Reading the Board

I was playing in a live tournament last night and I ran into something that pops up occasionally is people not reading the board correctly. I can't remember the cards exactly as this happened the second hand of the night but there was just the two of us in the pot and I had 2 pair of the highest cards on the board. He made a rather large bet on the river and I studied the board and not seeing any flush or straight possibilities I kind of figured my 2 pair were good unless he had a pocket pair and I just couldn't put him on that. I called his bet and he flipped his cards over and said he had a straight. I was stunned until I looked at his cards and realized his straight was only 4 cards. HMMM. I and a couple other players pointed this out to him and unless he was a great actor was stunned. He thought he had a straight. He was generally embarrassed and now without a lot of his chips. I mean if he was bluffing that's one thing but he really did read the board wrong. I have seen it several times were people thought they had flushes but 4 card flushes wins you a spot on the sidelines in a tournament.

Players need to take that extra few seconds when they are looking at their cards. You see it all the time when three same suit cards hit the flop . A lot of players are checking their cards. Its a great way to see who is chasing flushes after the betting. The good start did me well and I managed to stay above average for awhile until there was 10 of us left and my pocket 9s held up to K10. I ended up at the final table but was the short stack. I managed to survive and went out in 5th spot. A pretty good result considering the cards I had all night. Not great but not bad. I went out when I went in with K10 as the blinds were killing me and somebody hit trip queens. I should have pushed a hand earlier as I was dealt K8. Not a hand that I love but the flop came KK9. That would have been nice.

I have started playing a little Omaha online just for a change. I was always a 7 card stud player for years before the Holdem craze and its always great to play other games. I find there is definitely a lot more thinking involved and playing it can only help your holdem game.

I watched that Jim Carrey movie Yes man or something on Sunday night. I laughed twice I think. I mean I like Jim Carrey but the writing was horrible. Glad I didn't pay to see it in a theatre.

I just heard another soldier was killed last night in Afghanistan. I believe that's 117 now. I know compared to what the US has lost its not a lot but its 117 too many for my liking. This soldier was female and the second female to be killed. She had only been over there 2 weeks and she was 22 years old. Why are we there???