Big Slick

I played a live tournament last night and was dealt Big Slick 3 times. Now generally you like getting dealt these cards but I always struggle on playing and calling someones all in with these cards. I will regress a bit as last night was another one of those nights where I was getting dealt premium cards and hitting flops. I got dealt KK which took down a huge pot QQ JJ and AQ all which won for me. The JJ actually completed a straight when I had a scary flop and play continued to the river. The AQ actually hit trip queens on the flop but my one caller from my original raise just flopped air and even though I checked it to the river in hope she caught something it wasn't a huge pot. Then I got AK and the flop cam AK7. My one caller hit his king I think but when the turn brought a J. I bet and he folded. Didn't want to see him hit his straight if he had K10.

The second time I got dealt AK was when we were down to 2 tables. I was the second largest stack at our table and before the action got to me we had 2 short stacks all in. To call for me made sense so I did but still 2 players to act and the chip leader then went all in himself. Action back on me. Now I was in a bind. To call his all in was going to cost me all my chips. I like my hand but analyzing what others pushed with scared me. I figured the first guy had either an A or K (turned out KQ suited). The second guy usually plays premium cards and although shorter stacked he wouldn't have pushed unless he had a good pocket pair (turned out he had pocket 10's). The guy who worried me was the chip leader. Very loose player who could have anything (turned out AJ). Anyways after some deep thought (well deep for me anyways) I folded. Of course an A came on the flop and then a flush on the river which would have won me a huge pot. The chip leader won with his AJ as his J was clubs. That was okay as I was still sitting with a decent stack but it played on my mind. A couple players thought I made the right decision to fold even though it turned out I would have won. What was playing on my mind was last week calling an all in with AK and coming up against pocket Aces and that crippled me.

We got down to the final table and I managed to win a few pots and when we were down to 3 I was second in chips but just a bit behind the chip leader. The other player was really short stacked. Anyways action was on him and he pushed (he would have been blinded out after the next hand). Action to me and I look down to AK. I just called (cost me very little). Then the chip leader made a huge re raise which to me put him on a pocket pair. I could have folded but I decided to push with Big Slick and he insta called. He had pocket 9's and the original guy had 3,6. Anyways 3,6 hit a full house and I completely whiffed and was out in 3rd. A pretty decent result but still disappointing. I replayed that hand in my head while in bed last night and still question my call. I hate putting my tournament on the line when going into a race I know that I am an underdog even though just a small one with AK against 9's.

Heading out to play another tournament tonight even though its game 4 of the Canuck Blue hockey playoffs.