Two Costly Mistakes I Made During Day 1B At Graton

While I’m happy to have made Day 2 today of Graton’s WSOP Circuit $250,000 Guarantee with 99,000 chips, I made a couple of costly mistakes on Friday that cost me a significant amount of chips.

On the first hand, I called a late position raise to 1100 at 200/400/400 from the big blind with A4hh. The flop came down X52hxx. In other words, I flopped a gut shot straight draw with a back door nut flush draw as well as having an Ace. I checked, my opponent bet 2,000 into a 2,800 pot and I called. The turn was an Ace. I checked, my opponent bet 6,000 into 6,800 and I called. The river was a 3. Bingo! I’d made my wheel straight. Now the the question was how much to bet. The post was 18,800 and I had my opponents stack of ~27,000 covered. I put him on an Ace. I went All In and he tank folded. In retrospect, that was too big of a bet. I’m pretty sure he would have called had I bet something like 13,500 or 15,000.

On the second hand, I raised to 5000 with 99 from early position at 1500/2500/2500 and three players called including the big blind. The flop was 754ddh. I bet 9,000 into 24,000. The first opponent called and the button raised to 25,000. The big blind folded. I called and the other opponent called as well. The pot was now 99,000. The turn was the Ad and it got checked around. The river was the Ah and it got checked to the button who bet 35,000.

I didn’t put him on a flush because I didn’t think he’d raise the flop 4-way with a draw or check the turn when he hit. And I didn’t put him on 86 suited for a straight or a set because I figured he’d bet the turn as well with those hands to protect them against a fourth diamond coming out on the river. In other words, I was stumped. But I also didn’t think he was bluffing 1/3 pot against two opponents who called a raise on the flop. In addition, I have played with this player before and he was a solid player, not a bluffer. On the one hand, I couldn’t put him on a hand because I didn’t think he’d raise the flop with a flush draw or check a flush, straight or set on the turn. On the other hand, he wasn’t the type of player to bluff in that spot and his bet sizing was that of a value bet. I ended up making a bad call and he turned over 44 for a full house.