Hand by Hand 9; Goal in sight

When utg+1 limps with 5.78 I put him on a weak drawing hand. Having a weak drawing hand myself in the 8c/9h I decide to see if I can take a cheap flop and use position to win a hand if a big card flops. The big blind checks with 5.16 and we watch the 5d/Qc/Qs drop. Perfect.
They both check, I bet .10, they fold.

You would think this is good…but it might be bad. I would not mind had I raised pre-flop but I start calling more often.

UTG opens to .15 with 5. I have a couple notes on him and, when he gets click-raised by the cut-off with 2.21. I am on the button with 3h/Ah and elect to call. Click-raises over a standard raise scream weakness and I can possibly call a continuation bet on the flop and take it away on the turn. Of course, that assumes the original raiser does not make a substantial re-raise…which he does not, just calling.

The flop is 9s/Ac/6d. I am not super happy about the Ace…I would almost rather miss completely. Check, the re-raiser bets .25 and I call, the original raiser folds. The river is the 7d which completes a couple draws but is not too dangerous, he checks, I raise, he folds. The plan works.

So utg I decide if I can call with A/3 suited, I can open with A/5 suited and everyone agrees. They must agree…they folded.

UTG opens with 5.31, UTG+1 calls with 8.68 and I have 6.78 and two red nines. I also call. Everyone else folds, giving me the button. The flop is the 5d/Ah/6d. We check it around.

A bet might be in order here, but I do not want to get check-raised off the hand. The Jd also gets checked to me, and that changes things. There is now a flush on the board, everyone has twice shown weakness. There is still the chance of a check-raise, but I am not winning the hand in a showdown. I bet .30 and they both fold.

A couple hands later, UTG opens to .30 with 4.99 and I am in middle position with pocket threes. I call, everyone else folds.

The flop is the Jh/7h/5h. He leads out for .36 cents, a pot size bet. Often I will call here planning to take it away on the turn. This time, however, I think the situation is different. The flop is dangerous, it hits several hands I think he holds..like pocket 7s, pocket 5s.

There is a possibility he folds to a re-raise, but I was really trying to flop a set. I missed, the flop is dangerous, why play a big pot? Easy fold.

I open on the button with 6.91 and Kh/2h. This is at the bottom range of hands I will open with. I anticipate a fold, but if I face some resistance, I might flop the lucky flush. The big blind does indeed call with 4 even.

The flop is the 10s/Qg/4d. He checks, I bet .20, he calls. The turn is the 7s, he checks, I bet .35 expecting him to fold. He calls. The river is the Ac and he checks for the third time. I try to puzzle through what he has. No obvious draws on the flop except something like K/J or J/9, he has played passively.

My best guess is second or third pair with a modest kicker. I think he might lay it down to a third barrel, so I bet again and he calls with 6s/Qs. Fair enough. I was trying to be aggressive with a marginal hand, I thought I could garner a fold, I was wrong.

A bit later I open in the small blind with Qc/Ad and unsurprisingly the big blind folds.
A middle position open with big slick sees another fold.

A raise from the cut-off with Ad/Qd garners a third consecutive pick-up of the blinds (consecutive in terms of hands I found playable).

These are minor but important hands. They re instill my confidence after what felt like a pretty major mis-step. I do scale back my aggressiveness a certain amount…a couple hands I would have raised had I won the button verse big blind battle are folded, but the winning of the blinds uncontested is a confidence boost. Maybe too much of one.

The cut-off opens with 5.20. On the button with Ad/10d and 5.45 I elect to call, mostly planning my favorite call/turn raise ploy.

Plans change on the Ac/As/5d flop. He checks, I check behind. I am behind any Ace hand holding a King, Queen, Jack or five. I am ahead of any Ace holding a 9,8,7,6,4,3 or 2. So I figure to be a favorite against Aces and a BIG favorite against any non-pocket 5 hand.

The turn gives me the nuts, the 10s. He leads out for a quarter and I do the fish click-raise. He insta-calls. I figure he has the Ace and I am going to stack him.

Sure enough, the river is the 5h. He no doubt has an Ace and shoves his last 4.55. I instacall and his Ah/Qh loses a big pot to my bigger full house.

I like my check on the flop as I wanted to play a smaller pot until I had some idea of his holding. He could have had a medium pair, suited connectors, all sorts of hands. I figured to be a favorite against most hands, but I have been stacked a few times when flopping trips and running into a bigger kicker.

So outside of pre-flop, in this hand I never put in a chip when I was behind. I think a bet on the flop might have led to an all-in confrontation when I was behind and drawing thin. No doubt I drew out on him which used to be something that bothered me…but I am starting to figure out if you never draw out on anyone, you only ever win small pots.

With 9.96 and Qs/Ah I open from middle position and win the blinds.

UTG+1 with 10.03 and Qd/Qs I open to .15, get called by the next seat with 3.02 and then the big blind, with 3.02, re-pops to .65.

A/K, K/K and Aces are the only hands that bother me, but he could do this with a much wider range…A/10+, A/x suited, eights or better…I can re-raise trying to isolate or flat hoping to build a pot. I decide just to call it and it works as the other guy calls.

So now we have a pot of 1.95 and the flop is gorgeous. Qh/3s/10s. The blind leads out for a buck. I think about flat-calling but with straight and flush draws, I think that might be a bad idea. I again click-raise…a bad habit I am getting into. The next seat calls and the big blind folds.

Now the pot is so big there is no way I am folding, especially since the next seat has .37 left. The Kh turns, I put him all in and he calls with…8s/9s? Really? You called all that flop action with a gut-shot to the ignorant end? Nicely done! The river three to give me a boat is almost irrelevant as I rake another big pot.

Now I have 14.24 and face the old conundrum; rat hole my winnings or continue? I am actually attempting a Full Tilt Academy challenge that I will pass if I can make it to 15.00 so I decide to keep playing.

The problem with this is I sometimes play hands not because they are good hands to play but because I want to achieve the artificial goal and that leads to poor decisions.

UTG opens to .15 with 1.91 and I make one of those poor decisions, calling with 7h/Ah. I am not getting proper odds for a flush.

The flop gives me hope with the 6h/3d/10h. He bets .15 and I call. The turn is the Ad and now I am in a spot. I have too much hand to fold to his bet, not enough to win a showdown.

Fortunately, he only bets .15 so I call. The river is the 2s, I missed my draw, got the wrong odds….he bets just .20.

Interesting. The pre-flop raise was standard, the flop bet could be construed as half pot, but after that his bets were on the small side. On the one hand, I hesitate to call…the only Aces I can beat are A/4 and A/5 so if he hit the Ace I am losing. On the other hand, it feels more like a pair smaller than ten…his small bets are meant to keep me from making a pots size raise with something like K/10 or something like that.

So I am calling .20 to win 1.10, better than 5-1. I am not good enough to lay down top pair, no kicker so I call.

And he shows the Ac/5s. Of the two Aces I could beat, he holds one. Hysterical.

So close, now I have 14.87 and the very next hand I run into one of those hands I hate. Middle position limps with 2.59, next seat calls with 7.35, the button limps with 1.26, the small blind completes with 3.67 and, in the big blind, I have 8d/Ks. Not good enough to raise into four limpers, and I really do not want to hit any part of this. I check.

And hit part of it. *** FLOP *** [Jc 6h Kc] Now I have top pair, no kicker, with numerous draws available.

I lead out with a half pot bet of .15, get calls from both middle positions and folds from the button and small blind.The turn is the Ac, I no longer have top pair, there is a flush on the board, I check. MP bets half the pot, one fold…do I call or raise or fold?

I check-raise indicates I have the flush…but he showed no fear of the flush. He could have hit the flush, the straight, or the Ace, all of which beat me, or he could have sensed my weakness and be making a play. I should probably fold here, but I call.The river 2c almost guarantees a flush.

I check and will fold to any bet, but he checks behind and wins with the 7c/8c.

I maybe should have folded the turn, but since I got to see a cheap showdown with a hand that conceivably had some showdown value…eh, I do not feel bad about it. I do wish someone had raised preflop and saved me .45 though…

So now I am further from my goal. Should I keep going or pack it in?