Check Raisers Want You to Call Them

Yet another lesson from another tournament. I placed 70th out 87 players in the World Poker Tour Satellite tournament today. I still feel good about my performance because all the other players at my table rebought or added on for an extra $100 and I played my original $100 further than 16 of them. I even was in a good position after two successful all-ins, when I loose called a check raise. I had Ace Queen suited and limped in as I was playing tournament tight. The flop came Ace, 7, 4 rainbow. I was checked to and raised 400 into a 1200 pot. The first player folded and the second came back at me with a 900 check raise. I called it. The turn card was a 9. He was first to act and came all-in. I pegged him for the pair of aces with a weaker kicker so I called. I should have known he had atleast two pair. He ended up holding Aces and 7's and was slow playing it against my weak raise.

In retrospect (where correct choices always seem so obvious), his cards were pretty obvious. He was playing pretty tight. He called a 200 raise from a big blind of 200, which means he had to have atleast a face card or some midsize suited connectors. His check raise of 900 was a pretty clear slow play. In the future I will tighten up my calling requirements for check raises.

After the tournament this morning, I walked Ishy for Keith. Took Lexi out to lunch at Clarkes. Got a haircut. And to cap it all off, I finished most of my grading. I made back about $35 of my registration fee for today's game playing on-line tonight. All in all a good day.