Paying Off

Was playing in a short-handed 40/80 on Saturday night. Yeah I know I told myself I wasn't going to do this very much this year, but the 20/40 had already broken and I didn't feel like playing 8/16. Plus there was a major fish in the game who was making it good.

This is a two hand thought process, as the first hand sets up the second hand somewhat.

3-handed, I have A9o in the big blind. Button open raises, SB folds, I call. Flop comes A 4 2. check-bet-raise-call. I was hoping to take in down on the flop. I'm not super in love with my kicker, but I have a gutball wheel draw, plus the button may have a pocket pair, not convinced that I necessarily have the ace. Top-pair is almost always going to showdown in a short-handed game. I decide to check-call him down unless I improve. Turn and river are bricks, he shows A5 offsuit, I show my hand and take it down.

About twenty minutes later this hand comes up against the same player. I'm in the big-blind with A8 suited. Button open-raises, SB folds, I call. Flop comes AT4, one of my suit. check-bet-raise-call. Similar sequence as last time, and again I'm not super in love with kicker, but 3-handed top-pair is a good hand. Turn is an 8. I decide not to get tricky and lead out. I get raised by the button. Consistent with AK/AQ/AJ/AT. I 3-bet, button 4 bets. Now I absolutely hate my hand. Button has to have either pocket 4's for a set or pocket 10's for a set. Likely pocket 10's as he's not showing any fear, clearly and rightly so not putting me on pocket aces, since I didn't 3-bet preflop. My 3-bet on the turn announces my hand as at least two pair, likely aces-up. The only hand that I am possibly beating when he 4 bets is a A4, which I don't think he would 4 bet the turn with. Now here's the dilemma, I put him on pocket tens for a set, but given that it was short handed, and I still had some outs, plus I could be wrong and maybe he's grossly overplaying AK, I need to call him down. I call the turn, and check-call the river, and yep he shows me pocket tens for the flopped set. Not sure if I could/should have done anything differently. I knew I was beat, but had to make the crying call.