Finally, A Hand Worth Writing About

OK Anonymous, I know you really want some analysis of interesting hands, not just a reflective droning of my idiosyncrasies. Here is a hand worth reading about, and one I want to go through again myself just so I can know whether I made the correct play in the heat of battle. I'll have to consult Poker Stove on this one. It felt like the right play at the time, and I'd like to know how you'd play it, at least after flop. I'll take the blame for the two calls that got me to the flop to begin with.

Perhaps what makes this hand all the more interesting are the following factors:
1. When I bought in, my entire bankroll was $3.52. I was in no position to take unnecessary risks if this experiment was to continue.
2. When the hand was dealt, I had reached the point that it was time to wait for the blinds and leave the table; I was up quite considerably - $2.44 on the table after a $1 buy-in. In fact, I had decided ahead of time to leave immediately after a big win so as not to have to wait for the blinds (putting my stack at risk by being available.) This in itself could be the subject of a post, and had I tracked my performance while waiting for the blinds, I suspect I'd find that I've lost a ridiculous amount of money in the hopes that I'd double an already doubled stack while waiting for the blinds to reach me. I've risked and lost a ton of money doing this. When you hit one or two big a hands in this position it is sweet, exactly because under Ferguson's rules it is so rare to triple up, quadruple up, or more with one buy-in. It is just so tempting to stay. In fact, I decided to stay and wait for the blinds in case a monster hand came.
3. I was seat 5, Tedward was seat 7. He and I had been winning each other's chips and it was getting a little personal.
4. The hand itself and the way it unfolded. I was dealt a suited gapper - 10-8h. I can't wait to have Poker Traker show me how much I've lost with the middle suited gapper. It will be a lot. I can't seem to fold this hand preflop. Anyway, there I was with my 10-8h and I call the .02 blind, and Tedward makes it .12 to go (and has me covered with over $3 in chips.) I roll my eyes thinking I should never have called the blind with a speculative hand with no margin in my bankroll. Take the money and run, don't lose a dime of it now. But, as it was, I called the .10 raise. Seat 6 between me and Tedward raises it .40 to .52. Ted and I call to make the pot over $1.80 and to the flop which came 6h-8s-7h. Holy cow - high pair, a flush draw, an inside straight draw, not to mention a back door straight flush draw. How can I get away from this? My big worry was a higher pair - someone raising it up pre-flop with 10's or J's.

$1.80 in the pot and $1.92 in front of me. After the flop I was first to act. My heart was pumping, my mouth was watering, my gut was telling me to get my chips into the middle NOW. Remember Harrington's first-in vigorish? I was feeling it. I didn't know any other way to play it, except to put my chips in. I couldn't calculate the odds fast enough, and the timer was warning me to play.

How would you play it? Surely someone would bet out if I didn't, and then another decision on a slippery slope. My gut said shove it in. Before I put it into Poker Stove and compute the odds, how would you have played this hand post-flop?

Stay tuned for my decision, along with the results of Poker Stove and how the hand ultimately turned out....