in the midst of a bad run

Unfortunatley I am riding the variance wave and i am at the bottom of it. Ive looked at all of the hands that i played and I am not playing bad its just bad luck basically. There werent any hands that i could say i made a bad play, but this hand made me think. Now the only way i could have played it better would have been to fold on the flop knowing that i was ahead. But id like to hear what you guys have to say.

SOOOOOO this is a step tourny to the main event. i made it all the way to step 5 but fell back down to step 2 after losing bad beat after bad beat not even worth posting b/c youve seen and heard about all the 2 and 3 outers before.




PokerStars Game #17427084589: Tournament #88340896, $25+$2 Hold'em No
Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2008/05/14 - 14:54:01 (ET)
Table '88340896 1' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: Jro34 (2140 in chips)
Seat 2: 1955tbird (2010 in chips)
Seat 3: SminnowS (1510 in chips)
Seat 5: uWantMeToWin (1805 in chips)
Seat 8: stephlegeant (5020 in chips)
Seat 9: Want7AK (1015 in chips)
Want7AK: posts small blind 100
Jro34: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Jro34 [8c 4s]
1955tbird: calls 200
SminnowS: folds
uWantMeToWin: folds
stephlegeant: folds
Want7AK: calls 100
Jro34: checks
*** FLOP *** [Qd 4d 8d]
Want7AK: checks
Jro34: checks
1955tbird: bets 600
Want7AK: folds
Jro34: calls 600
*** TURN *** [Qd 4d 8d] [5c]
Jro34: checks
1955tbird: bets 1210 and is all-in
Jro34: calls 1210
*** RIVER *** [Qd 4d 8d 5c] [5h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Jro34: shows [8c 4s] (two pair, Eights and Fives)
1955tbird: shows [Jh Qc] (two pair, Queens and Fives)
1955tbird collected 4220 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4220 | Rake 0
Board [Qd 4d 8d 5c 5h]
Seat 1: Jro34 (big blind) showed [8c 4s] and lost with two pair, Eights
and Fives
Seat 2: 1955tbird showed [Jh Qc] and won (4220) with two pair, Queens
and Fives
Seat 3: SminnowS folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: uWantMeToWin folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: stephlegeant (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Want7AK (small blind) folded on the Flop

__________________
IM KIND OF LIKE ROBIN HOOD, EXCEPT I TAKE FROM THE DONKS AND GIVE TO MY BANK ACCOUNT.

Here's my thought process. At first glance I say bet the flop, but obviously hes going to call down and my hand is vulverable to exactly what happens. SO i check. When he bets the 600 on the flop i know hes behind so i check knowing he will push and is crushed.

So basically there is no way i can get him off the hand is to push on the flop but even then he might call and regardless i cannot make that play without fully knowing whether he has a diamond or the flush already.

With that said the optimum way i should have played that hand would have been to fold the flop.

__________________
IM KIND OF LIKE ROBIN HOOD, EXCEPT I TAKE FROM THE DONKS AND GIVE TO MY BANK ACCOUNT.

This is why I hate playing in the blinds in an unraised pot. Flopping two pair is the kiss of death. If he would have raised pre-flop, you would have tossed right? A garbage hand is a garbage hand, and you are out of position. There are so many ways your hand can get crushed, especially with 3 people seeing a all diamond flop. Checking the flop gave you a chance to fold, and you wouldn't have been out anymore than if he had raised pre-flop.

Thats looking at it now, however, I'm not so sure I wouldn't have check-raised him all in.

if i check raise right there on the flop, he will call b/c he just put 1/3 of his stack in. So basically its not going to change anything that happened in the hand.

__________________
IM KIND OF LIKE ROBIN HOOD, EXCEPT I TAKE FROM THE DONKS AND GIVE TO MY BANK ACCOUNT.

Yeah, check-raising all-in on the flop is probably what I would have done. But now that we are analyzing the hand after the fact, tossing your bad two pair to his pot bet is probably the smart thing, knowing you were most definately going to the river with it.

However, if an A or K hit on the turn, he might have laid it down to a big bet. So, calling his pot bet did give you a chance.

My question would be if you check raised him on the flop wouldn't he be fearing you had the flush and possibly fold?

__________________
Real poker players don't cry....

The FLOP determines how good your hole cards are!!

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