12 PM Feb 26 2012, The Venetian, 32nd (68 entries)

My game really wasn't up to par today. Played way too passively after the flop, most notably on one particular hand where I needed to go all-in, either preflop, which wouldn't have been a bad mistake, or on the flop, as a continuation to my preflop raise. With my stack dangerously low, I was holding

in early-middle position at a seven-handed table. Two players folded in front of me, so I put in a 3.75x raise to 2250 (the antes/blinds were 50-300-600 at the time and my stack was down to roughly 7000 chips, or about 12 big blinds). It got folded to the big blind, who deliberated and wanted to get a count of my chips. He was the chip leader at the table, with a very large stack in front of him. He didn't appear to have a super-strong hand, going through all those motions. Maybe I was still a little paranoid though after losing to that highly unexpected, preflop-raised Q2 yesterday, for I suspected him of having a really strong hand possibly.

The flop came

The big blind checked. It's at this point that all the rest of my chips need to be pushed into the middle, as a continuation to my preflop raise. For all the big blind knows, I have something like KK in my hand. But alas, worried that he might have gotten a piece of the flop and was just slowplaying it (a bad, rookie mistake to make heads up in this situation), I checked as well.

The turn came

The big blind checked again, and for pretty much the same reason I checked the flop, I checked the turn as well. Then the river came

The big blind started reaching for his chips, and he put out a relatively tiny bet of only 1200. Since the bet was so small compared to the pot, I felt compelled to call, even though I figured he must have me beat. After deliberating for a little bit, I finally just called the 1200.

The big blind turned over

and took down the pot with a pair of deuces, a hand that he never would have made had I only gone all-in on the flop. With that flop, I doubt there's any way he'd put several thousand more chips into the pot holding nothing more than A2 in his hand, even though it would have been a drop in the bucket for him. He would have folded for sure.

With my stack now very low again at a little over 4000 chips, I caught

when the big blind got around to me. The player second to act limped, then everyone else folded to me. With my stack so low and KQ being a fairly good hand, I felt it was time to go all-in, so I did. To my dismay, the early position limper insta-called and turned over

I was only a 25% favorite to win the hand. The flop came

Then the turn came

giving me an open-ended straight draw, with seven outs instead of only three, but no nine or ace fell on the river so I was out in 32nd place.

I have to step up my aggression and not play so passively in the future. I definitely didn't play well today.