Random Hands

I find Aces difficult to play sometimes. Like many weak players, I tend to hold on to them too long even when it is obvious I am behind or even drawing dead. So my goal often becomes to get it all in pre-flop if possible…prevents me having to make tough decisions.

Sitting behind 56 big blinds on the button, I am happy to look down at two black aces. Ideally, one person will raise, another re-raise, and I can raise all-in.

UTG+1, with 77bb, opens 3 times the big blind and gets calls from two middle position guys with 90 and 38 big blinds. Perfect. There are 10.5 big blinds in the pot when it gets to me.

I re-raise all-in. Ideally, the first guy has queens or kings and another guy has A/K and a loose idea of good calls. Second best would be everyone folding which is what happens.

It is perhaps a sign of me being a poor player that I am ecstatic to take down 10.5 blinds with no risk rather than see 2 or 3 players call since I know their combined chance of winning is better than mine even though my individual percentage chance is better than either of their individual chances.

Shortly thereafter, I have 64 bb and pick up 8c/6c in the big blind. As a general rule, I routinely fold suited one-gappers. I play them poorly and they have long been a losing proposition for me. On this occasion, it is folded to the big blind who, sitting behind 120 bb, opens to 3 bb.

An easy fold, even though more often than not the sb is raising position. For some inexplicable reason, I call.

Actually, I had a very specific reason. More often than not the small blind who raises here will continuation bet the flop, then check-fold the turn after I flat-call the flop and bet the turn when they check it. That play has a very high rate of success but I still usually only make it when I have something like suited connectors, a dry ace, maybe K/Q off.

So really, my cards do not matter, I am playing a scenario.

The flop is a mixed bag…6s/Kc/Qc. I pick up bottom pair with no kicker and a garbage flush draw. He bets about 2/3rd the pot. I flat-call it, expecting the normal check-fold on the turn…and having plenty of outs if not.

The turn is a blank, the 3s. He bets 2/3 pot again, I flat-call it. The river is again a blank, the 7s. He checks. The pot is mine, I just need to send in the chips and he will fold…but I meekly check behind.

That is a huge mistake. The only hands he could have that I am beating here are things like A/x clubs, 10/J, maybe a pair of 5s. But many of the hands that have me beat will fold to a bet here the way the hand played out.

And, in fact, he would have folded…showing the 10d/2d. He was playing the “battle of the blinds, he will fold” card and my draw won me a nice pot. But it does not excuse my poor river play. I think I needed to bet there and got cautious when my draws missed. I was never playing the draw, it was not relevant to my river action.

Conversely, the same holds true for him. I do not think my busted draw/near-bottom pair could call even the most modest of bets there.

Later on, sitting behind 33 bb, I am in late position with Kh/qh. This is the type of hand I do not mind opening with but hate to call. It is right in the happy zone of all too many hands that either dominate it…A/K, A/Q, pocket Kings and Queens…or that want it to hit, like A/x suited.

I am not a good enough player to know when I am beat or to lay down the second nuts so it is a hand I typically stay away from. On this occasion I am in the cutoff. The hijack opens to 3xbb with 113 big blinds behind and I call. Everyone else folds.

The flop comes down Kd, 4s, 3s. This is exactly the type of flop I love/hate. I have top pair, good kicker…and am right in the happy zone of a lot of hands in his range, but way ahead of many other hands in his range….4+, suited aces. Lets see what the action is.

He bets a third of the pot…a feeler-type bet or a trap. It screams weakness…I am going to weight his range more towards something like Jacks or tens, nervous about the king. I put in a good size raise, about 1-1/3 times the pot. At this point, I am committed…I am seeing the river. He re-pops all in.

Well now, that changes things. Aces, A/K, pocket Kings…pocket 4s…pocket 3s…all hands in his range and all hands he wants to get it all in here. Of course, so are things like suited Ace of spades, the aforementioned medium pockets, and several other things I can beat.

If I have 50 or 100 big blinds, I probably have to fold here, but being a bit short-stacked, I bite my lip in frustration and call. I think I wanted him to fold when I re-raised his weak feeler. He shows up with Ks/10c…top pair, worse kicker, and a back door flush draw.

For what it is worth…my hand held up and I doubled up with a pair of Kings, Queen kicker…not necessarily a situation I want to be in very often! I do not know if I played this hand horribly or very well. I would believe either. Since he re-raised all-in and I called based on my holdings and a pseudo-read...

A while later I am in the big blind with Ah/2h with 60 big blinds. The cut-off opens to 3 big blinds with 114 behind everyone else folds.

I normally fold here. I am out of position, trying for a 1 in 15ish shot at the nut flush with no other hand making me happy. For some reason I called.

The flop was about as good as it could be, a 6s/Kh/8h giving me the nut flush draw. This is good and bad…it is good because I hit the hand I was playing for. It is bad because…well, it will be hard to get paid off if I hit and cost me a pretty penny if I do not since I tend to stick with my draws too long based on the classic “implied odds”.

He bets almost a pot-size bet. I am not getting the correct exact odds by far, but my implied odds, I convince myself, are good enough…I call.

The turn is the jackpot…the 5h. I check and he checks behind. The river is the 2s. Now I face a decision. I have the absolute nuts..how to get him to pay off?

I have check-called all the way. I can check and hope he bets, lead out with anywhere from a half-pot to a full pot…or try to look like a bluff. I choose that. With 16 bb in the pot, I raise all in with my last 52 big blinds. It is a horrible bet that makes no sense. I was trying to look like I was bluffing.

He called with Kd/9d…a pair of Kings. Yeah, he paid off with top pair, modest kicker on a flush board. Woo-hoo! There is a reason TJ Cloutier advises not playing K/9 and why I routinely fold it.

So sitting behind 112 big blinds, I am getting into that hazy zone. I had hit a really rough patch over the course of several weeks where when I got it in good…say, pocket Aces against pocket jacks…I would get out-drawn. Then I would get frustrated and push a draw or just two big cards or a clearly out-drawn pair too hard and give back every chip I had won and more.

I was losing buy-ins hand over fist.

So typically, I have been starting with 40 big blinds and rat-holing once I get to about 80 bb. I just did not want to lose what I had won all in one go. This has the interesting side-effects of A) forcing me to play tighter and B) keeping me from playing speculative hands which I tend to play poorly.

So to be sitting on that many buy-ins, there was a real danger of either A) playing scared which leads to folding when I should not or B) playing afraid of playing scared, which means over-valuing my hand and sticking with it when obviously beat.

And under the gun I pick up one of those troubling hands…pocket Jacks. I raise to 3 big blinds, get called by a guy with 210 big blinds, and the big blind also calls with 36 big blinds.

Great…I am sandwiched between someone who will probably be willing to move in with a pretty wide range and a guy playing deep-stack, I have a hand that will most likely see over cards on the flop and, as the pre-flop better, I already know I plan to continuation bet.

The flop is about as bad as it can be…Ks/9c/Ad. Big Slick, A/Q, A/J, A/10, K/Q, pocket nines…all those hands have me crushed and are quite believable. I am not too nervous about pocket Kings or Aces…but I am way behind their ranges.

Big blind leads out with a pot-size bet, I triple his bet. The deep-stack guy takes his time but finally calls. I do not like that. It feels like he hit a big hand and is trying to figure out if it is better to get the chips in now or try and bring the big blind along.

The turn is a blank, the 4h. No flush draws. The big blind checks, I check behind, deep stack piledrives his last 200 blinds in.

That screams strength to me. He did not bother to size his bet, just shipped them. The big blind calls and I am done with the hand. Time to figure out what they had.

I am thinking the big blind has a soft ace or a stupid draw, maybe the 10/J, A/J, or A/10 type thing hoping to hit a straight or that his Ace is good. The other guy feels like A/K, maybe suited A/9, pocket Aces or, unlikely but possible with his turn move on the 4, pocket 4s or even A/4..
Well…sort of. The move-in was with Aces up, he did indeed have A/K and I got away from the hand relatively cheaply, just 12 bb lost. But the Big Blind?

He over-called with K/6. He over-called a re-raise with K/6. He called an all-in with K/6. Wow. That is just…that is awful. I feel pretty good about my play on the hand comparatively! Not sure about my re-raise…but other than that I am satisfied.

The good thing about hands like this is they really help me establish how people play various hand ranges. I mean, I do not really expect people to play K/6 in that situation, but people defend their big blind with all sorts of trash and I need to take that into account in blind battles.
I also need to be more willing to release my hand on flops like that. I know I said I was planning to raise regardless of flop…but upon further review, maybe that was not so good.

To be sure, often enough my opponent folds on a continuation bet or re-raise on a flop like this…but that is against ONE opponent. It stretches the bounds of credibility I would be facing TWO or more opponents without an Ace or big pocket pair in their hand. I should have saved that bet.
But at least I am thinking about it and learning. Getting better. And that makes me happy.