Two Pair No Good

Just a ridiculous hand. Put it in the annal-book of sick hands.

Absolute, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG: $27.95
Hero (CO): $32.07
BTN: $46.21
SB: $43.84
BB: $35.65

Pre-Flop: 8 9 dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $0.75, BTN calls $0.75, SB folds, BB calls $0.50

Flop: ($2.35) 2 9 8 (3 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.70, BTN calls $1.70, BB raises to $9.15,

lots of semibluff draws for him to get frisky with, plus dead money, plus I've just cracked slowplayed aces/kings. I'm ahead of everything except the three sets. Good enough to die on the hill...

Hero raises to $31.32 and is All-In, BTN folds, BB calls $22.17

Hero shows 8 9
BB shows 7 T

7 T? so that means he has an open ended straight flush draw. Oooo-fa.

Turn: ($66.69) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In) -suspense over, he caught me. 4 outs to a winner.
River: ($66.69) J (2 Players - 1 is All-In) -nope. stacked.


Results: $66.69 Pot ($3 Rake)

Hero showed 8 9 and LOST (-$32.07 NET)
BB showed 7 T and WON $63.69 (+$31.87 NET)

I pokerstoved the hand afterward - villain was a 50.909% to 49.091% favorite. As close to a coinflip as you can get, and I flopped top two pair!

As I "instant messaged" to my friend after the hand - you study, you work on your game, you practice, you review hands, you read, you get tutoring, you discuss hands with your friends, you do everything you can to be a good player. Then you flop a big hand that's ahead of nearly everything, against a loose meathead with a wide range, and you still end up flipping a friggin coin for $32.

Edit: By the way, say you call a raise with a suited 2 gapper like 7 T, hoping to hit the open-ended-straight-flush draw like my fine opponent did here. Do you know how often you will see this? Trying to work out the math....