Hand it over

Sitting behind 3.80 I pick up 2 red Kings utg+2 and open to .30. The cut-off calls with 6.10 and so does the small blind with 21.25. I am not real sure how I feel about this.

On the one hand, I get to see a flop with a chance to win a nice pot. On the other hand, I do not like having two other players in the hand, especially if I do not improve and there is a lot of action or an Ace. It is hard to let go of a big hand for me still, so I would just as soon get it all in pre-flop. Later, when I am a better player, this will not be true…but right now it is.

The flop is jolly good, Kc/3c/4d. I am ahead of anything and only draws like a 5/6 or A/x clubs have any real chance of catching up. Even better, he leads into me for a buck, meaning if I flat it, I will have 1.60 left and it is all going in. I debate re-raising, but decide to raise the turn instead.
Even if they hit the flush, I will have 10 outs on the re-draw to the full house and the pot will be big enough I will not be good enough to get away from the hand. Regardless of what the turn is, the chips are shipping.

The turn gives me the second nuts, with only the pocket 3s ahead and only pocket aces having a chance of drawing out. Easiest call ever when he leads into me, I call all in and his nines are drawing dead.

After folding for a while, utg+1 opens to .20 with 25.35, one fold, call with 10.58, call with 12.67, call with 1.66, call with 47.95 and I look down at Ah/Kd in the small blind.

I am sensing a lot of weakness….drawing hands, small to medium pairs, suited aces. I think I can get a lot of folds and bump it to 1.50.The third caller calls with me covered, the short stack also calls leaving .46 behind.

With about 5 bucks in the pot and three players, when the flop drops Ad/3h/2c I have to think. I have 5.92 left. Pocket Aces are unlikely, 3h/2c also possible but unlikely, and I am ahead of everything else except the possible things like A/3 suited, A/2 suited.

At the same time, I want to end the hand now. No reason to get tricky or sneaky and have something stupid like a 5/6d stick around and draw out. I ship it, the big stack folds, small stack calls off his last .66.

No clue what he would have to overcall 4 callers and a big re-raise (that he should have shoved rather than flatting). I am pretty happy when he turns up Kc/Qd. He is drawing to 3 outs, never gets them, and I take down a nice 5.16 pot with a read of weakness, aggressive pre-flop, and fortuitous flop.

UTG click-raises with 3.84 and, on the button with 11.73, I elect to see if I can lure in one or both blinds, flop a draw and take a nice pot with Ad/8d. They spoil my evil plan for world domination and fold.

The flop is the 2d/7c/4h, he leads out for .30 and I call with my two overs, planning to have him check the turn, I will bet it and take down the pot. The turn is the irrelevant 8h, pairing me but making no difference, really. He checks, I bet .80 and he calls.

Now I have to put him on a hand. He min-raised early, continuation bet, then check-called an all-small flop. A/x suited, medium pockets, a couple over cards to the board or even an overpair all fit the bill. The river is the Ac and he bets 2.54 all in.

Now I have top two pair and and am facing a pot size bet all in. No obvious draws, so I am behind only a modest pocket pair that hit a set, but the way the hand played out, I am more thinking he has something like A/10 suited. Any way you look at it, I am not good enough to fold here. I call and his As/6s helped him donate 38 big blinds to me.

Oddly, except for the river, the cards never mattered…I was playing a situation and played it right, got lucky and it benefited me hugely.

I wonder sometimes if I play too tight. I mean, on the one hand…I already am a losing player and much of my losing comes from hanging onto hands too long after the flop. But I wonder how many of the “good folds’ I make are horrific folds if I knew the truth. Case in point:

I open fold the cut-off with 15.10 and Ks/9s. I know it is a poor hand, but might be worth opening here to see if I can take down the blinds which I will a good 60 – 75% of the time. The small blind, with 9.61, does open to .30 and the big blind with 19.22 calls.

At this point I am glad to be out of the hand. I do not want to get involved with one guy who can stack me and another who can take 2/3rds of my stack with a marginal hand that is likely to hit something good but not great.

The Jd/6d/5d flop is the type that will hit many, many hands either guy could play here as both have a very wide range. The small blind continuation bets with a pot-size bet which the big blind flat calls.

If the big blind re-raises here I think the hand is over. A flop like that has all sorts of possibilities…straight draws with hands like 7/8, flushes or flush draws, and lots of hands like K/J+, J/10, A/J.

When he flats, it makes it hard to tell…does he have the nuts and wants the small blind to hang himself? Does he have a draw? Did he hit part of it but is nervous about the small blind having the nuts?

The turn is the 10h, the small blind leads out for 1.80 and again the big blind flat calls. I am thinking most likely we are looking at a couple of flushes or flush draws with still the possibility of something like a set or two pair.

The river is the Qc, a very interesting card. Lets say instead of flush the small blind had something like A/K. It actually fits the way he played the hand somewhat and now he would have a straight. It also makes hands like J/q or Q/10 2 pair hands.

He raises 5.40, leaving himself about 1.60. The big blind thinks for a goodly long while and finally calls.

I am thinking flush, straight, set are the most likely hands here, though 2 pair are a lesser possibility. Any way you look at it, I am folding anything weaker than a set here, and possibly even folding that.

The small blind shows Ah/Js…second pair, top kicker. The big blind shows 10d/Jc for two pair.
So a battle of the blinds has a 15 dollar pot over a pair vs 2 pair on a board showing straight and flush possibilities. Crazy.

UTG opens to .35 with 9.94 and I flat call from the next seat with 15.15 holding pocket 8s. Middle position comes along with 5.62 and then the big blind raises to 1.50 with 10.49.

When the utg raises to 9.94 it is an easy fold…I give him probably aces or kings, q/q+, MAYBE A/K and I am drawing thin against that. If he flat calls, I probably come along as my implied odds would be excellent. But believing I am against a bigger pair most likely and a coin flip at best, I am out.

The big blind does call and sure enough…utg has pocket aces, big blind big slick. Flop and turn bring Kings and the pocket rockets get shafted in a 19.26 pot.

I am just happy I had the good sense to fold when clearly behind with poor odds. Not a certain thing. But the beauty of it is the very next hand I open to .30 from middle position with pocket 7s and win the blinds, thus getting back almost half of what I put in the previous pot.

A bit later the cut-off opens to .40 with 7.42. A bigger than normal raise like this frequently represents a weak drawing hand…pockets of 6 or less, say, that would rather have everyone fold. The button calls with 3.60 and they take the flop heads up.

The 9h/6h/As flop is more likely to hit the button I think as he might have an Ace in a lot of his potential holdings. The cut-off continuation bets .30.

What an absolutely idiotic bet. He raised .40 into a .15 cent pot…now he is going to bet .30 into a .95 cent pot? Betting in reverse screams A) weakness and B) bad player.

It is almost incumbent on the button to re-raise with any non-nut hand and get this chowder head out of the hand. He flats it.

The turn is the 7s, the cut-off checks, the button then shows he is just as bad as the cut-off with a .40 bet into about 1.70. Call.

The river is the 3c. 8/10 is the absolute nuts. I would believe a soft ace, two pair, or even something like K/q from either player. The cut-off checks, the button bets .80 cents. The cut-off calls.

The button shows Js/10s. So lets review his play; he calls the open with a drawing hand. Fair enough. He calls the flop, sensing a continuation bet. Fair enough. He picks up a draw on the turn and raises the river because that is the only way he can win. I guess in retrospect it makes sense…but I still think not re-raising the flop or making a serious turn bet was a mistake.

The cut-off shows much better than expected…pocket Queens. Okay, the over-raise is a bit out of school, the underbet on the flop with the Ace makes sense, then he plays pot control. Much better than expected. But still a horrible play from the flop on.

And that is the thing...I think sometimes I credit others with being better players than they are. By the same token...all too often when I call I am up against the absolute nuts. I think the clear result is this; I need to get better at putting people on ranges that more accurately represent holdings. I put them on the same range I would have and I am relatively tight.