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So my Aces were cracked last night.

01-09-2008 12:16:11 PM

So my Aces were cracked last night. First time in a while and I am still as yet undecided about whether I made the wrong play or not. It was the 7th or 8th hand of the night which is what hurts the most I think. Typical raises of three times the big blind went out the window right away at my table last night for whatever reason. With the blinds at their initial 100/200 starting point and after watching the first 5 or 6 hands be raised to 1000 and 1200, I picked up pocket Aces in first position. Well I limped counting on the type of substantial raise I had seen every hand thus far and was not happy when 6 people called and the blinds checked. Flop came 4-5-9 with 2 spades and I immediately raised. After a couple of folds I was reraised eliminating the rest of the players still holding cards. Since he limped it is nearly impossible to put him on a hand. Given the flop he could have had almost anything. He could have been on a spade draw, he could have had top pair with a large kicker, he could have had a straight draw. He could have had a set, but if he had a pocket pair I think he would have raised preflop to eliminate as many limpers as possible, so I dismissed the possibility of that hand beating me. I decided that since I am still ahead against all these scenarios, and since I believe the only hand that can call an all in is two pair, I reraised all in. He immediately called and as I expected he had two pair, 4's and 5's. I still don't think I played the hand particularly bad. I am happy I got a refresher on why I don't normally slow play big pairs, and I am happy I got reminded that last night as opposed to Saturday....