Aggressive destruction

Lydias, last night...very, very sad turnout. 9 people total including me. Really just enough for one table so I did not play early but one person went out before the end of the first blinds so I popped in.



Weakly limped in the small blind (where I came in) with J/7 suited. Terrible hand, limping is a terrible idea. Let's count the flops I can play if they hit. A/K/Q of Hearts...any other Heart flush, I am beat. J/J/7. 7/7/anything. Other than that...I am beat. For example, the flop came horribly for me...9/10/J. I have top pair and gut shot straight draw...but the ignorant end. Anybody playing Q/K has me drawing dead. Anybody playing a legit Jack has me crushed. Even a J/10 or J/9 has me in a deep hole. But when someone bets just a hundred it is so tempting to say I have top pair and straight draw and pay it. And I weakly did pay the first hundred, though on the turn I laid it down. But there was 125 chips I pointlessly gave away on a trash hand. Hmm. Better tighten up a bit.



Folded a few hands, then raised an A/10. Got rid of everyone but Randy. Did my stupid "Price him in" raises down to the river, he stayed in and hit his flush on the river. Couple hands later, same thing but this time he missed his flush.

Won a few pots, lost a couple, actually felt like I was playing well. I was raising or folding, wasn't playing weak hands, and was getting out of hands when I was beat. Then I lost a couple back to back where I had good hands but stayed in too long. Still okay chip wise.

Picked up pocket 8s. Raised. Randy stayed. Flop came 7/q/7. I actually like that flop. Only one card that hurts me, there is really no hand including a 7 someone should be in the hand. I raised. Randy came over the top all-in. It felt wrong. I went into the tank long enough it had people talking.

I have seen him do that before and he has a good feel for when to do it because I have not seen him called on it. He also did a little forward flick like he was tossing his cards in like he does when he knows people are folding. But he also does it when he is bluffing. In fact, I read him for a bluff. But there were some mixed signals.

For instance, he had not put his chips in. He tends to physically put his chips in when he thinks he might lose but leave them in his slot when he thinks he is golden. So that argued he had it.

But then he started talking about how he knew I wasn't going to call. And that is when I started shifting from thinking I WAS calling to thinking I wasn't. He was trying to talk me into a call and if he wanted me to call then I was probably beat. So at that point I shifted a bit to deciding if the odds were right to call.

To do that I had to figure out what he had. And I put him on something like Q/K, maybe even A/Q. So I was behind about 4-1, 2 cards to come. I would have to call off about 1800, all I had left, but there was already about 1800 in the pot...the blinds, my initial 200 raise and his call, and then my 600 raise and his call. Folding here meant I would pretty much be all in the next hand I played since I was about to go through the blinds and would have slightly over 4 times the blinds, which were about to go up, and just an M of 3. So maybe this was the right time.

But the more I thought about it the more I could not see calling. To start with, I might be so far behind I could not catch up. Second, the money wasn't right. Third, he started talking and doing stuff designed to get me to call...like, "Oh, I better put these in" and physically putting in the 600 call chips. He was too relaxed...and said he wouldn't show. Those were all factors overriding my initial take that he was bluffing and the things I had picked up that led me to believe he was bluffing. So I let my snowmen go...and he thought better of not showing and flipped up the A/7.

Okay, he stayed in with a weak hand and hit...that happens. And I misread him for a long time. Up until he started talking I think I would have called thinking he was bluffing. He actually talked himself out of my chips.

Sadly, that put me in a hole. And when I picked up pocket 7s just a couple hands later I had a decision. I was under the gun, so it was a marginal hand. However, the blinds were going up next hand. Before they went up I had considerable fold equity. Except for Randy it was a passive table where people were folding to strong raises. Picking up 300 would help immensely. I started to fold and instead went all-in. Fold to Randy who hesitated. I was pulling for him to call because he will call with weak hands and that gave me I figured at least 60-40 to double up. But he folded. In fact, everyone folded except Barb who will also call with some weak hands so I did not care when she called from the big blind. Until she flipped up the rockets. Uh oh.

Flop was 3 clubs, backdoor straight draw. Turn was another club and gave me a gut shot. I was laughing because I had 9 outs to split the pot and 3 to win. She was still 4-1 to win, but I had a much better shot than I deserved. And the river was the worst possible card for me...it gave her a set without giving me a flush so I was gone.

Overall I am not disappointed with my play except the first and last hands. I knew the 7s were weak and started to correctly fold them. Then I instead put all my chips in the middle and ran into a stronger hand. Oh, well. Next time, gadget, I'll get them next time.