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Scared the CRAP out of me

Monday afternoon Cleveland Horseshoe session - the poker room is packed for the Monday tourney, I'm sitting at a better-skill-than-average 1-2 table. I still feel like there are enough soft spots to stick around, though, so I do.

My stack is down a bit today based on two biggish hands. The first is a preflop all-in vs. a player that started with $70. I had QQ and he had KK - totally standard. The second was my AA paying off a good player who floated my cbet and spiked a 2-out set of nines on the turn. I felt his $50 river bet could have been a busted draw, he was good enough to try it, so I made a bad river call. In the end, losing only 40 big blinds with aces to a set seemed like a small victory rather than a big loss.

Elsewhere in the session, I watched a certain opponent play his aces in a different way - he limped with them, and then woke up on the flop. He won one hand doing this, and lost another to some garbage connector type hand. I mentally shook my head watching this guy try and get tricky, only to trick himself out of his stack.

Later on, there were a few limpers to me on the button, and I raised to $15 with 44. A couple guys folded, but the AA limper called. I of course stared at the flop looking for my precious three-of-a-kind. For the first time in the session, I got it, with an Ace-King-Four flop. There were also two clubs. The AA limper lead for a small amount, and I raised to $30. He called instantly.

. Oh, no, I thought to myself. Did this chucklehead actually get dealt aces again?

The turn was a seven of diamonds, and the AA limper, undeterred by my show of strength on the flop, lead out for $50.

Oh, fer, fuck's sake, I thought to myself this time. Am I really going to consider folding bottom set? Am I that big a nit? I started to count combos in my head, but the adrenaline was making things cloudy. I knew that if he could limp AA, he could also limp KK, which still beat me, but also AK, which didn't. Or maybe he was just willing to go to the wall with Ace-Queen. I didn't know, but my overall feeling was something to the effect of "if he's willing to limp with pocket aces regularly, and then play them to the river no matter how bad the board gets, then he's bad enough to make other mistakes too". I called the $50.

Predictably, the river came and he shoved the rest of his stack in. To complicate matters a little, the river brought the third club card. Right or wrong, I had ruled out this player having a flush (maybe because I was terrified of aces or kings). I had that awful pit in my stomach of getting stacked by an aces-limper, but also my inner poker ego saying "man-up, Nancy! You're ahead more often than you're behind, and you're getting a price, you have to call here".

I said out loud "well, I've seen you limp aces before, but I'm not folding. I call", and flipped over my fours.

The aces limper blinked a few times, said "nice hand", stood up, and left the table.

Happy new Year, everyone. I've made some decisions related to my live poker game - I will share them in a future post shortly. For now, everyone stay safe tonight and we'll chat again in 'fourteen.

The second barrel

Depending on the board and the player type, firing a second barrel on the turn can be a profitable play. Here are two examples from my Friday cash game session.

In the first, I had 2 limps to me in the big blind and I raised up 77. One player folded but the small blind called. At least I had position on him.

We got an 8 high board, (something like 852), 3 different suits. He checked. I felt like I had the best hand here most of the time, so I let out a value bet. My opponent called the bet. Now I'm not really sure if I have the best hand anymore.

The turn brought a king- my absolute favorite barreling card. Since everyone puts you on ace-king anyway, this king should give me top pair, top kicker. After my opponent checked again, I quickly and confidently bet $25 and got an instant fold.

Firing the turn barrel when a king comes works against decent players who are thinking a bit about what I might be holding. Complete fish might call with their gutshots or small pairs thinking their miracle trips are going to come anyway, so it doesn't work so well against them. In addition to kings, aces work pretty well also, but probably give people two pair more often.

In the second hand, I raised up an ace-queen suited and a pretty bad loose passive called me from the blinds. As usual, I whiffed on a king-six-four board, but this was a good board to continuation bet, so I did. My opponent thought for a second, like he wasn't sure what to do, but then called. His indecision lead me to believe he had a medium pair between the king and six, or maybe something like six-seven.

The turn paired the four, which didn't change the board at all. My opponent checked, and I knew I had to fire a second barrel here. I choice a $35 "I really mean it" bet this time, and he folded without too much further thought.

"You have a pair?" he asked.

"Ace-King", I replied, ensuring him he made a good fold.

You can't bluff every board or every player type, but against the correct players and the correct board, you can add a few more pots to your session.

Still More LAG Practice

I've taken to treating my .50/$1 home game as my practice sessions. Small stakes make it easier to try some things out. Here are some of the things I've employed in the last few sessions.

1. Checkraise from the blinds on a dry board. This was against one of the few regulars in my game who even knows what a blind steal is. I can't even remember what I defended with, but the board was a bone-dry K73 rainbow or somesuch. I checkraised his cbet with air, knowing his range was too weak to continue most of the time. He flashed pocket tens - pretty strong, I'm not maniac enough to get him to try and continue with second pair. Yet

2. 3bet/squeeze AQs as a semi-bluff. Usually a flat from me - keep the dominated aces in the pot and all that. But once a third person entered the pot, I heard the cash register cha-ching and decided I just couldn't leave those 8 big blinds lying out there, could I? Our home game features very little 3betting, usually QQ+ only (not even ace-king), so my 3bet got a bunch of credit.

3. Open from early position (6-handed). Flop bottom pair and a flush draw. Take a Bet, Bet, BIG BET line as my flush comes in. Smoke top pair for half his stack.

4. My favorite hand of the session. A few orbits after the hand before, open , get the same player calling me. Completely whiff the board, but cbet anyway. He check/calls. The turn brings in a club flush, I still have nothing. But I make another solid bet and villain turbo-mucks, knowing I can bet the flush draw before having it.

5. Call with on the button, multiway pot. Flop top 2 pair on an board. Original raiser leads, folds to me, I re-raise to $20.

He looks at me for a few seconds. "You got a set or a flush draw this time", he asks, then flashes an ace and folds.

Exactly.

My 2014 goal is to take shots at $2/$5, and with a little luck, stick there. Keeping some plays like these fresh in my toolbox should help me reach that goal.

More LAG practice

I always refer to myself as a nitty TAG, but I look for spots where I can make moves. I had two such spots in my 1-2 session today at the Cleveland Horseshoe.

In the first, an ABC player made his standard $11 raise and I called in position with pocket tens. There was another caller as well, and we saw a flop 3 ways. That flop came Jack-Queen-four. The original raiser bet $16, which was also a standard half-pot bet size for him. (I had seen this script a few times this session). Normally folding third pair is a no-brainer, but I floated this time to see if I could spot an opportunity to take this pot away from him later.

The cards cooperated and put a nine out there. No made hand for me, but it did give me an up-and-down straight draw. The villain bet $20 into this pot - a classic, weak-ass "please don't raise me" kind of bet.

If ever there was a time to make a move, this was it. A weak bet into a draw-heavy board, with me holding two blockers to the nuts. I made it $55 to go, and got a frustrated fold.

His tiny bet actually made a call correct, or at least close to correct, pot-odds-wise. But when you think he'll fold often, the semi-bluff is far superior.

In the second hand, I had raised from middle position, and a female player called me out of the blinds. She was new to the table, but we had already tangled in one hand - I had raised , she called out of the blinds, and then donked into me on a Queen-six-four, all red board. I had no pair and no draw, so I let this one go.

In this new hand, the flop came King-Nine-Four, rainbow suits. Again, she donked into me for $12. I had already seen her play too many hands, and this donking thing was a bit annoying, so I raised to $25. She didn't seem to like it, but after a few seconds she called the raise.

A ten came on the turn, completing the rainbow. Now, after apparently forgetting that I had just raised her bet one street before, she donked into me again, this time for $20. Again, I raised, to $60. She gave it a few seconds thought and then moved in. I called quickly.

"You have the straight"? She said.

"Yes", and flipped over queen-jack.

"Damn, the only hand that beats me", she said rather incorrectly, and flipped over king-ten. Second nuts, sixth nuts, I'm not one to quibble.

My flop raise with a gutshot straight draw was obviously way shaded toward the "bluff" side of a semibluff, with only 4 outs to a winning hand. I felt like her donk bets into me were weak and there was a decent chance to move her off a hand like king-ten. I obviously got that part wrong - she wasn't the type that liked folding top pair. My bluffing would have ended on every other turn card, even if I paired up. The ten was the trainwreck card for her - fulfilling her dreams of cracking my aces or ace-king and my longshot dreams of holding the nuts for the first and only time in my 6 hour session.

Vegas, baby

Survived my first Vegas trip. Got in 3 sessions of poker for around 15 total hours, and net about $650. But I actually should have lost about $100, except for getting pushed a large pot that I later found out I lost...

So I'm in a morning session at the Aria, and my 1-3 table is the usual mix of recreational guys and ladies of varying skill. Seems like a normal table for me to make a couple of bucks, if not for one exception - the player on my immediate right is a competent LAG. He is punishing limpers at what seems a 100% rate. He is squeezing and 3betting more than normal. His cbets are big. He raises cbets with draws. In short, a pretty formidable opponent at a 1-3 table.

Having him on my right is better than on my left, because at least I can know what he's doing before he acts, but having him at the table at all is making it pretty tough to win any money. I am considering a table change when I notice something - when he's not in a hand, he passes the time by firing up his mini iPad and surfing the web. I catch him surfing the 2+2 poker forum more than once.

A solid read - as a reader of the 2+2 forum, I can deduce that he's most likely a student of the game, trying to play well. Maybe I could have deduced this purely from his playing style, but seeing him read 2+2 gave me an idea - maybe he would fold to a bit of pressure from me. I decided that the next hand I received that was playable, I was going to 3bet him and try and get a fold.

That hand came soon enough - he punished a limper for $16, and I checked my cards to find . Not a great hand, but good enough (and an ace blocker!). I made it $45.

My opponent looked at me and thought for a bit. I half-expected a fold, and the other half a 4bet. I was folding to the latter. Instead, he chose neither option and called the $45. I decided this was either AK, AQ, or a middle pair like nines, tens or jacks that were hard to fold preflop. I didn't like my hand against this range.

Until the flop came, that is. It was . I had flopped 2 pair and was ahead of every possible hand I could conceive him carrying.

He checked to me. I knew that I was going to get all his money if he had AK, and probably AQ also. I needed to see if there was a way to get him to stick his stack in with his other hands. Could I fool him into thinking I didn't have an ace myself, and get him to exert his will on me? After a second, I decided a bigger bet might look like jacks, queens, or kings desperately trying to get someone to go away. I settled on a $70 bet into a $90 pot. After only a few seconds, he slid his stack to the middle, carrying the chips along on a sled of $100 bills. I called instantly of course.

I flipped my hand over (I didn't have to), and his eyes got big as to both the weakness of my holding, and the strength of how I hit the flop. He didn't look happy, and he left his cards concealed.

The dealer dealt the turn and river, and then it was my my turn to be unhappy. He dealt a jack, and then another jack. My two pair had become three pair, and my A7 was now losing to AK or AQ.

I looked over at him and said "Ace-king is a winner, I'm counterfeited". He smiled, shook his head, and mucked. I doubled up from $350 to $700. I wondered what the heck he could have had. Clubs? Five-six? Just air, trying to muscle me off whatever he felt I had?

A few hands later, I admitted to him that I 3bet him light because I saw he was reading 2+2, and I was a member myself. We chatted for a bit, and he told me to look up his "trip report" thread, where he documented his sessions and trips to Vegas. I promised to do so.

When I got home, I did look up his trip report thread. He documented his big hand with me, and told the world he had Ace-king! I replied to this thread, and told him if this was true, then he folded the winning hand. He seemed pretty upset in the threads that followed.

I'm not sure how he missed that I got counterfeited, especially with me telling him that ace-king was a winner without me seeing his cards. This seems quite odd to me. I have an alternate theory as to what happened - that theory is that he didn't want to show his 56 or busted draw or whatever he had, so he made up the ace-king holding for the forum, not realizing that this hand was the winning one after the cards ran out. A modern day, poker version of a the old "I caught a fish this big" story.

No matter, either way (at least now). He was a nice guy, certainly a pain-in-neck opponent, and it's great to meet fellow members of the worldwide poker community that you can go back and say "hi" to in the future. And his mistake turned my first Vegas trip into a winner.

Note: even if he DID have Ace-king in that hand, and properly showed it and won that giant pot, I would still feel good overall about getting my money in good (after the tilting irritation of losing the giant pot on a suckout, of course).

Practice session

Las Vegas trip coming in 10 days. (!) But first a 7 hour $1-$2 session at the Cleveland Horseshoe...

I felt like I was on my A game for most of the night. I double barreled the only decent player at the table with nothing and got a fold. He sighed as he folded to my bet after a Queen came on the turn and said "I think I was ahead until that card came". "yeah, I got lucky", I replied, not completely lying. (I did get lucky enough to get a broadway card that I knew would apply pressure on him).

2 big hands accounted for my profit. One was top set vs. second set vs my friend LR - a standard cooler that doubled me up and took a bite out of his 4 buy-in profit. This one wasn't really worthy of discussion, we both played the hand correctly and he would have stacked me had the hands been reversed.

The second big hand for me was the last of the night. I didn't start this hand well, I actually limped with . It was a really weak table, but I was still in too early of position to limp with this hand. (This was one of the reasons I was sure it was time to go, actually) The button made it $10- he was a tightish, straightforward player. And then the big blind called - he was the worst player at the table. He bought in for $100 at a time and had reached into his pocket to rebuy 3 times already. I called behind.

The flop was a mixed bag, as it often the case with weak preflop holdings - we see a board. Trip aces for me, but the straightforward player was likely to have raised up my limp with a big ace. I was way ahead of big pairs or way behind the fourth ace.

Bad blind checked and so did I, waiting for the button to cbet. He checked behind. I already knew he was a chronic slowplayer, so I kept AK/AQ/AJ in his range for now.

We saw a , so now a flush was out there. I was looking to get the showdown. We both checked to the button again, and this time he bet out $15 into the $30-ish pot. Bad button called right away. I felt like I could still be behind bigger aces, and now KK caught me, but I also felt like KQ could be one of his hands, especially with the as a flush redraw. I was happy to make this $15 call into a $60 pot and see what would happen on the river.

What happened was the .

What a card! I caught just about every hand except AK. I could get value from all other his big aces, from KK, maybe 99 (I didn't think 99 was a very likely preflop raise from this player, and I knew A9 was not possible). I couldn't see any possible flush this player would have, either.

So I needed to bet something that AQ and AJ could call. If he raised, I would be in some kind of pickle, thinking he could do this equally with KK (which I was beating) or AK (which I wasn't). There are exactly 3 combos of each left. I tried hard not to think about this possibility.

I slid out $55. He looked a little surprised, but he thought for a second and then made the call. I knew right then I had him because he didn't raise.

Then, as a bonus, bad blind tanked also! He had something he was thinking about calling with. After about 30 seconds, he said "I have a flush, I'm not folding" - slid out a stack of red chips, and tabled .

I flipped over my full house, and the original raiser mucked. AQ/AJ I'm pretty sure.

I had one more hand to go before the end of the orbit. I folding something (can't even remember what it was), tipped the dealer $3, and then started putting my chips in a tray. 113 big blind profit on the night.

Results Oriented

My Texas Holdem tutorial of the day is to not be results-oriented.

I'm sitting in my home game on the button. We get the typical no-foldem limpfest, and I limp behind with pocket sevens. A raise won't thin the field with this bunch, so I've just got to limp along and try and flop my set.

Ann lo and behold, I do hit a set, on a king-seven-four flop. One of the blind leads out, he gets one caller, and I raise it up. Both players call.

The small blind is a god-awful player - he's calling with any king or four, trying to hit two pair or trips. I of course hope he hits one of them.

The turn is some type of brick, and they both check to me. My big question is bet size - will he call a big bet, or should I keep it manageable. This time, I decide on a big bet. My awful opponent thinks for a long time, agonizes a bit, and then folds. He hates folding top pair.

I won the pot but I'm not happy with the final pot size. I think I left some money on the table.

Fast forward 1 week, and I'm in another cash game with the same player. We're only 3 handed because we're waiting for players to get knocked out of the tourney. I call a minraise from the blinds with King-Ten, and see a super nine-queen-jack flop. Hello nuts!

I check and one of the two players bets, and my friend calls. I'm definitively checkraising, I just need to choose the bet size. Remembering last week, I opt for a smaller size this time, and my friend instantly calls.

What I'm not happy with is the turn card - a king. It turns out my friend is holding ace-ten, and I get stacked.

They joy of poker. Play poorly and win a small hand, play great and lose a big one.

Bet or check

Cash game this weekend went ok - lost 60BB. I'm not winning much these days, but I can't find much wrong with my play. I lost the most on 2 hands, AQ vs. AK, and JJ vs. KK, both against players that could be holding much, much worse. Coolers, nothing more.

I had one interesting decision. I raised up a limper with Queen-Jack offsuit on the button. Both blinds called me, the original limped folded. We went 3 way to the flop.

The board came king-six-four with two spades, a total whiff for me. Both players checked. I decided to c-bet the board, hoping I could get at least one fold, and then barrel against the other player on any broadway or club. However, both players called.

I was pretty much done with the hand, but the turn gave me some equity - a ten of clubs. I now had an open-ended straight draw.

Again, both players checked to me. Against one player, I would double barrel this card all day. But in this situation, vs. two players, having somewhere around 6 outs, I felt like a check was best. I couldn't count on getting two folds, and there is always the worry of a checkraise blowing me off my draw (maybe not MUCH of a worry in this straightforward game).

That way my only interesting decision on the night. It was made more interesting by the fact that I hit the nuts on the river with a red nine. I chose a bigger sized bet, 25BB (close to pot) and got INSTANTLY called by king-ten. Had I bet the turn, my river bet (and subsequent winnings) could have been even bigger. But I still think the check was best.

Tourney recap

wow, I'm not playing much poker these days. This Friday was my monthly tourney, and while getting ready I realized that I had played only one other time since the last tourney.

I played this tourney well. Two hands stick out. In the first, I had pocket jacks, raised, and got one caller. He was an opponent I had played with several times before. I considered him a decent player. The flop was nine-ten-four, with a flush draw. He checked and I made a value bet, which he called.

The turn paired the nine, the second card on the board. He checked-called a second bet.

The river bricked the straight and flush draw, and my opponent bet 800 into the pot, a big bet.

Bleah. Big fun for me - a tourney-committing bet in the second level. I went through the hand - he could have a few different nines, but I also felt like he could have either the flush or straight draws, which both busted out. He was also a good enough player to take this kind of shot at me. Thirdly, his river bet was ultra-quick, which seemed a bit off to me. Lastly, I decided if I called and was wrong, I would just fire up the after-tourney cash game a bit early.

"Well, you might have a nine, but I call", I said. He quickly "nice call" and mucked.

In the second hand, I was dealing with a guy 2 to my right who was getting aggressive. He stole my blinds twice and made a couple other raises as well. In this hand, he raised from middle position while I was on the button. I decided that if my cards were anything playable, I was going to three-bet him with position.

My turn came, and I checked my cards. Four-Seven of spades. Playable? Eh, sort-of. What the hell.

I raised it up. As often does with the best-laid plans, mine seemed instantly ruined when the small blind flat-called my three bet. He was a nitty fish who had already limped with AK and pocket tens tonight. His call made the original raiser's call easier, and he did so.

We saw an Ace-Jack-6 rainbow flop, and both players checked to me. I figured I needed to fire one more bullet - since everyone always puts you on Ace-King, I needed to represent it here. I bet just under half pot and got two folds.

I made it to the final table with a nice stack, but my cards then became unplayable for 3 levels. I busted out sixth, shoving a king-nine into 2 limps. One of them had pocket tens and decided to call me.

LAG Practice

I think I've overcome a small hurdle in my attempt to become a more loose-aggressive poker player. In the past, I would make a move or two that wouldn't work, and then grouse about losing the 40 big blinds, which would revert me back to a more ABC/TAG style.

I'm trying to look at these small unsuccessful events as investments in a bigger future.

A month ago I was playing at the Cleveland Horseshoe and the usual bad table was having fun trapping with pocket aces. They would call and trap and call and trap and get a big kick out of winning a small or medium pot. Two of these were against me - allowing me to take myself to valuetown twice. I grumbled to myself and looked forward to the day their bad play would be rewarded me them losing their stack to me.

Fast forward to yesterday - again at the 'Shoe - the player to my left makes a small $7 raise as the first to act. 2 or 3 people call the small raise, and I call from the big blind, holding 5 6. I'm not big on calling speculative hands like this from the blinds - probably a losing play for most players (myself included) - the combination of the small raise size and multiple callers made it appealing. The last thought was one I've been working on keeping top of mind - stay aggressive on draws, play your equity. Work on your LAG style when you get the opportunities.

So we see a multi-way flop, which comes Q 9 4. Flush draw for me. I check, the original raiser bets $10 into the $28 and gets one caller. I've got to call $10 into $48 for a flush draw. Sounds like good odds to me, I take them and call.

The turn is an amazing card for me hand - a black 3. Now I've got 15 cards to a straight or flush. I decide to take the betting lead and bet $15 - my original hope is that everyone will call and I will given myself a cheap price to see a river, but that isn't how things worked out. The original raiser called my $15 bet, but then the other caller, a semi-maniac who has been stuck for maybe 2 buy-ins in his first hour, announces "all-in". This startles me at first, but I look over at the stack he has slid into the middle and it's pretty tiny - so small, in fact, that I'm not sure he has even doubled my $15 bet. I ask for a count, and the deal stacks them up and tells me it's exactly $30.

Which means I can re-raise if I want.

Do I want to? The original raiser hasn't shown much strength so far - I've got him for a hand like AQ or KQ. He might even have a drawing hand like JT or a heart draw like myself (the poker gods LOVE to give people bigger flush draws when I play smaller ones - it's already happened once today). Maybe I can push him out of this pot with a raise, and take a free crack at the stuck LAG with at least 15 outs. Hell, my pair outs might be good against him if he has JT. Plus, it fufills my promise to myself that if I want to play hands like 56s out of the blinds, I have to play them aggressively and win some pots.

I make it $85. That's a big enough "I mean it" bet to tell KQ, JT, maybe even AQ to get the hell out. I like my move pretty well, until the original raiser thinks for about .0003 seconds and says "call", counting his chips.

Ah, the life of a LAG. One second you're contemplating a perfectly-executed, well-considered semibluff, and the next second you've built a giant pot with 6 high.

Clearly I was going to need one of my outs to pass him. I had a second to think what could happen. Obviously hitting a brick would be a simple check-fold, and me reaching for the last $100 in my pocket. I was going broke on a heart river -if he had a higher flush draw, then he wins. More likely, I thought he had a set of queens or nines, or Ace-Queen, and finally the idea that the old slowplayed aces from the last session were back to torment me again. Put pocket kings in there for the same reason.

It didn't matter much what he held when the amazing 2 came on the river. I had only $55 left on the table and stuck it in. He wasn't calling with a busted draw himself, but it seemed to me that all his made hands weren't folding for $55 when they called $80 on the last street. The UTG player called again right away and flipped over pocket kings.

"Straight" I said, probably a bit too triumphantly, and flipped over 56. My opponent stopped dead with his mouth open, realizing what just befell him. "He got what he deserved, playing pocket kings that way", I thought.

As for me, I'm not sure if I played the hand well or not, but I chose an aggressive action in an attempt to bluff someone out of a pot, and then got bailed out by excellent equity when the bluff didn't work out. It felt pretty good.

Reads over Rules

The learning poker player adapts handy rules of thumb that can keep him out of trouble. One often-used rule for TAGs with weak-tight tendencies is "small hand, small pot".

A few weeks ago, I raised the dreaded pocket jacks and got three-bet from a blind around the table. This was the typical 1-2 table where three-bets were QQ+ and sometimes AK, and not much else. The probable best play is a fold, but the 3bet was a min-3bet, we were deep enough, and I had position, so I saw a flop.

The flop was all low (nine-high) and my opponent checked. This obviously screams ace-king for the most probable hand in his narrow range. But the weak-tight tendencies showed up, and, fearing the checkraise from AA/KK, the "small hand, small pot" rule dutifully reminded me that I really wasn't ready to commit my stack with this hand yet, so I checked behind.

The turn brought another low card, and now the opponent made a healthy, near-pot-sized $45 bet. Of course, my check gave him license to fire with AK or anything else he might be holding. With the pot escalating and doubt creeping into what should be a pretty clear-cut read, I made the fold, first proud of not breaking the "big hand big pot" rule, but later mentally kicked myself for several days for doing so, for not trusting my own handreading skill (which isn't great, but in a 3bet pot in a donk 1-2 game, it's no rocket science).

So now we fast forward to last night, again at the Cleveland Horseshoe, where I no longer have to worry about making a mistake in a big pot, because I've already gotten 150 big blinds whisked away from me with kings preflop, vs. Aces, easy as you please. Facing the preflop shove, the familiar fear crept in (which would have obviously helped me this time), but this time my read was that this player could have queens or even jacks as easily as aces in this particular situation, and a call was mandatory. "Shut the fuck up and take your beat like a man", my brain told me as I announced call, then watched the shiny aces flip over across the table.

A standard, brutal result, but correct play based on my reads. This was actually somewhat comforting - I was playing without fear and rationally trying to put players on ranges and play hands correctly.

I had my stack back up to about $300 with a reload and winning some pots, still down about $150 on the night, when a tight-ish player raised it up from early position. The $1-2 donkey chain of fools started calling, and I got to look at pocket jacks on the button. Probably a no-brainer squeeze, but of course I had already been stacked and stung tonight, and my old friend fear whispered to just call this time, so I did.

We got a flop of . The entire field checks to me.

Weak-tight or not, my jacks are an overpair and 4 people have checked to me. I bet $25 into this $50 pot. Two players called. One was an uber-donk out of the blinds who had like $75 back, and I knew could have any pair or draw here. I wasn't worried about him. The second guy, to my immediate right, was too loose preflop but seemed ok postflop. I put him on some kind of ten (maybe with a weak-ish kicker, as Ace-ten probably leads out on this board), or the spade draw. He has around $400 in his stack.

The turn helps nobody with a . Now the villain leads out for $20. This is a clear, no doubt-about-it blocking bet in my estimation - he's trying to see the river card cheaply. So now I have competing thoughts - the old "small hand, small pot" tells me to call this bet and evaluate the river card, but my read is that this guy is most likely on a spade draw or a weak ten (he can't be on both because of how the suits are arranged), and he will obviously call a raise with the draw, so I bump it up a bit more to $45. The donk in the blinds calls this bet, and then the weak-lead calls also.

The river arrives - it's a , making the final board . There's a 4 card straight for anyone holding a 5, and 89 has been there the whole time. Now my opponent leads out for a healthy $75.

My old friend makes a brief appearance in my head, but this time I shoo him out quickly, eager to try and piece this story together. What does he have? Here's a running synopsis of what I throw together:

Did he have eight-freaking-nine the whole time? Possible, sure, but I rule it out. This player had previously raised up trip kings and said "I had to, with the flush out there". Thanks for the info, buddy. Now I know he doesn't like to lose his made hands to flushes, so 8-9 goes away.

With the same logic, I can rule out flopped sets or two pair hands. Buh-bye.

Can he have a five in his hand? He's not loose enough to have unsuited cards like 56 or 45 in his range, so I focus on looking at suited stuff. My biggest fear is a , along with another spade, that has backed into a straight. I only see four-five, ace-five, and seven-five, all spades, as possibilities. I don't think he's a queen-five/jack-five kind of guy. Then I rule out 45, which hit his straight on the turn, and would have 3bet my $45 turn raise.

Would he make this big bet with a ten? I decide that yes, he might, especially if his kicker is good (ace-ten/king-ten), AND with another super-donk in the hand with us, AND the possibility that he thinks I might be the one on the flush draw. I had ruled out some big-kicker tens earlier, so that's some competing information, but maybe he's got queen-ten or jack-ten type of stuff. Ten-nine and ten-eight (more likely suited), give him pair+gutshot combos. So there's some tens he can have, and these don't all necessarily have to be suited, giving him more available combos.

So I'm left with him value-betting some worse hands, a couple flush/straight combos that backed into a straight, and busted spade draws.

It's a big bet that of course I fear calling. I mentally picture him turning over , and me cursing myself for another month for building a big pot and then paying off a big river bet with one pair. But my final thought is to trust my read and live with the result. My read says I'm ahead often enough to call this bet. I make the call. The other donk folds his whatever.

"Busted spades", he says quietly, flipping over .

Poker down time

The significance of poker goes up and down in my life - this is one of the down cycles.

I'm pulling the plug on my hosted cash game. Too frustrating trying to get enough players lately, and it will only get worse as summer starts, with golf, softball, etc. I'll look for another Friday game, and simply stay downtown and play in the casino after work if that doesn't work out.

Online poker is out, also. I was on Lock - with all the rumors and talk this past week, I've cashed out. I'm hopeful but not confident that I'll ever see that money (it's not that much money).

But I still love playing. I played at the Shoe yesterday and faced a rough session with several of people sucking out on me - took a one buy-in bite out of me. But I kept my calm and played well throughout.

I also saw the usual truly awful, Level 0 poker - enough to make me realize there will always be a table waiting for me somewhere where I can make a few extra bucks. Yesterday's head-scratcher was a loose, semi-aggressive player raise up to $10 and get one caller - a tight guy who had barely made a peep all night. He had a big stack after winning a 3 way all in with QQ vs. AK and AQ.

The flop came Jack-Jack-Five. The tight guy bet out $15, at which point the loose guy raised to $35. The tight guy thought for a few seconds and then called.

I had the tight guy on Ace-Jack, King-Jack or Five-Five. I wasn't even sure of King-Jack because this guy played so few hands - I wasn't sure if he would call a raise with it. But I left it in because he was perhaps adjusting to the wide-ish range of the other guy. I ruled out any type of shlong-measuring contest with pocket eights or something like that. Tight guy was pretty ABC.

The loose guy was a bit tougher to range at this point - I felt like his range could be "for information", meaning he had a pair and was just trying to figure out how strong the tight guy was. After tight guy made the call, I figured he had all the info he needed.

I don't recall the turn card, but tight guy lead out for $50, and loose guy called pretty quickly. I still had tight guy ahead - either outkicking loose guy with his trip jacks, or already with the full house.

Tight guy took a glance at the river (again, I don't recall the card), looked down at his chips for several seconds, and exclaimed "I'm all in". Loose guy still had over $200 in his stack at this point - this had blown up into a massive pot. Loose guy shook his head a bit, then said "I call", and flipped over.... pocket aces.

How in God's name did he think aces were good on this hand? I have no idea, and will never know. But as long as people think this way at my table, I will find success in poker, even if I play infrequently.

not much to explain...

This was me last night in a 4 way all in for my tourney life...

Hand 0: 13.052% 10.19% 02.86% 3983166 1119505.50 { Ad2d } 
Hand 1: 53.506% 53.42% 00.08% 20886660 32314.50 { QQ } 
Hand 2: 16.436% 16.35% 00.08% 6393510 32314.50 { 44 } 
Hand 3: 17.006% 14.14% 02.86% 5529312 1119505.50 { Ah7h } 

And after the 337 flop...

Board: 3c 3d 7s
Dead: 

    equity     win     tie           pots won     pots tied   
Hand 0:     03.293%      02.99%     00.30% { Ad2d }
Hand 1:     69.146%      69.15%     00.00% { QQ }
Hand 2:     10.427%      10.43%     00.00% { 44 }
Hand 3:     17.134%      16.83%     00.30% { Ah7h }

2 running diamonds later, a quadruple up for me, and I go on to place second.  We all know you have to get lucky to win a tourney, but egads.  

Double Luck

Hitting a strong hand is only half the battle. Your opponent has to have enough hand to pay you off also.

.50/$1 home game last night, I'm hovering a bit above my starting $110. I raise pocket nines from an early position, and three people decide to take a flop with me.

Flop is 9 6 3, all different suits.

.

Ok, I'll take that flop. No flush draws for anybody to chase, but 78 and 45 can come along. Most players can have TT also, and some can have JJ (others would threebet it). I bet $8 into $15 and one player decides to come along. Time for the inner happy dance...



The turn brings a jack, and completes the rainbow - no flush draw possible. I'm going to bomb away now, $22 into a $31 and hope for a call. I get it!



The river brings an ace, which I actually think is a bad card for me. What the hell can this player have besides a busted draw? I suppose Ace-nine or Jack-nine are possible, but 3 nines are accounted for. So what's my play?

I could check to induce a bluff from a busted draw. A good option against some players, but not this opponent. I think with the pot bloated up this big, he'll just check behind and say "I missed". So I'm going to completely rule out trying to get paid by 78 and 45.

I could bet small to get a crying call from his pairs. Probably the correct play.

I think there's a better question available than "what does he have?", and that question is "what could I have?". Look at my line. Raise, bet, bomb, with the jack coming as an overcard, and the river the over-est overcard, the ace. How am I bombing away on every street? If I bomb the river again, what possible hand can I have except for 99, JJ, or AA?

I think when your perceived range is this narrow, a giant, polarizing bet looks very suspicious. It has to look bluffy. I learned that in my Big Pot Fear Training hand two weeks ago. Should I bomb the river and hope he has something that can pick off a bluff? I don't think it's going to work very often, but it doesn't really have to.

I take out a stack of red $5 chips, add a few to the top, and slide it out. I feel the table shift nervously at the big bet. "How much?", he asks. "$65", I say, and unstack/restack it up to count it and make sure. "Well, I have to call, I have top two", I hear after a second. He flips over ace-jack.



I have no flipping idea how he's holding ace-jack by the river. So indescribably lucky for me. Not only lucky enough to flop a set, but lucky enough for someone to decide to float while drawing 100% dead on the flop, and to runner-runner two pair.