I was going for a third victory in our weekly poker tournament today.

We had 12 people, so we split into two tables of 6 and started playing. I definitely got lucky on the draw of the cards, as I ended up at a weaker table (no offense to anyone) ... I definitely felt like I had an advantage.

Note: UTG means 'under the gun' and implies the first person after the dealer; so UTG is essentially the small blind; UTG + 1 is the BB, UTG +2 is the person after the dealer, etc.)

First big hand, I picked up Ad2d UTG+2. Flop comes Ace, and two low diamonds. I've picked up a monster; top pair with diamond and a bitch straight. Yum (UTG+1) acts first, I call, and Bobby reraises $5 (the blinds are $0.50/$1, so this is a big raise), which both Yum and I call.

Now, I know Bobby is playing the Ace. Seeing as to how I have the worst kicker possible, he has my kicker beat. But I can't place Yum on the ace. The week before, he had called a huge all-in bet with an ace on board with pocket QQ, and I feel like he's holding some pockets, but definitely not the ace.

The pot is huge, and the next card is a blank. Yum moves all-in, and the alarm bells go off in my head. He's bluffing. Now, the question is if I call, will Bobby call? I figure he can't call if I call Yum's, so I call.

Yum turns over QQ and I win the pot (I catch the flush on the river, so Bobby would of been out; Bobby shows an A8).

A few hands later, I'm UTG and Bobby is UTG+1. As usual with Bobby, he raises preflop, which just screams Ace with a high kicker. I'm holding 92suited, but I decide to see the flop. I figure if I can catch a monster, I can outplay Bobby.

Flop comes 924. I've caught my two pair. I gladly check, hoping he'll catch is overcard. Turn is an A. Lovely. Absolutely lovely. We do a few dance with raises, and then he moves all-in. Absolutely lovely. I show my 92, and the two pair hold up. Niiiiicceee.

Of course, Bobby is a bit pissed about losing to 92, but when you have a read on someone, you can play any hand you want. I think that's why Farha and Hansen can play so many hands and win; if you've got a dead-on read on what they have ... you just wait for a favoriable flop and then catch them. The problem with a lot of people (Bobby, Yush, reading this?) is people CANNOT walk away from top pair. It's the toughest move from being a total amateur to a pretty good amateur; being able to throw away top pair. I've ditched top pair, I've ditched two pair, I've ditched overpairs all the time. You MUST get a read on someone and figure out whether you're beat.

Last year, I caught trips on the flop and waited against Bobby for an ace to hit the board. When it hit the river, I took him all-in and beat him (he has AK). Again ... learn to ditch that.

Anyways, I soon knock out Han too (he had an issue to deal with, so he was playing real loosly and didn't care what he lost on; I honestly can't even remember the hand, but I think I had trips) ... Godwin soon knocks out Yush.

I'm going to replay the Godwin and Yush hand, not to insult Yush, but to discuss some poker strategy.

There was a big preflop raise by me (I was holding A6suited, not bad short-handed). Yush calls quickly, and Godwin agonizes a call. I place Yush either slowplaying high pockets or he's holding Ace-high kicker. Godwin was probably playing a mediocre hand (QJ? KJ? JT? QT?) the way he agonized the call. In my opinion, Godwin would of probably reraised mid-pockets, knowing I was bullying ... so I didn't worry about a set. At the time of the flop, I realize my only chances to win is flopping a draw of sorts.

Flop is J9rag. There's a straight draw AND a flush draw. Here is where I think a mistake was made. If you're holding AJ, you have to decide if your opponents are holding a draw or if they're holding a made hand. If they're holding the draw, you have to decide whether you want to push them in early and force an all-in decision on them, or you have to decide whether you want to take it easy and bet the flop and turn weakly so you have a chance to walk away.

Yush, I don't mean to call you out: I think you'll make a fine poker player, so don't take this personally... but what you did was you bet weakly off the flop. This means that if I or Godwin was playing the flop with a draw, we were enticed to call. That means if one of us reraises you all-in when you've bet it slowly ... you must learn to fold.

With every hand, you must decide whether to play it hard and fast, or slow and easy. If you slowplay a hand, you must be ready to walk away if the odds don't look so good.

The turn on Yush/Godwin's hand was Q, and this means that the KT had hit its straight. It also meant that the top pair on the previous hand was no good. At this point, Godwin got excited and moved all-in. I think Yush was a little frustrated and called... but I knew the moment Godwin moved all-in, he had QT and that he was a huge favorite to win the pot. The all-in made it clear he had picked up top pair with a draw. I figured Yush had KJ or AJ (he had AJ) ...

Yush called and his tournament was over.

Back to criticizing myself...

The final table consisted of me, Godwin, John, and Terrence ... arguably the most skilled of the people who usually play.

My hands are getting shafted (pocket pairs getting missed, high cards missing). I finally see pocket 88 UTG + 2 (4-handed). I raise (blinds are $2/$4) to $12.

Now I must explain the force that is John. John is a very very loose player. I would say he's a pretty good player, but he plays hands way too aggressively and suffers from "over-betting-itis". He will call a 4-outer off the flop with his tourney at stake... and he will raise the blinds 10x UTG+2 (first to act preflop). He plays pairs very aggressively, which I've known since day one ... but I always make dumb mistakes against him.

He has gotten a reputation as quite a fisher, because he's knocked out so many people drawing out a 4-to a flush or a 4-to a straight.

Anyways, earlier today, Nasty Nate had KK... he raised minimum, and John pushed him all in. Nasty Nate folded (I'm not sure why, he later told me he was worried about John catching an Ace, which is a legitimately concern, but come on!! KK!!!!). John proudly lifted up his AQ ... he overbet the pot with high cards... I filed that in my memory for later. Because he plays very poor risk to rewards ratio, I think he gets undue crap from people. It's his playing style, and I respect it ... but his mathematics is a little skewed. If only I were more patient... but in his defense, he does manage to get a lot of chips, which is why he can play so many draws and not get eliminated...

The first hand we tangled on that night, I had AJ and he called a minimum raise with A2. The flop comes Qrag2. He goes all-in. I figure he limped in with some crap and it caught. At first I'm thinking I had two overs on him, but then I realized my J or A might not be good if we're sharing it... so I folded it. See? Slow play allowed me to walk away. (ooh it rhymes)

So back to our hand of interest.. John is next to act and reraises to $30. Flashes of Alex's hand go through my mind. Godwin and Terrence both fold, so it's back to me. I'm caught in a dilemma.

Honestly I don't care about placing in the money (next person eliminated doesn't get paid, and Godwin's severely short stacked). I want to WIN first place, and this seems like an amazing place to double up. I have about $67 in chips, John has about $75 in chips, and Terrence is sitting with around $120 in chips.

There's no way I can simply call this; even if the flop hits rags, I have a feeling John will stick to this hand to the end. If he doesn't, I really don't want to leave him with $15, which is a somewhat dangerous amount to leave any aggressive player, since they will do all-ins and you'll be down to the wire on many hands. I want this to either me or him out.

There's two hands I've narrowed him down to: High Ace with high kicker, or low PP. Somehow I can't imagine him making such a big reraise with high pockets; he's more of a milker type when he's got such a solid hand, so I would of been more suspicious with a minimum reraise at that point. If he's got low PP, I've got a 4:1 shot on the money, while if he's got overcards, it's a 2:1 on the money.

But I'm not in any chip trouble. I still have a very healthy amount of chips. I can wait this out. That is the dilemma. I could pick a better spot to go against John and trap him, or I could pick this spot now. At worst, I' m a 2:1 on the money ...

At the time, I'm thinking that I'm playing to win. At the time, I foolishly think that I will not find a better hand to take him on; Terrence and John have been running the table, and few more blinds down and I'll be at 1/2 of their stacks rather than 2/3 or 3/4.

Part of me is hoping he's got low pockets that he'll dump down once I reraise all in ... but I decide to go all-in anyways. Whoever won this pot would be highly favored to win the tournament (to quote Dan Harrington: "I've got 16% of the chips; I'm a 16% favorite to win the whole thing."). But he calls, and I realize he's got overcards.

Should I have risked a healthy stack even when I had the better hand against the loose player? Terrence and I were talking briefly ... we both share the idea that one should always chip away on a loose player until you have more chips so that a bad beat doesn't knock you out. But he had more chips than me, so a bad beat would knock me out and prevent me from recovering.

At first, I said it was a good move because a 54% shot at being heavily favored to win the whole thing seemed to be a good shot... but then I realized that I might of had a 70% shot later ... but with 1/2 the stack of John and Terrence, would that have mattered? I would of needed a TON of hands to overcome the chip deficit, and THEN even to beat them. And with Terrence's playing style, I honestly did not think I could come from behind to win. The last time this happened, I got totally frustrated and walked into a flush and threw away my chips to Terrence.

So John caught his Ace on the flop and it was over for me. And now, more than 3 hours later, I'm just trying to realize the implications of what I did.

Conclusion? I shouldn't have made that move. John was overplaying all his positions, and I just needed to wait and pick a better spot to make sure I was more of a 70% - 80% favorite in a hand. I knew I had the better hand, but it was marginally better. It was a coin flip, and I got too obsesed with taking on Terrence before knocking out John. Had I been patient a few more hands, I could of caught him overplaying a hand and then catch him.

But in retrospect, the move with the AQ on his part was good. It forced me to make the decision and level the playing field... I don't know if it was his intention to make the hand go 50/50, but he did it... so mad props to him for that.

I'm learning so much about poker. It's amazing how intricate it is... and it all has to do with situational thing... not the game itself, but how to deal with people. I love it.