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Thursday night home game last night, I'm out of the hand. Tony limps into a pot that goes three or four way. Flop is something like 4d, 6c, 7d. FA leads out and gets called by both Tony and CB .
Turn is a black three, meaning that any five makes a straight. CB now leads out for $5. He has the straight, I can guarantee that. FA calls and so does Tony. A nice pot is brewing.
The river is a black nine. The final board is 3-4-6-7-9, with no flush possible. CB makes it five again. FA raises to $12. Tony re-raises to 30-something. It's back to CB, who I know is going to call, he's just counting out his chips. Both CB and FA are on the other side of the table (on my far right), Tony is on my immediate left, and we're out of earshot of those two if I keep my voice down.
While we're waiting, I turn my head to Tony, with my back to FA and CB. I whisper "Eight-Ten of Diamonds?".
Tony nods.
Both CB and FA call the big bet. Tony shows Eight-Ten of diamonds. FA also has eight-ten, they chop up CB's stack. (C.B. ain't folding no straight, no-way, no-how).
Jeff Hwang's "Big Play Strategy" teaches us to play hands in Omaha that we would be willing to back up with our stack should we flop just right. Nut draws with redraws to bigger hands.
In my experience, these hands don't come all that often. I've joked that Hwang wrote two books on something that happens less often than flopping top set in Holdem. The premium hands don't come that often, and when they come, they don't hit the monster flop that often.
I finally hit one tonight - a hand I was willing to back up with my stack. My opponent had flopped even harder - middle set with a king high flush draw. Despite waiting all that time for my monster, I was a 2:1 dog. Keep on smiling.
... you've got a guy who raises too much, building pots with weak hands, and calls way too much postflop... and you can't hit a hand against him all night. God it's irritating. I watch this guy call with ten high flush draws and bottom two pair, and I never have a thing.
All we have to do now,
Is take these lies, and make them true somehow
-George Michael, "Freedom"
Thursday night cash game takes off for once with 12 players. We play 2 tables for awhile until a couple bustos, then back to a big nine man table. I've been nitting it up for the most part, my usual M.O., until Mr. Pietzak limps under the gun and Tony raises to $4. I'm in late-ish position, and it feels like a good cold 3bet spot. It will look super-strong. Tony punishes pretty wide, Mr. Pietzak will definitely fold his 74o junk, and I can cbet lots of flops and take it down postflop with position, if we get that far.
Now for the simple matter of checking my cards to see if they feel like cooperating with my carefully thought-out plan. Seven-Deuce, both spades. Oh, well, you can't win'em all.
I re-raise to $13.
Angel cold-calls the $13 from a blind. Angel's kind of an aggro-donk - he plays way too many hands, and takes his pairs too far. He also shows calling-station tendencies postflop, but gets away with it because he bluffs more than average. Tony takes a second when it comes back to him to do the mental math, then throws in his extra $9. Medium pocket pair for him. He wouldn't get stuck with an AJ/KQ type hand here. He wouldn't trap with aces or kings - with me showing so much strength. He's been limping behind with his small pairs and connectors. I've got him firmly on 77-TT. Players with JJ or QQ don't worry about pot odds when they call a three bet in my experience - they simply call, feeling it's too strong a hand to fold. Lord knows what Angel has, but it doesn't matter too much. I tried my move and it didn't quite work out. That's cool. I will gladly check/fold most flops here, as I don't really like to bluff into two players with nothing.
The dealer runs it out. Ace of spades, Jack of spades, Deuce of clubs.
Bottom pair, Flush draw. Pretty good flop for a bluff. I've got 14 outs to beat a pair, and only one of the two players can have an ace in my mind, since I'm so sure of Tony's range.
They both check to me. Change of plans - I have enough equity to keep the foot on the gas. I bet $20 into $40.
Angel thinks for a bit, then announces "I'm all in". Whoops. Not quite what I expected. Tony quickly folds as Angel counts his remaining stack. He's got only $17 back, having started with a short-ish stack.
My seven deuce soooted has flopped too strong to fold now. The pot is $97 right now, I have to call $17. 5.7:1 odds, meaning I only have to win 15% of the time to make this a profitable call. If Angel flipped over pocket Aces or Jacks right now for a set, it would still be profitable long-term to call him and try to spike a flush on him. If he's got a single pair, my chances are even better because I can hit two pair or trips on him.
I let out a single "HA" at the absurdity of the situation and announce confidently that I call. Angel looks at my seven-deuce soooted as I flip them over and says "What the fuck?", and then looks back at the board. He sees the bushel-basket of turn and river he has to dodge as he reveals ace-king. 14 cards in all he has to avoid - 3 sevens, 2 deuces, or 9 spades. As the cards lie, I'm a 50.101% favorite to his 49.899%. A true coinflip, and getting an enormous overlay from the pot.
We run out the turn and river. I don't improve. I also don't care. I played this hand very well.
The poker gods tried like hell to get Tony and I into a cooler situation last night, but we didn't bite (at least for stacks, we didn't). JJ vs. QQ in a BTN vs. blind situation. Also AQ vs. QQ and AK vs. some overpair. We also played a straddled pot where I flopped trip tens and he flopped the boat.
We traded paint back and forth in these medium sized pots and probably ended up even with one another. I made my money elsewhere.
Very pleased with my play last night at .50/$1 Holdem. I had the fish on my right and the tighter guys to my left - just where I would hand-place each player. I brought out my online game into live play and punished limpers, stole blinds, and pushed the action. I was also aware of players' changing moods. One of the fish went up big early and then decided he could splash around with his found money. He was playing a game where he would simply ignore his cards, call flop and turn bets, and then bomb the river. This worked the one time he caught trip 5s, but when you employ the same trick 5 times in 3 orbits, even non-observant players start to see the pattern. Anyone with a shred of handreading skill, forget it. The table adjusted and called the bombing rivers lighter and lighter, and the fish kept mucking and mucking without ever showing down.
After these couple of failed river bluffs, his play got more and more desperate. I made it $7 to go preflop with AK, he flatted with J4. I won the hand. He flatted someone else's raise with K4 and then called a $25 river bet with a pair of fours. He thought everyone else was bluffing because he was. Soon his $230 profit became a $5 loss, at which point he quickly cashed out and exited the game.
We played the last hour 4-handed and switched to Omaha. I folded the most out of the 4, and won a medium pot with flopped quad tens against top boat (gotta love Omaha). Most of all, I minimized damage by folding hands that get you in trouble like top two pair and bottom trips.
My final were good - +85BB and definite table captain of the evening. It felt pretty good.
