for the next phase of the tournament.

The moral of the story is, what comes around goes around. I've taken some horrendous bad-beats over the last couple of months, but at least I know I can dish them out.

What are the odds?

I've made the odd Straight Flush before, but tonight is the first time I've flopped it, and got maximum value.

Of course, I checked it all the way down, and found a player willing to bluff all his chips on the river; it was the easiest call of my life.

How do you get away from this?

I've been away on vacation and hadn't played much poker over the last couple of weeks. I've become a bit bored of playing the cash games, so I decided to try my luck at SNG's.

I logged in to UltimateBet, picked a $5 table and got ready to play. First hand (and I mean, very first hand) I pick up pocket Kings, on the button.

There's a small raise from mid-position, and a re-raise from the big blind. Not wanting to go crazy, I just call the $240 bet. If there's an Ace on the flop I'm chucking this away. Next thing, the initial raiser pushes all-in, and the big-blind insta-calls.

I've got a bad feeling, that one of them's got the bullets, and a better player probably could have folded the K's and not put their entire tournament at risk first hand. But how do you lay down this hand? The odds are 220/1 that my KK is dominated by the one and only hand better than it, pre-flop. I could have been up against QQ or JJ, perhaps even AK from a really loose/aggresive player. So, I make the call.

The bad news is instant. The initial raiser has QQ, but of course, the BB turns over the Aces. To add insult to injury, he makes the wheel on the turn, so if I had have been up against AK I still would have lost.