This is my take on matchroom which I wrote out Monday morning...

I played well.... but I had great difficulty deciding how much to bet which i'm hoping will get better with practise and i still played like a rock. Other than the hand which ended my game (bollocks), I only lost one or two hands i played into and I folded before I got in too deep. Anyone who was playing on the table with me from the beginning should have known that when i was betting it was quite likely i had something better than everyone else. I know i cant win like this. I reckon one guy had me sussed but it didn’t seem to affect my game much, I didn’t notice an abnormal amount of people folding when I was betting in. I only got a good read on one player, which was dissappointing cos he was considerably crap.

Anyway the end of my game was a river rat display. I had A 8 unsuited. flop came 3 7 8 no straight draw, no flush draw, no high pair bullshit, I hit top pair with ace kicker. I was in a damn good position to take it down. I knew what i was dealing with. He bet pre-flop, but a fair bit less than his standard 10000, therefore no chance of trips and he would have folded a couple of low cards, no chance of 2 pair . He was holding a couple of over-cards or a low pair with a good kicker, he would have bet the 8. He was always representing but in this case there was nothing to represent. He checked to suss out if his cards were good enough, he knew i'd be holding similar to what i thought he was holding. I knew my top pair was good. I bet 10,000 almostb double his pre-flop bet and kept another 5 in my stack. He thought about it for a while and said i'll put you all in. With that, i was sure one of his over cards was an ace and he figured i was holding a foldable hand, like low pair or high card. Surely he didn't think he could scare away top pair? I already invested 10, i gladly put the other 5 in, with an ace in my hand his ace became redundant. He turns over J-Q. wtf is he doing in this hand? Puts me all in with an extra 5000, anyone playing on that table all night with me would have known they should fold J-Q. I never once bet on absolutely nothing especially against someone with a bigger stack, with 2 more rounds of betting besides 5000 after investing 10 was not enough to scare almost anything away. 10,000 was large enough to scare J-Q away. Of course he catches a Q on the river. And the dude next to him says "brilliant play" and then tells me i should have gone all in cos he would have folded. Apparently my non all in bet was a sign of a weeker hand. It wasn’t a weaker hand but isn’t that what I want him to think in this situation? Not that him having J-Q even crossed my mind but question is when you’re one on one in that situation, do you lure him into play for a decent size of money, play the odds and hope the J-Q don’t hit or do you muscle him out cos you don’t want him catching something better than you? Surely you gamble when the odds are in your favour. Admittedly I wanted him to fold, even though I knew I was in a better position, I was scared so I guess should have put him all in…but i probably did play it right, if his queen didn't hit as it shouldn't 78% of the time i'm not sure if his neighbour would have labelled it brilliant play.