Runners!

I played in a four-handed $0.25/0.50 game last night and suffered several devastating beats, but the last one was the toughest (though I had already lost to a runner-flush earlier in the night). Eric opened on the button for $1.50, and Dale called in the small blind. I looked down at QJ of diamonds and made the call. When the flop came, Dale checked. I knew Eric was going to bet if he had any piece (he had a lot of chips and was playing aggressively. Plus, he was the preflop raiser), and odds were he didn't have a bigger piece than me, since it came J95, giving me top pair. I decided to try for a check-raise. When Eric bet $4.50, I came over the top of him for $15 total. He asked me how much I had left ($17.75), and then moved all-in. Still believing I had the best hand (but pot-committed now anyway), I made the call. This is how it came down:



Although this was only one of the losses I sustained tonight, I still feel okay about it, for two reasons. One, I am still up pretty big from Friday night's cash game, in which I was the biggest overall winner this week. Two (most importantly), I got cold-decked in a lot of spots, and I think that most of my opponents would have lost more than I did if they had been playing the cards I held tonight. In this particular pot, I was not a huge favorite on the flop, but I did bet in a way that should have forced the pair of nines to fold on the flop. Plus, when all the money went in, I had the best hand and was a three to one favorite to win the hand (65% preflop, 75% on the flop, 68% on the turn).