Every once in a while, when playing online poker, a hand comes around that just works for you. This is the very first in a series of articles that tell the story of these hands. I will try my best to get away from the normal hand history type description. I will also try and explain what I did right and wrong and what my thought process was throughout the hand.

The first online poker hand that I will describe is Tc/9h. I was playing in a 27 seat sit 'n go on PokerStars. This was a micro stakes buy-in because I am in the beginning of a bankroll challenge and also the $1.00+$0.20 buy-in was all that was allowed through the rules of the challenge. It was the end of the tournament and I was heads up against "fonceur_AK". Our chip stacks were pretty close. I had just over 17K and he was just above 22K.

Pre-Flop- I was in the big blind for 800 as well as the other guy raised us up to 2400. I wasn't too surprised by his raise because we were heads up so things get more aggressive. If there had been more players I probably would have folded but in this situation I called.

The Flop- In the event the flop was [8d 5d 7c] I started to get excited a bit. With a pretty good amount of money within the pot I wanted to play this one as correctly as is possible. Slow play was the name of the game so I checked. Fonceur_AK bet 2400 and I called fairly quickly I probably could have paused just a little bit longer but in the long run it did not make much difference.

The Turn- BINGO!!! My Jack hit on the turn and also the game was on. I checked again and this time he bet 5600. I suppose he could have had a straight but it will happen to be lower. Three of a kind wouldn't help him and there wasn't any real chance of a full house. Yet, he did have something. So I waited 20 or 30 seconds and learn gambling just called.

The River- The 3c that hit on the river didn't do anything for him. I figured that another bet was coming and was pleased to see him all-in after I checked. Obviously I called and ended up with a huge 5:1 chip lead. Several hands later I was the winner.

I usually do not play unsuited connectors and in all likelihood might not happen to be inside this hand anywhere other than heads-up or in the blinds. It's forcing me to rethink my starting hands elsewhere. Of course adding this to those starting hands will depend on the person situation.

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