Artichoke Joe's 3-22-05

Another late post. So this tournament was the first freeroll I got to enjoy. On our way to the tournament, my friend and I were discussing the merits of low pocket pairs and had come to the (more or less conventional) conlusion that with JJ's or lower, a limp is the best strategy with a large field and with no set on the flop, get ready to jump ship. First hand, 44 UTG, I limp and thankfully get no raises. On the flop I get my set and of course check it through since there was an Ace and someone in LP bets, I just call to induce some overcalls and get one more. On the turn I lead out, LP bettor raises, I reraise, and he reraises back. I simply call, perhaps could have reraised him back but thoughts of a bad beat and also wanting to conceal my hand a bit made me go with the call. On the river, the board pairs, I lead and get a crying call, I show my 4's Full, he shows down AQ. I was up huge and couple hands later in the BB I flop two pair and manage to get more bets. I lose a bit later with pocket Ten's against pocket Queens but I manage to survive and in the end squeak out a 2nd place win for another freeroll and points for the Freeroll Tournament later this year.