Fold or not to fold...

One of the things I'm picking up the more I play is that as important as the correct calls you make are, making the correct laydowns are just as important. Up until this past Saturday in Atlantic City, I had been on a good run at making the right reads and laying down when I'm supposed to, but a couple of hands changed all that.

Played in a $100+$20 buy-in at the Tropicana, the same as the prior weekend. This time however, it was Presidents weekend so Atlantic City was mobbed. 107 entrants this time around.

Started off similar as the last tournament. Not getting many hands, but luckily this time I wasn't bleeding off chips early. Didn't win a pot until the end of round 2. Like I said, didn't get great cards. Did flop trips and ended up with a boat one hand, but played it WAY too conservatively and probably should gotten more chips from the guy, but it was still early. Players were typical of most tournaments. Some good players, and some who weren't very good at all.

My tournament's roller coaster ride started when I was moved to table 2. I was getting pretty short stacked and the blinds and antes were starting to take its toll. I ended up moving all-in after looking at one card and seeing an ace. Had 2 callers. I finally looked at the second card and saw A4 offsuit. Not good with 2 callers. Board came out with all low cards and the other 2 players checked it around. Luckily I caught a miracle river 5 which gave me a straight, tripling me up against AK and pocket 10s.

I went on a mini run. Had pocket 9s and raised preflop with a caller. Flopped the set and bet about 2/3rds of the pot. To my surprise the other player comes over the top of me all-in and I instacall. He was bluffing with ace high and I added insult to injury making quads on the river.

With the blinds and antes continually adding up, made another good play on the button with 3 limpers coming over the top all-in with big slick suited. They all folded giving me a decent pot with antes. Then came the run of bad laydowns which could have put me near the chip lead with 40+ people left.

Can't remember the exact particulars, but I know I had A7 offsuit with 4 players in the pot. Flop comes with an ace, but with 3 other players in the hand, I hated my kicker. When the guy to my right went all-in, I went into the tank. I had him covered by a lot, but just after building up my stack again and with 2 players behind me, I laid it down. I felt better when both players called, but was irate when they checked it the rest of the way to the river only to show me that neither of them had aces and the guy to my right went all-in with A2, a pot I should have won and a player I should have knocked out. Can't remember what my pot odds were at the time and maybe I should have paid more attention.

The second bad laydown is the one that's still eating at me because my read was right, but I ignored the pot odds and I would have taken down a monster pot and eliminated 2 players in the process. I'm in the big blind with A10 offsuit. One limper and the small blind (same guy who I should have eliminated earlier) raises to 5000 (blinds are 600-1200). I just call as does the limper. Flop comes 9-10-K rainbow giving me middle pair. Small blind goes all-in for another 6000+. I figured one of them had a king but with middle pair, 6000 wasn't going to break me so I just called. Last to act goes over the top all-in for another almost 10K. Now I knew he was the one with at least a king. Although my odds were good because I figured I had 6 outs and could knock out 2 players for a monstrous pot, I laid it down. Guy to my right turns over a 10 with a weaker kicker than me, while the guy to my left shows K9 for 2 pair. Right read, although I really only had 5 outs. Sure enough, the turn brings another 10 which would have given me trip 10s with the higher kicker. I was irate once again. In hindsight I should have at least called the over the top all in because of the odds. I maybe should have gone all-in even before he did to isolate the shorter stack. Granted I would have been behind because he would have called with 2 pair, but you need a little bit of luck in this game.

From there my stack got chopped by 2 hands when I raised preflop with decent starting hands only for people to come over the top all-in. The tough one when I was in middle to late position with pocket 10s. I raised and the small blind went over the top all-in for a decent amount. I didn't want to race and I figured he had at least a higher pair of he didn't have AK or AQ so I folded. He told me later he had queens.

Another hand that hurt was when I had A8 and last to act with 2 short stacked players before me going all in. One guy had nothing and the other an ace with a weaker kicker so I had them both dominated. Could have knocked out both players but the guy with the weaker ace caught a straight on the river to stay alive and almost triple up. Sounds familiar.

Got nothing for a while. Blinds were 2000-4000 with 500 ante and I was under the gun with 12K in chips, so I pushed with A7. One caller with A10 and no help on the board so I was done in 26th place and out of the money.

Fared much better than last time, but this time it was the calls I didn't make which did me in.