Single Table Tourny fun

I was killing time before dinner in a Sit-n-Go when my opponent basically threw the tourny. We were heads-up, the blinds were 400/800, I had $8,000 in chips to his $7,000.

He raised to 1600 pre-flop, a very small raise. I had JTo. I felt that he had an ace or king, and was trying to steal the blinds. I called, thinking I could out-play him if rags flopped, or get lucky and out-flop him.

The flop came A, K, rag. I checked, and he bet 1600.

Since I put him on an Ace or King, I figured I needed to hit a queen to win the pot. But, I also figured that if I did hit, I'd take him out. After he bet, there was 4,800 in the pot, and it cost me 1600 to call, pot odds of 3 to 1. I wasn't getting near the 11 to 1 odds needed to go for the gut-shot, except I was sure that I could put him all-in and drawing dead if the miracle card hit. I called.

My implied odds weren't great, but the chance to win it all right there made it attactive (the amount in the pot plus the amount in his stack totalled 8600, so my implied odds were 8600 to 1600, or about 5 to 1).

The turn was the Queen. I checked, he went all-in, and I called, winning the tournament. He had Ace, 6 for top pair, weak kicker.

After the flop, the pot was big enough to merit just taking it down. By making a small, weak bet, my opponent made it easy for me to call. If he had bet the pot (or more), I would have folded, and we might still be heads-up.