Adventures at the EPO Part III

Pocket. Bloody. Jacks.

Pocket damn-them-jacks which busted me out of the $5,000 six handed in the WSOP. Pocket do-my-head-in-jacks which ran into trip 6's at the Irish Open and donked me out just before pay-day.

Pocket go-swivel-jacks which wrenched me away from PKR Live 2.

Pocket bleedin'-jacks, if you haven't already realised, are one of my least favourite hands in poker.

But yes, that's my hand and U-T-G has just raised to 350. There are 3 callers before me. I am in the small blind. I know the book says 'raise' in this spot but I just feel like folding so I screw up and do neither option and instead make a flat call.

The flop is 9 4 5 rainbow. I hate that flop so I check. BB bets half the pot. UTG calls. Fold, fold, fold. I call. Turn is a 6. I want to know where I am so I bet out 3/4 of the pot. BB folds. Yep, he had the 9, thought so. Now for the one that really counts: UTG.

He thinks for a while and then, sure enough, he raises me another 4,500. I have already put about 3k in the middle but he's now asking for a futher half of my chip stack. Oh bollocks! It's all-in or nothing. There is way too much beating me here. It feels like QQ but he may well have a set. But maybe he just has pocket tens. But this guy is new to the table so I can't put him on any kind of play. I feel so weary of Jacks and I can't bear to invest any more in a hand where I have no idea where I am at.

Dammit. Damn those Jacks.

I fold.

For the first time today I am down to less than my starting stack and it's all because of those rancid jacks.

Still, better than running into aces. Speaking of which...

Read the rest of Ashley's blogs from EPO: Part 1, Part II, Part III, Part IV