Jacked up

When I see a hand that goes to show-down, sometimes I like to play along with it and see how close to their holdings I can get. Early middle position open limps with 12.19 and the big blind checks with 11.01.

Okay, we know very little so far. The limper probably has some sort of drawing hand like pocket 6s or worse, suited connectors, maybe something like J/10 or a suited hand that doesn’t match…Q/3s type garbage. The big blind could have pretty much any two cards.

The 6c/3s4s hits a few hands, misses a lot. The big blind leads out for .20, a pot size bet essentially. He could easily have something like 4/8 or A/3, he could have a couple spades, he could have 2 big cards or even pockets that match the board.

The limper click-raises…this feels like a “I see your fish bet and want to see if you will fold.” The big blind flats it. So now we have a pot of about a buck.

The turn is the 4c, the big blind checks, the limper does the ultra-fishy .10 min-bet probably expecting a fold. Instead he sees a check-raise over pot-size to 1.35.

Right abut now I figure the big blind has some hand with a 4 in it. It fits his play perfectly…he had a poor hand pre-flop, hit a small part of the flop, wanted to see if his hand was good. The re-raise priced him in. The turn gives him three of a kind, he is looking good.

I revise that judgement when the limper re-pops to 11.69 all in. He has to have something like pocket 6s or pocket threes here? How do you do that without a super-strong hand? You just saw a big check-raise.

The big blind calls. I expect to see set over set or set vs. something like 10/4 trash that hit the four.

The limper shows a hand that fit my initial profile…4d/6d. He flopped two pair, turned the boat. The big blind…show 8s/5h? What? He called all in on a gut-shot straight draw? He is drawing dead and loses a 20.25 pot playing the board plus his 8. What a tool.

I do not have words to describe this. I mean, I think my analysis was pretty sound…IF he was a sound player. But he called a huge re-raise of his check-raise all in when literally the ONLY hands he could beat were 2/7 and 2/8. Those are the ONLY two possible holdings he could beat. Any other holding has either a higher card or paired the board.

His check-raise was kind of cool, he read weakness and pounced on it. However, when re-raised all in, the only way this could have been a more obvious fold was if he himself held the deuce-seven. His play was fine until there and at that point he derailed horrifically.

Speaking of de-railing horrifically…

UTG+2 limps with 17.88, next guy calls with 3.34, a fold, a call with 30.61, the small blind completes with 10.15, and in the big blind, with 3.35, I look down at Jh/Js.

There are a lot of weak hands behind me…4 limps. Probably a couple small pocket pairs, suited connectors, suited card type hands. I think I can probably take it down right here and bump it to .80. The first limper calls, everyone else folds.

He still has a similar range, shading towards stronger draws or slightly larger pockets…the implied odds if someone calls behind him could allow him to make this move, plus he is at worst playing for 1/6th his stack.

I could do without the Ace on the As/10d/2c flop, but I typically continuation bet half the pot here anyway. This time I instead lead out for 1.90, leaving myself just .65 cents behind. What a bad bet on so many levels. He calls, it does not matter what he has because with .65 left I am priced into my turn shove on the 4c, even though his call pretty much screams A/x suited since there are very few draws and none that make sense.

Also possible are pocket tens or pocket deuces.

Turns out he had a worse hand than I anticipated, Ad/Qh but still more than ample to stack my poor pair of jacks.

If I bet a more reasonable .60 cents on the turn it is possible I get away from the hand, but when I overbet, against my normal style, on the flop, I was all but guaranteed to either make a worse hand fold or a better hand stack me. I played very poorly and had the expected result.

Actually, I like my pre-flop raise…I got a poor call from a hand that never should have limped. But then I made a major flop error. So some good, more bad.

Contrast that to my next hand. The cut-off open limps with 5, I am in the small blind it looked soft, I have pocket Queens and 3.90, I re-raise to .60 and the limper calls.

Again I am not overly excited about the flop…Kc/4c/Ad. This time I check and he checks behind. The turn is the 9s. I am feeling better about my hand…he could still have a soft Ace or some sort of hand that hit the King, but more likely a draw of some sort or smaller pair.

I lead out for my normal half pot bet of .60 and he calls. I like that he just flats it. He has a pretty wide range, some of which beat me, a lot of which are behind. But now, with better betting, I have 2.60 behind instead of .65, I was not locked into the hand if he came out with a big re-raise.
The river is the Js which I am also not to keen on. Q/10, pocket Jacks, any Ace or King beat me. I want to keep the pot small, I check, he checks behind and his K/Q take it down.

He played the hand cautiously, but so did I. It is possible I could have taken it down with flop, turn and river bets, but it is also likely he would have called it down and I would have gotten stacked. Even though I lost over a quarter of my stack on this hand, I think I played it vastly better than the prior hand.

Unfortunately, it leaves me with a short stack and I sometimes, after making a GOOD play like that, will make a bad play.

The small blind opens to .40 with 19.98 and, in the big blind with 2.60, I look at a pedestrian 10d/Kc. He over-raised here which could represent anything from pocket rockets on down to a 2/7 making a position raise. For some bizarre reason I decide to re-pop it to 1.20, expecting a fold. He calls.

The flop is Kh/4d/4c. I have Kings up, modest kicker, and with 1.40 left, a pot of 2.40, my aggressive pre-flop move that failed means I am pretty much locked into seeing this one through.

Now, admittedly I am pretty good against his overall range here…A/K, K/Q, K/J and anything like x/4 suited have me crushed, but I am well out in front of everything else. But still…I want the fold equity so I shove. Fortunately, he folds so he was probably on some sort of move, and my making a move wins a small pot. But it was a seriously curious move I made and I am not overly fond of my play on the hand. A fortuitous flop should not mask that.

So I bounce around getting down to about 2.88 or so, back up to 3.38, up and down in that range for a while. MP limps with 8.34, small blind completes with 3.53 and I am stuck in that position I hate…3.38, big blind being squeezed, and a horrible hand of jc/2c.

I always hit just enough of this to take a shot at it, get stubborn, and lose a bunch.

Sure enough, here comes the Js/Qc/7s. I hit middle pair, no kicker. The small blind checks, I decide to take a stab at it and bet .20.

The early limper calls and the big blind folds.

The turn is the Kc. Limp, call with one behind. He could have hit this soft, hard, or not at all. Worth taking a look at the turn. I again lead out for .30, he again calls. I am done with the hand.
The only draws that make sense are something like 9/10 or a spade draw, but many more of the hands in his range are ahead of me, including an awful lot of Queen and Jack hands, none of which I can beat.

The river is the 6d, I check, he checks behind. I figure he has to have me beat so am glad to see a showdown cheap, not so glad to have put in .50 more than I would have if someone would have just raised pre-flop so I could go away.

Fortunately, he had one of the few…very few…hands I could beat, a 5/8s for a busted flush draw and I take down a modest but nice pot for a hand I had no desire to be in.

A re-raise with suited A/k wins a pot, I fold, and then utg limps with 3.27, I limp from the hijack with 4.45 and pocket 4s, and the big blind checks with 4 even.

The flop is pretty good for such a modest holding facing one drawing hand and two random cards…8s/3d/3h. I am ahead of the vast majority of their range here. The big blind checks, the limper raises to .20. I think I have a shot at this pot and re-pop to .60.

It probably made sense when I did it, but now I find it a bit curious. It works, however, as they both fold.

34 hands later I have 4.30.MP opens to .35 with 12.11, the cut-off calls with 8.73 and on the button I look down at Js/Jh. I re-pop to 1.55 figuring they are about 70% to fold. This proves to be one of the 30% as the cut-off re-raises all in 8.73. I have 2.75 left.

His range here is A/K, A/Qs, maybe 10s or better. If I think he thinks I am making a move, drop it to A/J, A/10s+, pockets 8+.

Any way you look at it, I fare poorly against his range and should fold here. There is about 2.70 in the pot plus the 2.75 I need to call, so I am getting 2-1, but am probably needing to get 3-1 to call here.

Being an idiot, I call anyway, he shows Queens, I do not improve, and after a session I really worked to get back in the positive, I throw it all away being stubborn.

When he re-raised a re-raise, I need to be ready to release nice but not strong hands like Jacks here. It is a real weakness in my game I need to work on. Stacking off twice with Jacks is not something I am proud of. It plants me firmly in the fish camp for sure.