Odds Pay Off

Played a $20 NL Hold Em Tournament with some friends this weekend in San Jose. We usually only get together to play about once every month or so but it's always a good time, as everyone knows each other and we always do a pot-luck before hand. One time I brought some KFC and ending up eating most of it as I busted out early and fried chicken seemed to hit the spot. Since then I'm expected to bring KFC every time and I happily oblige. This weekend, a particular hand came up where I was able to make a nice gamble that paid off. I tend to limp in with any pocket pairs JJ or lower (thought this can change at any given moment) although I know lots of people prefer to raise with mid/high pocket pairs. I have my own reasons which I might go into in another post but on this particular hand I was looking at TT. I hit the perfect rainbow flop T92. It gets checked to me and I bet a little less than the pot and get three callers. The turn is a Q, a concern now with a straight draw on the board so after it's checked to me I put in a bet of about half the pot, the reason being that with one card to come, a straight draw is not getting proper pot odds and if someone comes over the top, representing the made straight I could perhaps get away from the hand with minor losses. Well, the next person to act raises all-in and it's quickly folded back to me to decide. I quickly realize that I am up against the J8 for the made straight but here is where the books pay off. Basically, I have 10 cards to improve to a full house so with one card to come I am a 3.4-to-1 dog to fill up. I calculated my pot odds to be a little over 4:1. Also, if I lost this hand I would still have some chips to play with, not much but something to fight with, and lastly there was the slim chance that perhaps I still held the best hand. So with the pot laying me a good price, I knew I needed to take a risk in order to get in the money and I made the call. I get shown J8 and the river drops a Q and I win with Tens over Queens. I definitely think without knowledge of the hand/pot odds I would have had to lay this down. But knowing that I was getting the right price on my money, and considering the other factors I felt it was the right call to make and luckily for me I got the card I needed. I was chip leader after that hand and it allowed me to get in the money where I eventually took third place. Perhaps I needed to be more aggressive as it got short-handed but that's just another aspect of my game to work on for next time.