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I'm starting to like neighborhood 25-30 person tournament games. I'm beginning to realize that I'm a better than average player in my neighborhood becuase out of the four times I played, I won twice and made it to the final table twice (I'm not saying I'm good, I'm just saying the people in my neigborhood are more average than me.)

I was invited to a twent-three person, $50 buy-in no-limit this past weekend. I made it to the final table being the third place chip count, but I finished sixth -- one place away from finishing money -- on a bad bad BAD play; GOD it still haunts me.

I was the dealer, and was dealt wired 99's with six players total at the table. Three players limped in, I raised two-times the big blind (bad play #1, I should've just called it, and hope I hit my set), two players fold, and the chip-leader, a loose-aggressive player from what I determined, re-raised me the big blind. I thought he had high cards -- 65% he'd catch any of those to the river -- or a small pair so I went all-in, which was about three-quarters of his stack, to kill the pot-odds and steal the pot (bad play #2 -- NEVER EVER go all-in with wired nines heads up against a loose-aggressive player after he re-raised your bet when you're in position!). Of course, he called with pocket ladies, and I knew I was done.

I wanted this game to be a warm-up for the upcoming $100 tournament this weeekend, and it sure was. Lesson learned for this rookie. What do you think?

-James

Answer: I'm not sure if you did anything wrong. I might have initially raised more preflop as to shut other people out but your play after that was fine. And if you had raised more preflop to begin with you would have still lost the same way so that wouldn't have changed anything. You mentioned that the person was a loose aggressive player.

There are two ways to look at this situation with that in mind; one, since he is a loose aggressive player chances are he doesn't have much of a hand and you are the favorite; two, since he is guaranteed to call then maybe nines aren't the best spot to go all-in with. I think both options are equally likely if your read on his play is correct. When the guy came over the top of you preflop the decision was then to either fold or go all-in. Just calling would be the worst.

Sometimes you are just going to lose with the cards dealt to you; realizing this is important because it allows you to play correct even after getting your butt kicked.

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