Bad call X3

Thanks to my fellow blogger ThePokerMeister for sweating me tonight - very helpful to talk through hands as you play. I see how much work I have to do, and most of it away from the table.

It was also helpful to get out of Rush Poker for a few hands and see some of the 45/3s in action - those guys don't seem to gravitate towards Rush.

When I got off the phone, though, I jumped back into a Rush table (gotta clear those bonuses, you know), and was playing ok until I made a bad river call that cost me a bundle. I hit a straight on a flush board and thought "bet/fold, here we go". I bet and he raised. Then, even though I had told myself fold 2 seconds before, I called. I reasoned that his just-over-pot bet on the turn was a protection bet, and I had caught him with my straight. No flush for him. Uh, no, dumbass - ace high flush for him.

So I made a bad call. It happens. I didn't get discouraged, though, and kept knocking away, slowly building my stack back up, until this hand...

beware the feral cow packs. they hunger.
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em $0.05/$0.10 - 6 players

CO: $7.93
Button: $12.11 (Hero)
SB: $11.96
BB: $10.45
UTG: $6.68
UTG+1: $20.02

Preflop: ($0.15) Hero is Button with (6 players)
UTG calls $0.10, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, SB folds, BB calls $0.30, UTG calls $0.30
I've got UTG at 38/0 after 8 hands. Not much of a read to go on, but couple this with an UTG limp here, and a not-full-stack, and I've got enough read. Isolating with TJ on the button. The call from the big blind is a bit of a surprise, but ok, let's take a multiway pot with a nice broadway connector.

Flop: ($1.25) (3 players)
BB checks, UTG bets $0.10, Hero calls $0.10, BB calls $0.10
Bingo, the old open-ended straight draw for me. Love the min-donk bet. If we were heads up, I would raise this puppy, but I've got another player yet to act, and I don't want to get blown off my draw. If I just call here, I can perhaps call a normal raise if BB decides to do that. He calls too, so I get to draw to my straight at 14.5:1 odds.

Turn: ($1.55) (3 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $1.20, BB calls $1.20, UTG calls $1.20
And I hit! Bingo, Bobby Smith! (Cleveland Cavaliers fans will know who that is). No sense playing around anymore, let's bet the pot and see if we get any customers. Oooo, they both come along. Nice.

River: ($5.15) (3 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $4.34, BB calls $4.34, UTG calls $4.34
Love that black ace. No flush draw to worry about, no bigger straight to counterfeit me. Just the pure, unadulterated nuts. Better yet, they BOTH call my 3/4 pot sized value bet. That's like super-extra-value.

Hero showed , and won ($16.96) with a straight, Jack high
BB mucked
UTG mucked
Hero won $16.96
(Rake: $1.21)

They both hit the two pair payoff card on the river. At least one guy had a flush draw to go with it.

See, other people make bad calls, too...

I like my play on this hand. Of course, knowing what I know now, it makes it pretty easy to see that shoving the river would have gotten even more money. But I had no idea I had two guys with hands they couldn't let go. I was figuring one was on a pure flush draw and wasn't calling a bet anyway, and the other guy hopefully was slowplaying a set or had like an 89 two pair.

Gotta get that extra river value when you can. Add another item to the list to work on.