ghosts and j/10 off suit

Ruben has a ghost in his house. He has a kid. Ruben, not the ghost. I thought he was my age, but he's 23. He's cleaning up his kid's toys, plastic dinos and trucks and offering food. I decline. I'm trying to get "in the zone". I'm going to pay $15 to get my ass handed to me in a cash game. There are 5 really good players at this table, and then me.

I played well. Here's the best hand I played:

Blinds at 25/50. I have maybe 13 dollars left.

I am under the gun. I am holding J-10 off-suit. I raise a dollar. Fold all around to the big blind. This guy is super tight. He's folded probably the last 10-11 hands. His stack is pretty much just minus a few blinds, 14 dollars. He calls the extra dollar. The call leads me to feel like he maybe has a pocket pair, but he's too good to play those slowly. The pocket pair option eliminated, I'm thinking two overcards. K-Q or something with an A, maybe A-J, which would suck.

The flop comes out 7-5-J. Rainbow. I have paired my J. My hand is not likely to improve. I bet 3 dollars. He calls. The turn is a 6. I feel I still have the best hand. I bet 5 dollars, hoping he'll fold his overcards. He thinks for two seconds before moving all-in.

He did not hit a straight. I know for a fact now that he's playing a J. He probably thinks I'm playing overcards.

Now I just have to figure out whether or not to fold. He didn't have pocket Js, obviously. He called my raise before the flop, making me think J-Q, J-K, or, funny enough, A-J, like I thought before. Even if by some fluke he played J-5, J-6, or J-7, he'd already have two pair. There's a slight chance that he's playing J-9, but even that hand seems a bit sketchy for such a tight player. I'd need a ten and a ten only on the river to make two pair and make myself feel comfortable with the hand.

So I laid it down, and lost half my chips in the process. I got a bit too involved in that hand, but I thought saw an opportunity and made a move. I don't think he put me on Js, I think he thought I had overcards and was making a move like I had a straight. He is a good player, and made a good bet, and I laid it down.

He let me know after the hand that he had Js. I didn't ask what his kicker was. I didn't really need to know.

At least I didn't go broke on one pair.

Movie news:

Watched Miike's Dead or Alive 2 today. It's very strange. I like it when movies are not spoon-fed to me, and that's Miike all the way. He doesn't make his movies easy to watch.