A pair of Aces sometimes are just not enough!

I have been playing a combination of micro-limit cash games and multi-table tourneys with mixed but positive results the last few days. On occasion I would get a pair of aces and one of two things would happen. Either I would win a small pot or I would lose a large pot.

In general, I try to see the flop before committing all of my chips but late in a tourney I will try to isolate my opponent from the group by going all in or making a large raise hoping to get my opponents to fold.

Last night was no exception. On the 76th hand of the session, I was in the big blind and was dealt As Ac. I had two people limp in for 80 chips and I raised them up to 360 more hoping to drive one or both of them out. Instead they both called the raise by putting in the additional 280 chips into the pot. The flop was a scary one, Qd 9h Jc, which could easily make a straight but not necessarily a flush. I made a pot size bet of 1,120 hoping to win the pot right then but one opponent folded and the other re-raised me to 2,240 which would leave me with 850 chips if I folded and all in if I called.

I thought it over for a few seconds. I tried to decide what he might have. AA? AK? AQ? AJ? I was worried that he might have a  King Ten for the straight. I took a deep breath and called with my remaining 850.  My opponent showed a Kc Jd. I was somewhat relieved to see that he had only a pair of jacks with a king kicker. But then the wind went out of my sail when the flop card was a jack of hearts, giving him three jacks to my two aces. The only card that would help me now was an Ace on the river (makes a nice book title doesn’t it). The river card however was a five of clubs, giving him trip jacks against my two pair; aces and jacks. It was the end of the tourney for me.

I felt that I had played the hand as well as I could and had gotten my money in with the best hand. I was disappointed with the results. Many phrases ran through my head but  “Oh dear darn it” was not one of them however.

Have you ever played a hand the way you thought was best and still did not achieve the results you wanted? Did you think over the various ways you could have played the hand differently? How long did it take you to get over the feeling that being beaten left you with?

Note: This was the second tourney in a row that my pocket pair of aces had been beaten by  trip jacks at the turn. Oh dear darn it!!!!