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As you may have been able to work out, this page is all about poker hands; hands we have played, hands we have witnessed and even memorable hands we have seen on TV!
Let us take you through the emotional roller-coaster that is an all in pre-flop shove with a pair of fours, gasp in awe to a fold on the flop with an overpair, laugh in derision to a miss timed river bluff against the nuts!
If that last sentence meant nothing to you, don’t worry, all will be explained in greater detail, we would actively encourage everyone, anyone to get involved in this page and tell us your thoughts, as we will be openly discussing hands, our thought processes behind what we are doing and what we think the other guy is up to.
ourpokerjourney 
Here’s a hand from a few months ago that I remember quite well as it was my last tourney before I left South Africa and this was the hand that busted me…
R350 (about £30) Freezeout 60 players – 12 players remaining
blinds are 1k/2k, and I’m shortstacked with 17k
I’m under-the-gun and look down at pocket jacks
“Im all-in”
Action folds round to the hi-jack who has the 2nd biggest stack at the table with about 40k – he pushes all-in over the top
Big blind, who is chipleader at the table with about 50k, looks at his hole cards and is in agony that he has woken up with this hand
He folds Ace King face up
The guy in the hi-jack turns over Ace Queen off-suit
So it’s JJ vs AQ for my tourney life
He flops a queen and turns trips,
So I lost a coin flip and busted in 12th place
What I find interesting about this hand is how the action played out because of my shove, and how differently it would’ve played out if I never open-shoved.
Now I know if I’m shortstacked with around 10 big blinds or less, I should be shoving, trying to pick up the blinds adding 3k to my stack. But in this instance, I think I would’ve ended up doubling up instead of busting out if I had just limped in UTG. Think about it… if I limp, the hijack would raise, the big blind would re-raise or push, and then I would push and the original raiser (hi jack) would probably fold AQ and my jacks would hold up against the AK of the big blind?
That’s all well and good if you can see the opponents cards and know what’s coming out to the river!
And I see your point you are making about hand dynamics.
BUT in reality in that hand, there is no difference whether you are pushing or calling all in. Your odds are exactly the same against the AK or the AQ when all the money goes in. The way the cards play out is just how lucky you are, or are not as the case may be.
Actually by pushing all in you have given yourself a greater chance of winning the hand as you have given the other players more reason to fold preflop.