Sitting behind 49 bb, I watch UTG, with 135 BB, open to 4 times the big blind. It is folded to me in the cut-odd where, with pocket Queens, I elect to re-raise. He thinks about it and finally calls.
The flop is one of those frightening but fun flops where things can go horribly wrong when you get stacked or very right and double you up…Qc/Kc/Jh. I am way behind the Cowboys, about even with A/10, and way ahead of everything else. He comes out firing about a third pot bet.
Why would he lead out into the pre-flop re-raiser? My best bet was he had a marginal hand and/or was trying to prevent the draw at the flush. It did not feel like he hit the flop hard but more like it missed him, he thought it might have missed me too and wanted to drive me off.
I re-raised him all-in. Now he faced a decision. I was laying him about 2-1/2 to 1 to call. I had twice shown strength, re-raising pre-flop and on a dangerous flop.
What types of hands could I do that with? Considering he was under the gun, I should respect his hand and indeed I figured him for 6+, any suited Ace, and any unsuited A/J+… a pretty wide range, many of which suited his actions.
So if that was what I put him on, he had to put me I would think on a stronger range…JJ+, MAYBE suited Aces if I am loose, perhaps two face cards. The only way he is chasing me off that hand is if I have something like pocket 8s type hands.
Unless, of course, he is thinking deeper and trapping, trying to make it look like he missed the flop or hit it semi-hard and is trying to draw me in.
He ended up calling with A/Q, catching an Ace on the turn, and the river….was a blank. Nice. Scary as he had lots of outs…any Ace, King or ten gave him a winner on the river, so 8 outs. But I always like getting it in as the favorite and having my hand hold up. I actually think I played the hand pretty well, though perhaps some people would try for pot control and just call on the flop.
The problem with that approach is the turn card. When the Ace falls, it makes calling off the rest of my chips a tougher decision. With Aces up he is shoving, but at that point, I have to give serious thought to him having a straight or two pair. The 2 pair counterfeits many of my outs.
If I put him on A/10 then I am drawing to 13 outs and need to be getting 4-1. I would not be and have to fold. If I put him on 2 pair I am actually still ahead and need to call. Having him on a range where I do not know what he has means I have to guess at what is the positive EV play…and I am not good enough to figure that out.
Thus it was a case where I was better off taking a strong hand, adding the fold equity and shoving on the flop. This time it worked out.
Later on I made what I think was a completely poor play.
I have picked up a move where if I am in position and the pre-flop aggressor, I regularly make continuation bets, expecting flop calls, then raise again on the turn and have them fold. Having rat-holed a nice gain, I was sitting behind 43 bb and picked up 10h/qd.
When I am playing well I often fold that, but this time did not have the option. The button open-limped with a deep stack, the sb folded and I checked.
The flop was As/Qc/9s. Top pair, mediocre kicker. I bet half the pot, he merely calls. The turn was the 9c, adding a gut-shot. I bet half the pot…and he triples my raise. No problem, this is a clear fold.
What hands can he open limp, call the flop, and raise with? 10/J is the most likely holding, but so is stuff like A/8/ For that matter, 8/9 suited is a reasonable holding as well. Nor would I be surprised to see him have pocket 8s or pocket 10s.
Across his entire range,the only thing I am ahead of here is a semi-bluff with something like K/J. It is a clear fold. Whenever someone re-pops on a second barrel, they always have SOMETHING. Just let the hand go.
Or be an idiot, call planning to bet again on the river if a good card comes, so that is what I did. The river was the irrelevant 3s. I suppose if he has K/J or picked up the club flush draw on the turn he MIGHT fold here…but cut your losses.
Or put in a half pot bet, watch him call with A/9 and lose a sizable portion of my stack in a hand I would not even have been in had I not been big blind.
I do not hate my flop and turn raises…but the rest of the hand…I played like a chump and deserved what I got. Putting in half my stack with second pair, mediocre kicker against demonstrated strength is a horrific play I am embarrassed to have made.
Of course, making correct choices does not always have a good outcome either.
Sitting behind 68 bb, late medium position raises 3.5 times the blind with 80 bb behind. I re-pop from the button to 13-1/2 bb, the big blind, sitting behind 45 bb, repops to 30 big blinds. Then the mp calls.
Now I have a decision. The re-raise by the big blind screams Aces or Kings, MAYBE A/K on a move, but I am weighting it towards the pairs. The call is less sure…he can easily get squeezed by me as I have enough left to force him to a decision if I re-re-raise. So I figure I am behind one guy, ahead of the other, and getting about 4-1 real odds with much better implied.
I elect to call.
The flop is rags, 6d/9s/2c. No flush draw, no believable straight draw. BB raises his last 15 blinds all in, the mp flat-calls. It just screams weak to me. I figure I am way behind the big blind, but the MP looks like 10s or jacks maybe? Or maybe that is what I am hoping.
I want to get his chips, and if he called one bet, he will call another. I come over the top for my last 38 blinds, he calls, and sure enough, BB had Aces and he had…7s?
Sweet! I thought he had a stronger hand. I will most likely lose the initial bet and still come out ahead by taking his chips…until the turn is a 7.
Sigh.
I had him where I wanted him, read him correctly, and made the right move. It just failed when he hit his 2-outer.
So up and down, get down to about 26 bb when the button, with 140bb, opens 3xbb. For some bizarre reason I decide to defend with 10/9 off. But I go about it the wrong way.
To properly defend, I should re-pop here. Just calling does nothing to differentiate between someone on a blind steal with any two cards or someone with a legit hand. Now I will spend the hand out of position with a marginal hand.
Nor is there anything reassuring in the Jh/Kd/6d flop. I have the ignorant end of a gut shot straight draw…do not think I will be happy to see a Queen, either, as A/10 is certainly in the realm of possibility. I have yet to narrow his hand. I check, he bets 30xbb, and I fo….call?
What? Well, actually, I had an idea he was on a steal. I had notes on him as being pretty aggressive. I planned to see what he did on the turn and go after him on the river. It is a pretty standard play on this level to continuation bet any hand on any flop and it seldom means anything.
Sure enough, the turn is 3c, I check, he checks behind. The river is a harmless 6c, but it works well for me. The way I played this hand it is well within the realm of cards I COULD have and was just trying to see the river. So does anything with a Jack or king with weak kicker…maybe even something like Q/10.
Still, I am highly unlikely to win if it is checked down and I am not a good enough player to check-raise a pure bluff, so I bet half the pot and he folds.
In all honesty, as soon as he checked the turn it was almost impossible for me to NOT bet the river. I had twice called with nothing, I had to take a shot at winning the pot. I acted in those manners because of things I had noted him doing and it paid off THIS time.
A bit later I am utg+1 with 37 bb. The utg, sitting behind 57bb, opens to 3xbb and I look down at Ad/Qd. Ironically, this is a hand I routinely fold. Easily dominated, against a first position raiser, I am simply not a good enough player to play this hand. But this time I decide to call for whatever reason.
Everyone folds and we take a 6c/Ks/9d flop heads up. He bets the pot and, with no hand, no draw, but position, I call, planning to raise the turn after he checks and take it down. But the turn is the 7d and he goes all in. Well, that changes things, doesn’t it?
Why would he over-bet the pot here? Most likely holding is a set he is protecting but if so, it is a big set. He raised under the gun, thus representing strength. He made a standard continuation bet, but then bet 3 times the pot, all-in, so he is absolutely committed to the pot.
The only thing I can beat here is a pure bluff and I am getting less than 3 to 1 on a call, so calling based on a flush draw is a poor play. Time to fold and move on…or, idiotically, call and get stacked by the A/K when the flush draw misses.
I was not getting the proper odds, I was just hoping to "get lucky". Not a good choice.
There are times when it is good to follow up with a second barrel, other times it is not. I really need to differentiate between the two.
On my over-pair that stacked off against the suck-out set, I should more carefully consider the long-term odds. On drawing hands, I need to get BETTER than the actual odds because I usually do not think on enough levels and have secondary plan to win the hands.
So this was not an example of good play at all.
Thursday
Big Blind pain
I was playing some short-stack, trying to work on my game. Sitting behind just under 30 BB, in the big blind. UTG+1 limps, the button limps, the small blind folds, and I look down at the horrific A/6 off.
Frankly, I even thought to myself "I wish someone had raised this so I could fold." This is the type of hand I hate. If an Ace flops, it is harder to get away from because nobody raised. A/6 is bad though because it only beats A/5, A/4, A/3, and A/2...most of which, including A/6, will also be beat by the board.
Nor am I too excited about flopping a 6, not with two limpers. I do not want to play this hand at all, particularly out of position.
Sure enough, the flop comes A/A/2. The early guy raise, the button flat-calls. I am nowhere near a good enough player to get away from this hand yet...though I actually thought about folding, but it was not a serious option.
I flat-call and watch the turn change everything...another deuce.
Okay, now I have Aces full. I am behind exactly one hand...pocket deuces, which if they have, I am paying off.
Sure enough, early guy raises, button flat calls. This is good...one of them HAS to have the case ace, and the other must have pockets of some sort. It is good because I am splitting with the other ace and need to beat the rake.
The river is a 10. Early guy checks, button goes all in. No way am I folding a boat here...though I should have.
He was playing Ace 10.
So a hand I never wanted to play, should have folded on the flop, did not make a move at the one point I was tied for best hand, ended up costing me all my chips.
There is a reason I hate getting free checks with hands like this...
Frankly, I even thought to myself "I wish someone had raised this so I could fold." This is the type of hand I hate. If an Ace flops, it is harder to get away from because nobody raised. A/6 is bad though because it only beats A/5, A/4, A/3, and A/2...most of which, including A/6, will also be beat by the board.
Nor am I too excited about flopping a 6, not with two limpers. I do not want to play this hand at all, particularly out of position.
Sure enough, the flop comes A/A/2. The early guy raise, the button flat-calls. I am nowhere near a good enough player to get away from this hand yet...though I actually thought about folding, but it was not a serious option.
I flat-call and watch the turn change everything...another deuce.
Okay, now I have Aces full. I am behind exactly one hand...pocket deuces, which if they have, I am paying off.
Sure enough, early guy raises, button flat calls. This is good...one of them HAS to have the case ace, and the other must have pockets of some sort. It is good because I am splitting with the other ace and need to beat the rake.
The river is a 10. Early guy checks, button goes all in. No way am I folding a boat here...though I should have.
He was playing Ace 10.
So a hand I never wanted to play, should have folded on the flop, did not make a move at the one point I was tied for best hand, ended up costing me all my chips.
There is a reason I hate getting free checks with hands like this...
Wednesday
This is me playing well
Playing some .05/.10.
Sitting behind 53 bb I see the utg, with 38 bb, open to 3-1/2 bb. Sitting utg+2, I look down at the cowboys. This is a position where I definitely want to isolate and go heads up, as Kings will not hold up against several callers. I re-raise to 12 bb and it is folded to the first raiser who merely calls.
I like that he just calls. He should have 7/7+, maybe a suited Ace or even some medium suited connectors. He would probably re-pop with Queens or better.
The flop is good and bad. 9d/7d/2h. He leads out for his last 26 blinds all-in. So I would need to call 26 bb to make 48. What hands could he have here to raise/call/all-in with?
Pocket 9s or pocket 7s are definitely in his range, maybe even pocket deuces if he is super loose. So are Aces and Queens, though unlikely, but any pocket 10s or pocket jacks could make that move, as could a suited diamond ace.
Even against a suited Ace, I am a favorite. The only hands he could reasonably hold that I am behind are pocket 2s, 7s, or 9s, or the bizarre 7/9s of some other suit. I think it is a pretty clear call.
He turns up the A/Qd. So he has 9 diamonds to complete the flush and 3 aces to hit a bigger pair, 12 outs twice for about 48%. The turn is the Ks which helps a bit as it counterfeits the 2d. Ultimately, the river is the Ac so my set of Kings holds up.
Going back over the hand, though, I am not sure the call is as automatic as I thought at the time. In fact, if he check-raised me all-in, I am less likely to call as I will put more emphasis on the set which I am drawing thin against. His leading into the pre-flop raiser screams more he has a weaker hand or is semi-bluffing…
Not that I am sure I thought that at the time, but in retrospect, it makes the way he played the hand make more sense. Certainly a lesson to tuck away in the back of my mind.
A while later I am sitting behind 70 big blinds in the cut-off. Utg, with 123 bb, limps. It comes to me, I decide my hockey sticks are worth seeing a cheap flop and limp behind. The big blind, with 381 bb, checks and we take the flop 3-handed.
The flop is the 6c/As/6d. Check, check, and now I have to see if my 7s are any good here. I bet half the pot. The big blind folds, the under the gun calls. Time to narrow his range of hands.
He open-limped, so an Ace is unlikely unless it is A/x suited. Medium pairs, medium suited connectors are the most likely holdings. If he check-raises the flop, I will figure him for a good pair, say Queens or better, and if he just calls, I am either way ahead of someone fishing or way behind and he is luring me in.
The turn is the innocuous 3c. That changed nothing. He checks. Now, what to do? If I check and he bets the river, it will be difficult to call. If I bet and he re-raises, I am done with the hand. If he check-calls I will fold to any bet on the river as I am beat. But there is a chance he called just to see if I was serious.
Check behind and hope to see a cheap show-down or raise to try and drive out a better hand? No way am I getting called by a worse hand here. I again bet half the pot and he folds.
Mindless aggression for the win…
A while later I have 76 bb and the button. When it is folded to me I decide to open to 3bb with Ac/Ts. The small blind, with 133bb, calls and the big blind folds.
I never like it when the small blind calls. He needs a stronger hand because A) he is getting a smaller discount and B) the big blind is yet to act. So anything except a limp that gets action is usually facing a big hand and is therefore dangerous.
The flop is 10d/qh/Qs. As expected, he checks, I bet half the pot, he calls. The good news is he did not raise. The bad news is…he called. A/Q, K/Q, J/Q, and J/10 are all reasonable, believable holdings and I am head of only the J/10. He could also have a medium pair and just be seeing if I am just making a continuation bet.
The turn is the 8c. He again checks. I raise half the pot. If he calls or re-raises, I am done with the hand. If he folds, I take down a nice little pot. He check-calls.
The river is the somewhat dangerous 9d. if he had J/10 he hit his straight.
Otherwise, it is pretty innocuous. I by no means think he has the j/10, but the possibility is there. All he has to do is breathe at this pot and I am folding. He checks.
Reviewing the hand, he called a dangerous flop, called again on an innocent card. I cannot imagine him calling any bet I make with a worse hand than the tens I hold, and cannot imagine him folding any better hand. I check behind expecting him to flip up a Queen or maybe even Jacks or something like that.
Instead he shows the Jh/Kh. Okay, so not really a hand I put in his range after the flop. And from strictly an odds perspective, he played very poorly, though from an implied odds stance…maybe not so much.
Of course, what could he think I had to keep raising on a dangerous board like that? If I raised with Q/10, Q/9 type hands…quite plausible from the button…he is bidding fair to get taken to the cleaners on the river when he pretty much has to call or raise after hitting his hand.
And the only hand I might call him with that he can beat with a straight would be precisely A/10 or A/q. I do not hate his pre-flop or flop calls…but the turn call feels pretty loose. Still, he made the call and took the pot.
The funny thing is, Sklansky and his basic theorem claim I won the hand. He would not call pre-flop, on the flop, or on the turn if he knew the cards I was holding, nor was he getting the correct odds to do so.
Maybe Sklansky feels like I won the hand…and in a sense I did, though dropping 14 BB to someone who hit their gut shot sure does not FEEL like a win…
For some inexplicable reason, I begin going the conservative route. In the small blind I pick up Big Slick suited with 59 big blinds. Utg raises to 3xbb, utg+1 and the hi-jack call. The correct play here is a re-raise to drive out hands like pairs of 9s, medium suited connectors, weak aces. The second best play is to fold, which I have done several times.
Not that A/K is not a good hand…it is. But it is a distinct dog to that much action. Add to that being out of position and for a player who sometimes refuses to release hands that clearly are no longer good…well, better to just ditch them pre-flop.
So I call because I am an idiot. The bb also calls and we take a flop 5-handed. I am out of position with a drawing hand. Any serious action on the flop means I am done with the hand barring a 10/J/Q rainbow flop or a stout flush draw.
The flop is all trash….7c/6s/3c. This hits right in the heart of the types of hands people are all but guaranteed to be holding. Seeing pockets 6s, 7s, and 3s would not surprise me, nor would 6/7 suited, 5/6 suited, 8/9 suited. This is the type of hand I need to train myself to get as far away from as possible unless I have a draw. This time, I have the draw...the nut flush draw.
Check to utg who leads out with 2/3rd the pot bet. One fold, one call. Okay, the first bet COULD be a blind continuation bet…and could easily represent pocket Kings or Aces which my flush draw will have an easy time getting paid off. I base this on the fact he fired into a dangerous flop with 3 people left to act.
It could also be a hand like A/K trying to protect itself from getting drawn out on.
There are a fold and call in front of me…the call indicating they have something worth seeing another step even with people behind to act. I obviously want as many people in the pot as possible here, so a re-raise is out of the question. I call as does the big blind.
The turn is the Jc, giving me the nut flush. In fact, unless someone is playing something goofy like a 5/6c, I have a lock on the hand unless, of course, the board pairs.
Worst thing I can do now is bet it. Too much interest in the hand to give away my strong holdings. I am really hoping for a second barrel from UTG and a couple “I have a set” type calls.
Unfortunately, it is checked around. The turn is the harmless 9h. Unless someone was playing the 8/10, nothing changed. I do not want to see it checked around, so I put in about a half-pot bet. BB calls, UTG folds, other guy calls. So lets check out the reads.
The big blind had pocket 9s…he was counting on first an over-pair, then got to take off a free card which meant he paid me off with a set. Costly river for him.
The middle position guy had pocket Jacks…over-pair that became a set when he turned the Jack.
So knowing what I know now, did I play it right? Well…maybe. If I knew the one guy had Jacks and nobody would bet, I raise here to keep him from drawing at his 10 outs with infinite odds…but probably drive off the pocket 9s and thus not get paid on the river.
Conversely, if I check the river, there is a good chance the Jacks check, the river raises and then I am faced with another decision to either call or re-raise. On the one hand, I have an excellent conundrum…the only way I lose this hand is if power goes out on my computer or I have the spack-out of all time and fold the nuts.
On the other hand…I am not sure the best way to build the pot here. If they are paying attention, the way the hand played out screams at least one flush and maybe two. I am guessing utg had a big over pair, knew he was beat and released his hand. There were two sets…just not the ones I expected, though certainly they both made sense when the end came.
After that hand I am up pretty well and I have noticed that stacks about 120 blinds deep or more get a lot more respect to their raises which I respond to by widening my raising hands. So from the hi-jack with 150 BB I open to 2xbb with a modest Ac/6s. Not a very good hand…but I actually expect to win the blinds.
Both blinds spoil my plan by calling. I have mentioned before how little I like it when the small blind calls…
Worse yet, he has me covered and the big blind is just a blip with 25 bb remaining.
The flop is the 10d/Ah/Qc that hits a lot of hands the blinds would be tempted to call with…2 face cards, any Ace, 10/J and of course big pocket pairs all love that flop. A/6…not so much.
But they check to me so I continuation bet half the pot. 3 blinds to win 6 is a cheap price that does not have to work all that often.
The small blind calls, big blind folds, and we see the Kc. Ouch. Now a humble jack beats me. He checks and I have to decide…bet again, probably with the worse hand…or check and hope to see a cheap river. I elect the latter course. The river is the 10c, just making it even tougher for an Ace to win.
I am beating almost nothing here. Q/K I am ahead of, any A/9 or worse is a chop, and every other conceivable hand…A/10+, 10/J, A/K, A/Q, A/J I am behind. I am extremely happy when he checks and I check behind. There is no possible holding he will call with if he is worse off than I am and I am ecstatic to get away from the hand cheaply.
For the record…he had K/Q, a hand I did not honestly think about when playing it and I drew out on him when the river spiked the 10. Turn-about is fair play as he had out-drawn me on the turn…but with a board that dangerous, we both wanted to keep it small.
That is a lesson I often struggle to keep in mind. There are times to play small pots, I do not always have to fire that second barrel into a dangerous board.
At the same time, I need to work on building bigger pots when I hit a big hand.
Sitting with just under 160 big blinds I am utg+ 3. UTG click-raises sitting behind 140 bb, I elect to call with pocket 3s and we get 3 more callers. Good. Makes the hand easy to play…I either hit it hard or go my merry way, having gotten pretty spectacular implied pot odds.
The flop is beautiful…4c/3c/8h. I am behind pocket 4s and pocket 8s…both believable hands…but way ahead of over-pairs which I am hoping people have. Good chance to stack someone…and then the big blind goes all in for his last 23 big blinds.
Well now…that changes things a bit. Suddenly that pocket 4/pocket 8 seems a bit more likely, doesn’t it? Also in the hunt are pocket 9s or better and A/x of clubs, betting the flush draw and over betting the pot to get us all to fold. Also very likely are bigger but vulnerable face pairs (jacks, queens).
The utg calls it. Oh, ouch. That makes it trickier. The first guy MIGHT have a set. The second guy…much more likely. It is still possible they both have over-pairs. Ideally I am against Aces and Kings or some such over pair. Regardless, I am not even close to being a good enough player to lay down a set in this situation. In fact, I am still trying to build a pot!
So with one player to act behind me, I have to choose between calling or raising yet again. Since I have position on the caller, I elect to just call and either check or raise the turn depending on what falls. The guy behind me folds and the turn brings the case three.
Great. Now I have a virtual lock on the hand. Even if the other guys both have sets, I have a hand that is a 96% favorite. I am ecstatic.
The guy who has been check-calling everything checks. Here is where I made a mistake. I should have checked. Even if he checks the river, I can bet then. Instead I put out about a half pot bet and he makes the prudent fold. Might have cost myself some chips there.
For the record, the guy who over-bet all in had pocket 10s. Over pair read for the win. Unfortunately, I was not patient and did not win as much as I could have. I need to be more willing to slow-play.
The problem is, from time to time I have slow-played stuff like nut flushes and gotten crushed on the river by a boat. Or flopped a straight and had someone runner-runner the flush when my turn bet could not get them off the hand. This has made me gun-shy about giving people “free” cards.
Later on, sitting behind 190 bb, everyone folds to the button who limps in with 111 bb. The small blind folds and I check my Ac/Jd. Wow. How many ways do I hate my play here? I have no idea if he is trapping with a big hand or succeeding in seeing a cheap flop with something like suited connectors.
That is a clear raise situation. The flop comes down 9c/Jh/2s. Up front I love this flop. I am hoping he floated something like J/10 and I am way ahead. I lead out with a pot based bet. He click-raises.
Now I am deeply troubled. Hands he could limp-raise with here include A/J, A/9, maybe A/2 suited…none of which bother me…J/10 which I am ahead of, J/9 which I am behind, or any variety of medium to low pocket pairs such as nines or even deuces. He could also be raising with air since many people consider a big blind leading out to be a fish move.
So my options are three-fold; fold, flat-call, or re-raise.
Folding in many ways makes the most sense. I checked my option instead of “defining the hand”/raising to drive out weak hands, etc.
At the same time, top pair top kicker against such a weak play as open-limping the button is pretty passive and does not seem wise. Better to see if he is serious about his even more fishy min-raise. No folding.
Calling is another option. Problem is, then I am pretty much locked into having no idea where I stand on the turn. Unless a Jack or Ace falls, I do not really like any card very much so most of the deck misses me and I will be hard-pressed to call another bet.
Re-raising is more my style; put heat on someone who seems marginally interested in the hand. I choose that option. Including pre-flop action and the raise/re-raise there is just over a buck in there, I repop to 2.05. I figure he will either A) fold (the more likely) or B)re-pop me in which case even with top pair, top kicker I know I am beat.
He surprises me by just calling.
Okay, so what is going on here? The most likely answer is one I see a lot in the micro-stakes level. People do not want to admit to bluff-raising, so they call any re-raise, then check-fold the next street. No matter what falls here, I am raising the turn.
And the turn is arguably the third worst card I could see. I had talked myself into believing he was most likely to have J/10. That would give him second pair, open ended straight draw. Q/J is also quite believable.
But I followed through with my plan and raised about half the pot. He folded.
I do not like my pre-flop play but I like my flop play. I had a good but not great hand and raised to protect it. I would rather have gone for the check-raise, but with his passive limp, I had no reason to believe he would raise so I needed to do so myself.
The re-raise is more questionable, but I was going with my read that his limp/min-raise indicated weakness and this time it paid off.
With 201 bb I was looking for places to put on pressure. I open from middle position with K/J off, a hand I routinely fold because it is trouble.
I am never happy to hit either card as I am all too likely to be dominated, and hitting both I am afraid of stuff like A/Q, A/10, Q/10 that have draws of varying quality. Very few flops are good for this hand. But I open click-raise from late middle.
The small blind calls, everyone else folds. I do not like this. Typically a small blind averages a better hand than anyone else as they are out of position, get a smaller discount, and still have one guy behind them. On the bright side, he just called instead of raising. Even brighter, he has just 40 bb, so I cannot get hurt TOO bad…
The flop is pure horror, 2h/Qc/8s. It hits A/Q, K/Q, J/Q type hands I see a lot of people play out of the blinds and I am drawing thin against all of those. He min-raises.
That screams weakness to me. A lot of guys will do that when they miss their hand, hoping to scare away better hands without having to call. So I did not hesitate to re-raise about the size of the pot, fully expecting him to fold. He called.
The turn was the mildly dangerous 2c if he was playing some random A/2 suited. He raised a bit more, 3 big blinds, into a pot of 12 big blinds, I re-popped to 10 big blinds, he folded and I won the pot, undoubtedly with a worse hand. He probably had something like A/K, maybe A/J.
I played a while longer, but these were some of the more interesting and memorable hands. There is a lot to think about on these.
I really need to key in on my reads again. I had gotten away from doing that and it was hurting. When I pay attention, I often can make some pretty solid plays.
I do need to work on the following parts of my game:
1) patience. The "check" option is better than raising sometimes when I have a chance to see a cheap showdown with a marginal hand.
2) building big pots with big hands and small pots with weaker hands
Sitting behind 53 bb I see the utg, with 38 bb, open to 3-1/2 bb. Sitting utg+2, I look down at the cowboys. This is a position where I definitely want to isolate and go heads up, as Kings will not hold up against several callers. I re-raise to 12 bb and it is folded to the first raiser who merely calls.
I like that he just calls. He should have 7/7+, maybe a suited Ace or even some medium suited connectors. He would probably re-pop with Queens or better.
The flop is good and bad. 9d/7d/2h. He leads out for his last 26 blinds all-in. So I would need to call 26 bb to make 48. What hands could he have here to raise/call/all-in with?
Pocket 9s or pocket 7s are definitely in his range, maybe even pocket deuces if he is super loose. So are Aces and Queens, though unlikely, but any pocket 10s or pocket jacks could make that move, as could a suited diamond ace.
Even against a suited Ace, I am a favorite. The only hands he could reasonably hold that I am behind are pocket 2s, 7s, or 9s, or the bizarre 7/9s of some other suit. I think it is a pretty clear call.
He turns up the A/Qd. So he has 9 diamonds to complete the flush and 3 aces to hit a bigger pair, 12 outs twice for about 48%. The turn is the Ks which helps a bit as it counterfeits the 2d. Ultimately, the river is the Ac so my set of Kings holds up.
Going back over the hand, though, I am not sure the call is as automatic as I thought at the time. In fact, if he check-raised me all-in, I am less likely to call as I will put more emphasis on the set which I am drawing thin against. His leading into the pre-flop raiser screams more he has a weaker hand or is semi-bluffing…
Not that I am sure I thought that at the time, but in retrospect, it makes the way he played the hand make more sense. Certainly a lesson to tuck away in the back of my mind.
A while later I am sitting behind 70 big blinds in the cut-off. Utg, with 123 bb, limps. It comes to me, I decide my hockey sticks are worth seeing a cheap flop and limp behind. The big blind, with 381 bb, checks and we take the flop 3-handed.
The flop is the 6c/As/6d. Check, check, and now I have to see if my 7s are any good here. I bet half the pot. The big blind folds, the under the gun calls. Time to narrow his range of hands.
He open-limped, so an Ace is unlikely unless it is A/x suited. Medium pairs, medium suited connectors are the most likely holdings. If he check-raises the flop, I will figure him for a good pair, say Queens or better, and if he just calls, I am either way ahead of someone fishing or way behind and he is luring me in.
The turn is the innocuous 3c. That changed nothing. He checks. Now, what to do? If I check and he bets the river, it will be difficult to call. If I bet and he re-raises, I am done with the hand. If he check-calls I will fold to any bet on the river as I am beat. But there is a chance he called just to see if I was serious.
Check behind and hope to see a cheap show-down or raise to try and drive out a better hand? No way am I getting called by a worse hand here. I again bet half the pot and he folds.
Mindless aggression for the win…
A while later I have 76 bb and the button. When it is folded to me I decide to open to 3bb with Ac/Ts. The small blind, with 133bb, calls and the big blind folds.
I never like it when the small blind calls. He needs a stronger hand because A) he is getting a smaller discount and B) the big blind is yet to act. So anything except a limp that gets action is usually facing a big hand and is therefore dangerous.
The flop is 10d/qh/Qs. As expected, he checks, I bet half the pot, he calls. The good news is he did not raise. The bad news is…he called. A/Q, K/Q, J/Q, and J/10 are all reasonable, believable holdings and I am head of only the J/10. He could also have a medium pair and just be seeing if I am just making a continuation bet.
The turn is the 8c. He again checks. I raise half the pot. If he calls or re-raises, I am done with the hand. If he folds, I take down a nice little pot. He check-calls.
The river is the somewhat dangerous 9d. if he had J/10 he hit his straight.
Otherwise, it is pretty innocuous. I by no means think he has the j/10, but the possibility is there. All he has to do is breathe at this pot and I am folding. He checks.
Reviewing the hand, he called a dangerous flop, called again on an innocent card. I cannot imagine him calling any bet I make with a worse hand than the tens I hold, and cannot imagine him folding any better hand. I check behind expecting him to flip up a Queen or maybe even Jacks or something like that.
Instead he shows the Jh/Kh. Okay, so not really a hand I put in his range after the flop. And from strictly an odds perspective, he played very poorly, though from an implied odds stance…maybe not so much.
Of course, what could he think I had to keep raising on a dangerous board like that? If I raised with Q/10, Q/9 type hands…quite plausible from the button…he is bidding fair to get taken to the cleaners on the river when he pretty much has to call or raise after hitting his hand.
And the only hand I might call him with that he can beat with a straight would be precisely A/10 or A/q. I do not hate his pre-flop or flop calls…but the turn call feels pretty loose. Still, he made the call and took the pot.
The funny thing is, Sklansky and his basic theorem claim I won the hand. He would not call pre-flop, on the flop, or on the turn if he knew the cards I was holding, nor was he getting the correct odds to do so.
Maybe Sklansky feels like I won the hand…and in a sense I did, though dropping 14 BB to someone who hit their gut shot sure does not FEEL like a win…
For some inexplicable reason, I begin going the conservative route. In the small blind I pick up Big Slick suited with 59 big blinds. Utg raises to 3xbb, utg+1 and the hi-jack call. The correct play here is a re-raise to drive out hands like pairs of 9s, medium suited connectors, weak aces. The second best play is to fold, which I have done several times.
Not that A/K is not a good hand…it is. But it is a distinct dog to that much action. Add to that being out of position and for a player who sometimes refuses to release hands that clearly are no longer good…well, better to just ditch them pre-flop.
So I call because I am an idiot. The bb also calls and we take a flop 5-handed. I am out of position with a drawing hand. Any serious action on the flop means I am done with the hand barring a 10/J/Q rainbow flop or a stout flush draw.
The flop is all trash….7c/6s/3c. This hits right in the heart of the types of hands people are all but guaranteed to be holding. Seeing pockets 6s, 7s, and 3s would not surprise me, nor would 6/7 suited, 5/6 suited, 8/9 suited. This is the type of hand I need to train myself to get as far away from as possible unless I have a draw. This time, I have the draw...the nut flush draw.
Check to utg who leads out with 2/3rd the pot bet. One fold, one call. Okay, the first bet COULD be a blind continuation bet…and could easily represent pocket Kings or Aces which my flush draw will have an easy time getting paid off. I base this on the fact he fired into a dangerous flop with 3 people left to act.
It could also be a hand like A/K trying to protect itself from getting drawn out on.
There are a fold and call in front of me…the call indicating they have something worth seeing another step even with people behind to act. I obviously want as many people in the pot as possible here, so a re-raise is out of the question. I call as does the big blind.
The turn is the Jc, giving me the nut flush. In fact, unless someone is playing something goofy like a 5/6c, I have a lock on the hand unless, of course, the board pairs.
Worst thing I can do now is bet it. Too much interest in the hand to give away my strong holdings. I am really hoping for a second barrel from UTG and a couple “I have a set” type calls.
Unfortunately, it is checked around. The turn is the harmless 9h. Unless someone was playing the 8/10, nothing changed. I do not want to see it checked around, so I put in about a half-pot bet. BB calls, UTG folds, other guy calls. So lets check out the reads.
The big blind had pocket 9s…he was counting on first an over-pair, then got to take off a free card which meant he paid me off with a set. Costly river for him.
The middle position guy had pocket Jacks…over-pair that became a set when he turned the Jack.
So knowing what I know now, did I play it right? Well…maybe. If I knew the one guy had Jacks and nobody would bet, I raise here to keep him from drawing at his 10 outs with infinite odds…but probably drive off the pocket 9s and thus not get paid on the river.
Conversely, if I check the river, there is a good chance the Jacks check, the river raises and then I am faced with another decision to either call or re-raise. On the one hand, I have an excellent conundrum…the only way I lose this hand is if power goes out on my computer or I have the spack-out of all time and fold the nuts.
On the other hand…I am not sure the best way to build the pot here. If they are paying attention, the way the hand played out screams at least one flush and maybe two. I am guessing utg had a big over pair, knew he was beat and released his hand. There were two sets…just not the ones I expected, though certainly they both made sense when the end came.
After that hand I am up pretty well and I have noticed that stacks about 120 blinds deep or more get a lot more respect to their raises which I respond to by widening my raising hands. So from the hi-jack with 150 BB I open to 2xbb with a modest Ac/6s. Not a very good hand…but I actually expect to win the blinds.
Both blinds spoil my plan by calling. I have mentioned before how little I like it when the small blind calls…
Worse yet, he has me covered and the big blind is just a blip with 25 bb remaining.
The flop is the 10d/Ah/Qc that hits a lot of hands the blinds would be tempted to call with…2 face cards, any Ace, 10/J and of course big pocket pairs all love that flop. A/6…not so much.
But they check to me so I continuation bet half the pot. 3 blinds to win 6 is a cheap price that does not have to work all that often.
The small blind calls, big blind folds, and we see the Kc. Ouch. Now a humble jack beats me. He checks and I have to decide…bet again, probably with the worse hand…or check and hope to see a cheap river. I elect the latter course. The river is the 10c, just making it even tougher for an Ace to win.
I am beating almost nothing here. Q/K I am ahead of, any A/9 or worse is a chop, and every other conceivable hand…A/10+, 10/J, A/K, A/Q, A/J I am behind. I am extremely happy when he checks and I check behind. There is no possible holding he will call with if he is worse off than I am and I am ecstatic to get away from the hand cheaply.
For the record…he had K/Q, a hand I did not honestly think about when playing it and I drew out on him when the river spiked the 10. Turn-about is fair play as he had out-drawn me on the turn…but with a board that dangerous, we both wanted to keep it small.
That is a lesson I often struggle to keep in mind. There are times to play small pots, I do not always have to fire that second barrel into a dangerous board.
At the same time, I need to work on building bigger pots when I hit a big hand.
Sitting with just under 160 big blinds I am utg+ 3. UTG click-raises sitting behind 140 bb, I elect to call with pocket 3s and we get 3 more callers. Good. Makes the hand easy to play…I either hit it hard or go my merry way, having gotten pretty spectacular implied pot odds.
The flop is beautiful…4c/3c/8h. I am behind pocket 4s and pocket 8s…both believable hands…but way ahead of over-pairs which I am hoping people have. Good chance to stack someone…and then the big blind goes all in for his last 23 big blinds.
Well now…that changes things a bit. Suddenly that pocket 4/pocket 8 seems a bit more likely, doesn’t it? Also in the hunt are pocket 9s or better and A/x of clubs, betting the flush draw and over betting the pot to get us all to fold. Also very likely are bigger but vulnerable face pairs (jacks, queens).
The utg calls it. Oh, ouch. That makes it trickier. The first guy MIGHT have a set. The second guy…much more likely. It is still possible they both have over-pairs. Ideally I am against Aces and Kings or some such over pair. Regardless, I am not even close to being a good enough player to lay down a set in this situation. In fact, I am still trying to build a pot!
So with one player to act behind me, I have to choose between calling or raising yet again. Since I have position on the caller, I elect to just call and either check or raise the turn depending on what falls. The guy behind me folds and the turn brings the case three.
Great. Now I have a virtual lock on the hand. Even if the other guys both have sets, I have a hand that is a 96% favorite. I am ecstatic.
The guy who has been check-calling everything checks. Here is where I made a mistake. I should have checked. Even if he checks the river, I can bet then. Instead I put out about a half pot bet and he makes the prudent fold. Might have cost myself some chips there.
For the record, the guy who over-bet all in had pocket 10s. Over pair read for the win. Unfortunately, I was not patient and did not win as much as I could have. I need to be more willing to slow-play.
The problem is, from time to time I have slow-played stuff like nut flushes and gotten crushed on the river by a boat. Or flopped a straight and had someone runner-runner the flush when my turn bet could not get them off the hand. This has made me gun-shy about giving people “free” cards.
Later on, sitting behind 190 bb, everyone folds to the button who limps in with 111 bb. The small blind folds and I check my Ac/Jd. Wow. How many ways do I hate my play here? I have no idea if he is trapping with a big hand or succeeding in seeing a cheap flop with something like suited connectors.
That is a clear raise situation. The flop comes down 9c/Jh/2s. Up front I love this flop. I am hoping he floated something like J/10 and I am way ahead. I lead out with a pot based bet. He click-raises.
Now I am deeply troubled. Hands he could limp-raise with here include A/J, A/9, maybe A/2 suited…none of which bother me…J/10 which I am ahead of, J/9 which I am behind, or any variety of medium to low pocket pairs such as nines or even deuces. He could also be raising with air since many people consider a big blind leading out to be a fish move.
So my options are three-fold; fold, flat-call, or re-raise.
Folding in many ways makes the most sense. I checked my option instead of “defining the hand”/raising to drive out weak hands, etc.
At the same time, top pair top kicker against such a weak play as open-limping the button is pretty passive and does not seem wise. Better to see if he is serious about his even more fishy min-raise. No folding.
Calling is another option. Problem is, then I am pretty much locked into having no idea where I stand on the turn. Unless a Jack or Ace falls, I do not really like any card very much so most of the deck misses me and I will be hard-pressed to call another bet.
Re-raising is more my style; put heat on someone who seems marginally interested in the hand. I choose that option. Including pre-flop action and the raise/re-raise there is just over a buck in there, I repop to 2.05. I figure he will either A) fold (the more likely) or B)re-pop me in which case even with top pair, top kicker I know I am beat.
He surprises me by just calling.
Okay, so what is going on here? The most likely answer is one I see a lot in the micro-stakes level. People do not want to admit to bluff-raising, so they call any re-raise, then check-fold the next street. No matter what falls here, I am raising the turn.
And the turn is arguably the third worst card I could see. I had talked myself into believing he was most likely to have J/10. That would give him second pair, open ended straight draw. Q/J is also quite believable.
But I followed through with my plan and raised about half the pot. He folded.
I do not like my pre-flop play but I like my flop play. I had a good but not great hand and raised to protect it. I would rather have gone for the check-raise, but with his passive limp, I had no reason to believe he would raise so I needed to do so myself.
The re-raise is more questionable, but I was going with my read that his limp/min-raise indicated weakness and this time it paid off.
With 201 bb I was looking for places to put on pressure. I open from middle position with K/J off, a hand I routinely fold because it is trouble.
I am never happy to hit either card as I am all too likely to be dominated, and hitting both I am afraid of stuff like A/Q, A/10, Q/10 that have draws of varying quality. Very few flops are good for this hand. But I open click-raise from late middle.
The small blind calls, everyone else folds. I do not like this. Typically a small blind averages a better hand than anyone else as they are out of position, get a smaller discount, and still have one guy behind them. On the bright side, he just called instead of raising. Even brighter, he has just 40 bb, so I cannot get hurt TOO bad…
The flop is pure horror, 2h/Qc/8s. It hits A/Q, K/Q, J/Q type hands I see a lot of people play out of the blinds and I am drawing thin against all of those. He min-raises.
That screams weakness to me. A lot of guys will do that when they miss their hand, hoping to scare away better hands without having to call. So I did not hesitate to re-raise about the size of the pot, fully expecting him to fold. He called.
The turn was the mildly dangerous 2c if he was playing some random A/2 suited. He raised a bit more, 3 big blinds, into a pot of 12 big blinds, I re-popped to 10 big blinds, he folded and I won the pot, undoubtedly with a worse hand. He probably had something like A/K, maybe A/J.
I played a while longer, but these were some of the more interesting and memorable hands. There is a lot to think about on these.
I really need to key in on my reads again. I had gotten away from doing that and it was hurting. When I pay attention, I often can make some pretty solid plays.
I do need to work on the following parts of my game:
1) patience. The "check" option is better than raising sometimes when I have a chance to see a cheap showdown with a marginal hand.
2) building big pots with big hands and small pots with weaker hands
Monday
Poker Luck
Playing rush poker, sitting on 39bb. I pick up A/Ko in the big blind and raise it to 3x bb. Button +2, with 58bb, flat calls. Button folds. Small blind goes all in for 9 big blinds, a raise of just 6 bb to me.
Knowing I have a big hand and he could be making a play, I am debating my options; flat call or re-raise all in myself to isolate.
Then the big blind comes over the top all in for 40 big blinds. Time to rethink.
I have one guy behind me. He flat called, lets assume he is a decent player and has something like medium pockets, suited connectors, suited ace, or just 2 paint cards and a plan to use position to steal.
He is getting the wrong odds with all those. I figure Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks, or his own big slick he would have re-popped, so I believe he will fold.
I had already decided to call the small blind all in. Now I am looking at calling 36 bb to pick up 51. Roughly 1.5-1 I thumbnail it.
The problem is...I raised under the gun, the big blind has two potential callers and is re-re-raising to get it all in. That screams Kings or Aces to me and I am drawing real thin.
Of course, there is also the possibility he has a medium pair and is making a move...but that is a big, big move and not a good one.
Calling here is also a bad move and I finally fold.
Yes, I am proud of that fold.
They flip up their cards. The small blind has pocket 8s, the big blind pocket queens.
According to Sklansky, I made the correct move...I was about 36% to win but not getting 3-1 to call.
The flop was 10d, 8c, 3c.
The turn was 8h...giving the worst hand quads.
The river was the Ah...had I called, I would have lost 9 big blinds...and won 30ish.
So was I lucky or unlucky here?
Well...if I had Kings or Aces, I was unlucky. I got driven off a hand by...wait a second, if I have Aces, I am still in the hand and if I have Kings...I cannot honestly say I am good enough to lay them down in that spot. I am not.
On the one hand, I am unlucky in that my opponent did not set a trap, play weakly on the flop and turn and let me double up on the river.
On the other hand...I am fortunate that he did not flat call the all-in, then move all in himself on the flop or turn. I saved 6 bb.
So was it luck or skill?
I like to think a combination. Plenty of luck in getting out of the way of one hand that was ahead and one that became untouchable.
And a bit of skill in not just looking at Big Slick and stubbornly hanging on.
Yes, it would have paid off THIS time...but making a habit of making those calls will clean a lot of chips from me.
Knowing I have a big hand and he could be making a play, I am debating my options; flat call or re-raise all in myself to isolate.
Then the big blind comes over the top all in for 40 big blinds. Time to rethink.
I have one guy behind me. He flat called, lets assume he is a decent player and has something like medium pockets, suited connectors, suited ace, or just 2 paint cards and a plan to use position to steal.
He is getting the wrong odds with all those. I figure Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks, or his own big slick he would have re-popped, so I believe he will fold.
I had already decided to call the small blind all in. Now I am looking at calling 36 bb to pick up 51. Roughly 1.5-1 I thumbnail it.
The problem is...I raised under the gun, the big blind has two potential callers and is re-re-raising to get it all in. That screams Kings or Aces to me and I am drawing real thin.
Of course, there is also the possibility he has a medium pair and is making a move...but that is a big, big move and not a good one.
Calling here is also a bad move and I finally fold.
Yes, I am proud of that fold.
They flip up their cards. The small blind has pocket 8s, the big blind pocket queens.
According to Sklansky, I made the correct move...I was about 36% to win but not getting 3-1 to call.
The flop was 10d, 8c, 3c.
The turn was 8h...giving the worst hand quads.
The river was the Ah...had I called, I would have lost 9 big blinds...and won 30ish.
So was I lucky or unlucky here?
Well...if I had Kings or Aces, I was unlucky. I got driven off a hand by...wait a second, if I have Aces, I am still in the hand and if I have Kings...I cannot honestly say I am good enough to lay them down in that spot. I am not.
On the one hand, I am unlucky in that my opponent did not set a trap, play weakly on the flop and turn and let me double up on the river.
On the other hand...I am fortunate that he did not flat call the all-in, then move all in himself on the flop or turn. I saved 6 bb.
So was it luck or skill?
I like to think a combination. Plenty of luck in getting out of the way of one hand that was ahead and one that became untouchable.
And a bit of skill in not just looking at Big Slick and stubbornly hanging on.
Yes, it would have paid off THIS time...but making a habit of making those calls will clean a lot of chips from me.
Saturday
200th Post
Was a last-minute add as a sponsor-payer in a golf tournament. Free golf, free food...what's not to love?
Well...the format, for one thing.
I do not like best ball golfing. I like to play my own shots. I do not like some of the choices made by teams and do not like having other people rely on me.
When I am playing my own ball beginning to end, it does not adversely affect anyone else if I chunk a shot, but if everyone else has already hit and we need a good shot...even though we are equally responsible, because I have the last opportunity, I feel like I let them down if I do not perform well.
And that is not fair because I am what I am...a mid-to-high handicap golfer who is wildly inconsistent.
And I also like to measure myself by seeing how I score against the course.
But...free golf with people I like.
Unfortunately, the two other guys from my company massively built up my skills to the 4th member of our group (and his to me). So I felt pressure to play not my game but better than my game.
Sure enough, first hole I over swung, slice madly and hit a very poor shot. And our group makes a poor decision...
See, each person had to play 2 drives at some point in the round. But instead of being patient, we decided to take a vastly inferior drive to "get it out of the way" for one of our shorter hitters. And we ended up bogeying the hole.
Next hole was a par 3 and I hit short and right. We had an easy chip, but to get another "weaker drive" out of the way...we chose a much tougher shot. Bogey.
At this point, I was feeling pretty low. I was not playing my game. If playing for myself, I would have twice done a bump and run with my 8-iron. But the "correct" club was a gap wedge the first time and a sand wedge the second. I tried those instead.
It is not a shot I normally attempt and it showed. Both were horrible shots.
So having been built up to the sky, I am playing miserably. So I decided to stop playing the "correct" club and start playing my game. I also knew both the myth of my skill and Mr. T's were busted, so the pressure was off. It was going to be a typical 4-over par day.
The next hole was the long drive hole. I finally relaxed...and promptly cranked out a stunning, slightly better than 300 yard drive dead center fairway. At that moment, with 5 groups having gone through before us, it was the longest fairway drive by about 50 yards.
So for the first time ever at one of these scramble tournaments, I got my name on one of the contests.
I then blasted my 7 wood onto the fringe of the green and rolled a 45ish foot putt to about 4 feet from the cup. We birdied the hole.
And went on to birdie the next 6 holes after that as Mr. T and I took turns blasting massive drives and having all four of us take turns contributing some fantastic chips and long putts.
Somewhere along the line was a KP hole and I scored that, too.*
I felt good. Mr. T is one of the longest hitters on the course, and I was within yards of him...sometimes a bit behind, sometimes a bit ahead, and always a bit to the right.
We stopped at the turn to refresh....and my game melted down.
I lost all my rhythm. Instead of a fade, now I had a slice. Instead of nice, controlled chips I was hitting worm burners, sky balls, slices...it was ugly.
Finally I unleashed a massive drive that I played for my slice...and it went straight as an arrow. Bad shot...and I was on the verge of being frustrated because when my game deserted, we went from birdie after birdie to pars and bogeys. The other guys were playing as well as they had started...so the stroke per hole was directly attributable to me not carrying my weight.
Included in there was a Par 5 that we bogeyed.
So we had a long, maybe 225 yard shot to the green. First two guys hit miserably. I stepped up...super tense, not feeling it. Started to step away and suddenly it felt right again. They said, "Just walk around for a second," I replied, "No, I got this" and planted a gorgeous shot that trickled to about 8' from the cup. Boom, back on track.
Now my par 3s were on the green, my drives were back to fading instead of slicing, my irons were going where I intended and we were back to pars and birdies.
On our next to last hole, it was an "elimination hole". Whoever had already hit a shot could not hit another one had until we used one shot from each player.
Mr. T had gone deadly with irons, so we agreed to shoot for his preferred ranges and not use his drive.
Sure enough, first two guys uncork their shortest drives of the day which meant my short-but-accurate 7 Wood went back in the bag and out came my long-but-streaky driver.
Feeling pressure, I over-swung and took a good 50 yards off because of it. Still dead center fairway...but leaving a 195 yard second shot.
Mr. T then crushed one 80 yards past mine. His best drive of the day...and he had some monsters.
So...do we take 3 shots at it from our second best iron players from 115 feet...or one shot from 195?
We went the 3. No problem, a soft 9 iron would allow me to put some touch on it...or hack wildly and fly 20 yards right of the green.
Only to watch Mr. Consistency, aka New Grandpa go even further right putting our weakest pressure player on the spot...and he came through with a shot that left us 40 feet from the cup but putting.
Now only Gramps and I had shots left.
I putted first to give him the line. Too hard.
He then got about 8' from the cup.
Now the very situation I feared had risen. I do not putt for the cup...I lag putt, trying to ensure I never do worse than a 2-putt.
All day long, I had very seldom actually tried to sink putts but instead just tried to give the line to the better putters. Fortunately, I had sunk a couple including about a 25 footer that ranks in the top 5 putts I have ever made. But I had shanked every putt in the 6-8' range. Not even close.
And now the score for the hole came down to me and 1 putt with the fate of our team riding on it. We knew we were at or near the top of the leader board...a missed putt could cost us the tournament.
I hate that situation.
I mean, I love it if say...I am golfing with Kyla and Al and it determines which of us wins.
I hate it if 3 people are depending on me to score for them.
But somehow, someway, against the advice of a better putter, I picked my own line...and rolled it in for par.
Final hole; My drive was gorgeous, Mr. T's slightly better. My chip was good, but Gramps was better. We were on in 3 but a long, long way from the cup. I putted to show them the line...and the ball stopped one rotation from going in.
Then everyone else fell about 3 - 6' short of the hole, meaning we closed with a par.
Turns out we were in a 3 way tie for 1st at 7 under.
You read that right...a group I played with finished 7 under par.
So the tie-breaker was Par 5 scores...and that stretch where I was playing poorly and we bogeyed dropped us all the way to third.
My long drive was beaten out by less than a yard.
* And the KP? turns out there was a MENS KP...and a Womens. Care to guess which one I would have been KP on? (Hint: NOT the correct one). Good thing that wasn't embarrassing.
Overall, it was probably the most fun I have had playing best ball format. Great group of guys, a couple of us playing over our heads.
I actually felt like I could compete with one of the better golfers I have ever played with.
And I enjoyed every hole....even when I was scuffling.
Well...the format, for one thing.
I do not like best ball golfing. I like to play my own shots. I do not like some of the choices made by teams and do not like having other people rely on me.
When I am playing my own ball beginning to end, it does not adversely affect anyone else if I chunk a shot, but if everyone else has already hit and we need a good shot...even though we are equally responsible, because I have the last opportunity, I feel like I let them down if I do not perform well.
And that is not fair because I am what I am...a mid-to-high handicap golfer who is wildly inconsistent.
And I also like to measure myself by seeing how I score against the course.
But...free golf with people I like.
Unfortunately, the two other guys from my company massively built up my skills to the 4th member of our group (and his to me). So I felt pressure to play not my game but better than my game.
Sure enough, first hole I over swung, slice madly and hit a very poor shot. And our group makes a poor decision...
See, each person had to play 2 drives at some point in the round. But instead of being patient, we decided to take a vastly inferior drive to "get it out of the way" for one of our shorter hitters. And we ended up bogeying the hole.
Next hole was a par 3 and I hit short and right. We had an easy chip, but to get another "weaker drive" out of the way...we chose a much tougher shot. Bogey.
At this point, I was feeling pretty low. I was not playing my game. If playing for myself, I would have twice done a bump and run with my 8-iron. But the "correct" club was a gap wedge the first time and a sand wedge the second. I tried those instead.
It is not a shot I normally attempt and it showed. Both were horrible shots.
So having been built up to the sky, I am playing miserably. So I decided to stop playing the "correct" club and start playing my game. I also knew both the myth of my skill and Mr. T's were busted, so the pressure was off. It was going to be a typical 4-over par day.
The next hole was the long drive hole. I finally relaxed...and promptly cranked out a stunning, slightly better than 300 yard drive dead center fairway. At that moment, with 5 groups having gone through before us, it was the longest fairway drive by about 50 yards.
So for the first time ever at one of these scramble tournaments, I got my name on one of the contests.
I then blasted my 7 wood onto the fringe of the green and rolled a 45ish foot putt to about 4 feet from the cup. We birdied the hole.
And went on to birdie the next 6 holes after that as Mr. T and I took turns blasting massive drives and having all four of us take turns contributing some fantastic chips and long putts.
Somewhere along the line was a KP hole and I scored that, too.*
I felt good. Mr. T is one of the longest hitters on the course, and I was within yards of him...sometimes a bit behind, sometimes a bit ahead, and always a bit to the right.
We stopped at the turn to refresh....and my game melted down.
I lost all my rhythm. Instead of a fade, now I had a slice. Instead of nice, controlled chips I was hitting worm burners, sky balls, slices...it was ugly.
Finally I unleashed a massive drive that I played for my slice...and it went straight as an arrow. Bad shot...and I was on the verge of being frustrated because when my game deserted, we went from birdie after birdie to pars and bogeys. The other guys were playing as well as they had started...so the stroke per hole was directly attributable to me not carrying my weight.
Included in there was a Par 5 that we bogeyed.
So we had a long, maybe 225 yard shot to the green. First two guys hit miserably. I stepped up...super tense, not feeling it. Started to step away and suddenly it felt right again. They said, "Just walk around for a second," I replied, "No, I got this" and planted a gorgeous shot that trickled to about 8' from the cup. Boom, back on track.
Now my par 3s were on the green, my drives were back to fading instead of slicing, my irons were going where I intended and we were back to pars and birdies.
On our next to last hole, it was an "elimination hole". Whoever had already hit a shot could not hit another one had until we used one shot from each player.
Mr. T had gone deadly with irons, so we agreed to shoot for his preferred ranges and not use his drive.
Sure enough, first two guys uncork their shortest drives of the day which meant my short-but-accurate 7 Wood went back in the bag and out came my long-but-streaky driver.
Feeling pressure, I over-swung and took a good 50 yards off because of it. Still dead center fairway...but leaving a 195 yard second shot.
Mr. T then crushed one 80 yards past mine. His best drive of the day...and he had some monsters.
So...do we take 3 shots at it from our second best iron players from 115 feet...or one shot from 195?
We went the 3. No problem, a soft 9 iron would allow me to put some touch on it...or hack wildly and fly 20 yards right of the green.
Only to watch Mr. Consistency, aka New Grandpa go even further right putting our weakest pressure player on the spot...and he came through with a shot that left us 40 feet from the cup but putting.
Now only Gramps and I had shots left.
I putted first to give him the line. Too hard.
He then got about 8' from the cup.
Now the very situation I feared had risen. I do not putt for the cup...I lag putt, trying to ensure I never do worse than a 2-putt.
All day long, I had very seldom actually tried to sink putts but instead just tried to give the line to the better putters. Fortunately, I had sunk a couple including about a 25 footer that ranks in the top 5 putts I have ever made. But I had shanked every putt in the 6-8' range. Not even close.
And now the score for the hole came down to me and 1 putt with the fate of our team riding on it. We knew we were at or near the top of the leader board...a missed putt could cost us the tournament.
I hate that situation.
I mean, I love it if say...I am golfing with Kyla and Al and it determines which of us wins.
I hate it if 3 people are depending on me to score for them.
But somehow, someway, against the advice of a better putter, I picked my own line...and rolled it in for par.
Final hole; My drive was gorgeous, Mr. T's slightly better. My chip was good, but Gramps was better. We were on in 3 but a long, long way from the cup. I putted to show them the line...and the ball stopped one rotation from going in.
Then everyone else fell about 3 - 6' short of the hole, meaning we closed with a par.
Turns out we were in a 3 way tie for 1st at 7 under.
You read that right...a group I played with finished 7 under par.
So the tie-breaker was Par 5 scores...and that stretch where I was playing poorly and we bogeyed dropped us all the way to third.
My long drive was beaten out by less than a yard.
* And the KP? turns out there was a MENS KP...and a Womens. Care to guess which one I would have been KP on? (Hint: NOT the correct one). Good thing that wasn't embarrassing.
Overall, it was probably the most fun I have had playing best ball format. Great group of guys, a couple of us playing over our heads.
I actually felt like I could compete with one of the better golfers I have ever played with.
And I enjoyed every hole....even when I was scuffling.
Tuesday
SCW June
I almost turned back. Traffic was BRUTAL. On GPS there were no fewer than 4 red flags. It took an hour and 45 minutes to get there.
For me, playing poker is more about mind-set than anything. When I am patient and interested, I usually make pretty decent reads and end up playing well.
Not that results equal playing quality...you can be at the top of your game, get someone on the verge with a 1-outer and watch them hit it.
But when I play poorly, then I typically do not enjoy it and when I have been in traffic that long...well, I know I will be frustrated, irritable, and not enjoy it.
But I went. And we ended up having 11...we were expecting 7 maybe. So that was nice.
I was at the tougher of the two tables. I had Kev to my right, Eric to his right, and to my left were Rick, Josh and Joe.
First hand was exactly what I needed...a couple limpers, I raised and it went to the flop heads up with Eric.
The flop was Q high and he came out betting. I raised him, he called. I figured he probably had A/Q and if another Queen fell, I might have folded to a min-bet. But the board stayed innocuous, he called big turn and river bets and my pocket aces held up against his...A/8? He called all that with a dry ace, no pair?
I won a couple more hands and had a nice stack when I picked up pocket queens. Again Eric and I took the flop heads up and it was pretty good for me...Jack high, I think with two babies. He called. Turn was maybe a 10 or so, river was a 7-type card...and gave him a straight. He stayed in with a 3/4 against a raise.
Oops...I did not even see the straight potential and never would have put him on that hand. He doubled through me and, a few hands later, took another chunk from me when he again rivered a straight.
I picked up a suited A/K, raised, and yet again it was Eric and I. All low on the flop, he raised, I almost folded but then called. Turn was a blank, he raised, I called. River...a King. He checked, I checked...and he rolled over A/K. Split pot.
Followed by I believe three more split pots when it was he and I heads up. Weird.
Well, I was down to about 2500 chips (we started with 5K) after he doubled through me the two times and I was in super tight mode looking for a chance to double up.
Blinds climbed, I was treading water, and with about 15 times the blinds I opened with pocket 3s, thinking I had a good chance to pick up the blinds. Instead, someone min-raised, 3 people called, and I was getting better than 8-1. I called all-in.
Flop was 6/4/2. I picked up a potential straight draw...and might need it, because after 2 checks, the third guy bets...and I get a re-raise and a call. Uh-oh...
Turn paired the board. More action. Fascinating. I figure a 5 is probably good as then only holdings containing a 6 beat me...and with this action, the ONLY one I would believe would be pocket 6s, and that would be questionable.
River is a 3 so I am pretty happy...I have a full house. Pocket 6s, pocket 4s put me out, otherwise I look good.
Jacks win the side pot and the raiser had...A/2? He was trying to push people off an all-in with that?
So I nearly quadrupled up and now I am able to play a couple speculative hands.
I get in a few more heads-up with Eric, but now I just check-call, and now his luck has turned. He hits nothing, I take a few hands.
I limp with A/2 suited, about 3 of us see a flop. I pick up the nut flush draw, he min-bets, I am getting about 12-1, I call. Turn misses, he makes same bet, I call. River, I missed, he makes same bet, I...fold? Yep, only think I can beat is a king-high bluff. He shows...a Jack high bluff. He got me.
But that is okay, I take chips from lots of people with solid play.
I notice people are tightening up.
I raise with K/4 from under the gun, why I will never know. What a junk hand. Actually, I know exactly why I raised...people were folding to raises, we were playing 4-handed, and I wanted to see what response I would get. They had folded to my last couple raises...which had been legitimate stuff like pocket 9s and A/K. Time to steal.
And Joe called. Uh-oh.
Joe is tough for me because he likes to bluff-raise the same way he makes nut raises. What I mean is, when he has a good hand, he has one size raise, but when he has the nuts AND when he bluffs he makes big, big raises...so he might have a great hand or might have nothing.
And sure enough, on the flop, he makes a big raise. I call for no apparent reason, he checks the turn, I bet, he folds.
We get down to 8 people, one table, and they start falling like flies. I lay back waiting for good hands.
By the end of the night we get down to 3 players; Phillip to my left, Kevin to my right.
The lead changes a couple times, I have the lead by about 1.5-1 over their combined stacks. Blinds are 500/1K, Phillip has about 6.5K, Kevin about 11K.
Phillip opens utg to 3K, Kevin goes all in. I have garbage, an easy fold, especially knowing Phillip is priced into calling by his raise.
And Phillip goes into the tank for a long time.
At the time I thought it was an auto-call. He has to have a pretty narrow range there...pockets, A/J or better. That looks good against almost every hand.
Except Kevin, seeing him raise and knowing he is committed, came over the top with another player...the chip leader...to act. So he HAS to have something.
Ignoring the rule it takes a stronger hand to call than it does to raise, I put him on the same range. So now Phillip is in a tough spot.
We now know he had pocket 4s. His hand is an underdog against half the hands Kev could have and at best a coin flip against anything except some random A/3 or A/2...which do not fit Kev's move.
But if he folds, he has maybe 2 circuits left, about 5 or 6 hands.
He called, Kev had Queens, and it was heads up.
Kev is very tough for me heads up. He plays different every time, so it is hard to tell where I am. I had the lead, so I wanted to get into it when I had an above average hand and other than that play small pots.
I let him have a couple where I had nothing, he let me have a couple, so I think he was playing a similar strategy.
Then I picked up I think Jacks and he had something...and by the river, I got a straight and took a commanding lead.
Ended up winning for the third time in four months...a pretty good run I think.
And best of all...even when my early chip lead became short stack to a couple river straights, I was having fun. So it is all good.
For me, playing poker is more about mind-set than anything. When I am patient and interested, I usually make pretty decent reads and end up playing well.
Not that results equal playing quality...you can be at the top of your game, get someone on the verge with a 1-outer and watch them hit it.
But when I play poorly, then I typically do not enjoy it and when I have been in traffic that long...well, I know I will be frustrated, irritable, and not enjoy it.
But I went. And we ended up having 11...we were expecting 7 maybe. So that was nice.
I was at the tougher of the two tables. I had Kev to my right, Eric to his right, and to my left were Rick, Josh and Joe.
First hand was exactly what I needed...a couple limpers, I raised and it went to the flop heads up with Eric.
The flop was Q high and he came out betting. I raised him, he called. I figured he probably had A/Q and if another Queen fell, I might have folded to a min-bet. But the board stayed innocuous, he called big turn and river bets and my pocket aces held up against his...A/8? He called all that with a dry ace, no pair?
I won a couple more hands and had a nice stack when I picked up pocket queens. Again Eric and I took the flop heads up and it was pretty good for me...Jack high, I think with two babies. He called. Turn was maybe a 10 or so, river was a 7-type card...and gave him a straight. He stayed in with a 3/4 against a raise.
Oops...I did not even see the straight potential and never would have put him on that hand. He doubled through me and, a few hands later, took another chunk from me when he again rivered a straight.
I picked up a suited A/K, raised, and yet again it was Eric and I. All low on the flop, he raised, I almost folded but then called. Turn was a blank, he raised, I called. River...a King. He checked, I checked...and he rolled over A/K. Split pot.
Followed by I believe three more split pots when it was he and I heads up. Weird.
Well, I was down to about 2500 chips (we started with 5K) after he doubled through me the two times and I was in super tight mode looking for a chance to double up.
Blinds climbed, I was treading water, and with about 15 times the blinds I opened with pocket 3s, thinking I had a good chance to pick up the blinds. Instead, someone min-raised, 3 people called, and I was getting better than 8-1. I called all-in.
Flop was 6/4/2. I picked up a potential straight draw...and might need it, because after 2 checks, the third guy bets...and I get a re-raise and a call. Uh-oh...
Turn paired the board. More action. Fascinating. I figure a 5 is probably good as then only holdings containing a 6 beat me...and with this action, the ONLY one I would believe would be pocket 6s, and that would be questionable.
River is a 3 so I am pretty happy...I have a full house. Pocket 6s, pocket 4s put me out, otherwise I look good.
Jacks win the side pot and the raiser had...A/2? He was trying to push people off an all-in with that?
So I nearly quadrupled up and now I am able to play a couple speculative hands.
I get in a few more heads-up with Eric, but now I just check-call, and now his luck has turned. He hits nothing, I take a few hands.
I limp with A/2 suited, about 3 of us see a flop. I pick up the nut flush draw, he min-bets, I am getting about 12-1, I call. Turn misses, he makes same bet, I call. River, I missed, he makes same bet, I...fold? Yep, only think I can beat is a king-high bluff. He shows...a Jack high bluff. He got me.
But that is okay, I take chips from lots of people with solid play.
I notice people are tightening up.
I raise with K/4 from under the gun, why I will never know. What a junk hand. Actually, I know exactly why I raised...people were folding to raises, we were playing 4-handed, and I wanted to see what response I would get. They had folded to my last couple raises...which had been legitimate stuff like pocket 9s and A/K. Time to steal.
And Joe called. Uh-oh.
Joe is tough for me because he likes to bluff-raise the same way he makes nut raises. What I mean is, when he has a good hand, he has one size raise, but when he has the nuts AND when he bluffs he makes big, big raises...so he might have a great hand or might have nothing.
And sure enough, on the flop, he makes a big raise. I call for no apparent reason, he checks the turn, I bet, he folds.
We get down to 8 people, one table, and they start falling like flies. I lay back waiting for good hands.
By the end of the night we get down to 3 players; Phillip to my left, Kevin to my right.
The lead changes a couple times, I have the lead by about 1.5-1 over their combined stacks. Blinds are 500/1K, Phillip has about 6.5K, Kevin about 11K.
Phillip opens utg to 3K, Kevin goes all in. I have garbage, an easy fold, especially knowing Phillip is priced into calling by his raise.
And Phillip goes into the tank for a long time.
At the time I thought it was an auto-call. He has to have a pretty narrow range there...pockets, A/J or better. That looks good against almost every hand.
Except Kevin, seeing him raise and knowing he is committed, came over the top with another player...the chip leader...to act. So he HAS to have something.
Ignoring the rule it takes a stronger hand to call than it does to raise, I put him on the same range. So now Phillip is in a tough spot.
We now know he had pocket 4s. His hand is an underdog against half the hands Kev could have and at best a coin flip against anything except some random A/3 or A/2...which do not fit Kev's move.
But if he folds, he has maybe 2 circuits left, about 5 or 6 hands.
He called, Kev had Queens, and it was heads up.
Kev is very tough for me heads up. He plays different every time, so it is hard to tell where I am. I had the lead, so I wanted to get into it when I had an above average hand and other than that play small pots.
I let him have a couple where I had nothing, he let me have a couple, so I think he was playing a similar strategy.
Then I picked up I think Jacks and he had something...and by the river, I got a straight and took a commanding lead.
Ended up winning for the third time in four months...a pretty good run I think.
And best of all...even when my early chip lead became short stack to a couple river straights, I was having fun. So it is all good.
Friday
Softball blast...once more with feeling
What with getting married, then getting shafted by work regarding my duties and schedule, and getting older and more injured, I had pretty much retired from softball.
But I stayed in touch with the team and they needed someone to fill in for a game. So off I went.
I had not picked up a bat or glove in a couple years, though I throw the ball for bella pretty regularly so figure at least I can throw if needed.
We score a couple in the top of the first, and in the bottom half there is one play at first, an easy 6-3 putout.
I come up with 2 outs in the top of the second. I am a bit nervous about batting. I am still sensitive about my shoulder, it is still weak, and frankly, I am still exhausted from a 52 mile bike ride followed by mowing the lawn the next night so my legs are shot.
The smart player will take a pitch and, as in the old days, go the other way with a little flop shot into short right.
I took a pretty solid swing, but drive it too far into right, right at the right field. I am out.
The bottom of the second is long as they score a bunch. I get little action, but easily handle both throws that come my way.
It is the fourth inning before I come up again and again I drive the ball too hard, flying out to right center. I am not feeling too good about that...I should be keeping the ball on the ground and the fact that I am not shows the rust on my game. And it is hurting the team, because nobody else is hitting either and we are digging a hole.
We are down 8-3 when it starts to turn. They have scored a couple runs, have a big inning going, and a ball is hit sharply to short. I go to first, the throw is low and hits about 8' in front of me, coming like a rocket. I throw one foot back to find the bag as I sprawl like a hockey goal-tender to get in front of it. If it gets by me they are going to score a couple more runs.
Somehow I scoop it clean and my foot, in its flailing behind me, finds the bag to end the inning.
I think that really picked up the spirits of the team. We were on the verge of a melt-down, and if that play is not made, giving up a possible out might finish us. Instead, we have new life.
My next at-bat I look and see they are shading left and right, leaving a big gap in center. So with 2 outs, I go back up the middle for a clean double, driving in a run that actually, after being down 5, pulled us into a tie. It was a beautiful piece of hitting if I do say so myself.
They pick up another run.
We come back to tie it again, and then with 2 outs, I come up one more time and have a runner in scoring position. I know there is not much time left in the game, pick my pitch, drive it to my sweet spot in right and bring home the runner to take our first lead since the first inning. The next batter is out, and they come up for their last at-bat.
With one out, they have runners on first and second and their best hitter on deck.
the batter hits a slow roller to third, she steps on the bag and throws it across the infield. I stretch as far as I can, the throw beats the runner by a quarter step, the stretch looks spectacular, and we win the game on a double play.
Wow, that was about as exciting as C-league softball can get. 3 ties, 2 lead changes, a thrilling and semi-spectacular double play...
I feel really well about my own play. Although I made outs the first couple times, I quickly regained my comfort and confidence at the plate. I made every play in the field, including two very difficult ones that mattered.
I feel like I really helped the team, like, though I was not THE difference, I was A difference and if a less able player was in my spot, we lose by 4 or 5 runs.
It is not often I gush about my own performance in softball, but this time...I think I deserve it.
But I stayed in touch with the team and they needed someone to fill in for a game. So off I went.
I had not picked up a bat or glove in a couple years, though I throw the ball for bella pretty regularly so figure at least I can throw if needed.
We score a couple in the top of the first, and in the bottom half there is one play at first, an easy 6-3 putout.
I come up with 2 outs in the top of the second. I am a bit nervous about batting. I am still sensitive about my shoulder, it is still weak, and frankly, I am still exhausted from a 52 mile bike ride followed by mowing the lawn the next night so my legs are shot.
The smart player will take a pitch and, as in the old days, go the other way with a little flop shot into short right.
I took a pretty solid swing, but drive it too far into right, right at the right field. I am out.
The bottom of the second is long as they score a bunch. I get little action, but easily handle both throws that come my way.
It is the fourth inning before I come up again and again I drive the ball too hard, flying out to right center. I am not feeling too good about that...I should be keeping the ball on the ground and the fact that I am not shows the rust on my game. And it is hurting the team, because nobody else is hitting either and we are digging a hole.
We are down 8-3 when it starts to turn. They have scored a couple runs, have a big inning going, and a ball is hit sharply to short. I go to first, the throw is low and hits about 8' in front of me, coming like a rocket. I throw one foot back to find the bag as I sprawl like a hockey goal-tender to get in front of it. If it gets by me they are going to score a couple more runs.
Somehow I scoop it clean and my foot, in its flailing behind me, finds the bag to end the inning.
I think that really picked up the spirits of the team. We were on the verge of a melt-down, and if that play is not made, giving up a possible out might finish us. Instead, we have new life.
My next at-bat I look and see they are shading left and right, leaving a big gap in center. So with 2 outs, I go back up the middle for a clean double, driving in a run that actually, after being down 5, pulled us into a tie. It was a beautiful piece of hitting if I do say so myself.
They pick up another run.
We come back to tie it again, and then with 2 outs, I come up one more time and have a runner in scoring position. I know there is not much time left in the game, pick my pitch, drive it to my sweet spot in right and bring home the runner to take our first lead since the first inning. The next batter is out, and they come up for their last at-bat.
With one out, they have runners on first and second and their best hitter on deck.
the batter hits a slow roller to third, she steps on the bag and throws it across the infield. I stretch as far as I can, the throw beats the runner by a quarter step, the stretch looks spectacular, and we win the game on a double play.
Wow, that was about as exciting as C-league softball can get. 3 ties, 2 lead changes, a thrilling and semi-spectacular double play...
I feel really well about my own play. Although I made outs the first couple times, I quickly regained my comfort and confidence at the plate. I made every play in the field, including two very difficult ones that mattered.
I feel like I really helped the team, like, though I was not THE difference, I was A difference and if a less able player was in my spot, we lose by 4 or 5 runs.
It is not often I gush about my own performance in softball, but this time...I think I deserve it.
Tuesday
Wildwood 5/29/10
Any discussion of my all-time favorite golf courses has to start with Wildwood.
It has a bit of everything...trees, water, distance, sand...it is a very challenging course, but not so tough that weak players cannot still have a good time.
Last weekend, I played a best-ball tournament with co-workers, and I looked like someone who A)had not golfed in over a year, B) was coming off shoulder problems and C) is a very poor best-ball player because I like to play every shot.
Coincidentally, I had not golfed in over a year, was fighting shoulder issues and despise best ball...I want to play my ball, get myself into and out of trouble, and see where I am at, not where my team is.
But this time I would be playing Wildwood with soft-ball teammates so I was looking forward to it.
Hole 1
This is rated the toughest hole, and for good reason. You tee off a cliff. The right side of the fairway is guarded by trees the entire way and by a water hole if you hit short and right. The left side is also guarded by trees so you pretty much have to get past the big tree guarding the corner of the dogleg on the right but not past the fairway so you can blast your second shot on this long 5.
That is exactly what I did. My tee shot was magnificent, landing left-center of the fairway and leaving me a clear second. I used my trusty 7 wood and hit straight but a bit short, landing about 100 yards off the green. No problem.
Now, normally here I like to bump and run, but in this case the creek guarding the front of the elevated green says that is a terrible idea. So I used my Gap wedge, a club I have never felt comfortable with.
Sure enough, I pulled it badly, ending up a little past the pin but in some trees left of the green. Then I chipped over the green. Then I chipped over the green again. Finally I got on the green and 2-putted for a snowman. Ugly start. Ironically, my short game is what betrayed me. Normally I scuffle trying to get close, then pitch and putt to manageable scores.
Hole 2
This one is tough. I used to have a solid 150 yard 8 iron, so I would tee short and take my 8 up that steep hill. Now, however, I cannot range my clubs, so I just blasted my driver and it was a beauty, landing me about 40 yards short of the green. A sand wdge left me about 8' from the pin. I then 2-putted for par.
Hole 3
A short 3 from a cliff, I thought I had hit it great. The ball skied, straight and true...and short. I landed about 4 feet off the green. But a nice bump and run, a 4 foot putt and I had back to back pars.
Hole 4
I absolutely crushed my drive, landing about 3 yards short of the 200 yard marker. Then my 7W landed pin high just right of the green. I then managed to chip almost over the green. A decent lag putt and a third consecutive par...2 of which should have been birdies.
Hole 5
This hole has always given me trouble. The trees to the right mean even a fade is trouble, and the sand guarding the elevated green means my beloved bump and run is no good here. I often chip onto the hill behind the green, get scared of coming into the sand...I can run up a big score quickly.
This time I crush my drive and have a nice short chip. I get over the sand onto the green in regulation, then proceed to 3-putt for a bogey. Not bad...but already I have about 4 strokes more than I should.
Hole 6
This short 3 demands accuracy. Any shot hit right or long is gone in the weeds, and there is not much room...plus the trees in front mean you have to sky your ball to get over them. I went pretty far left, just scraping the edge of the green, as close to being off as you could be. It was a tough green, but I 2-putted for another par. I was rolling!
Hole 7
My drives had been very good all day. Long and straight, little to no bend to the right. So for the first time, I decided to aim for the middle of the fairway trying to cut the corner without cutting it on this long 5, dogleg right with water and trees on the right and bifurcating the dogleg.
And promptly hit a slice like I used to do so consistently. If it had not hit a tree, it was turning so hard it might have gone boomerang on me and hit me in the back of the head.
Laying three off the tee, I then boomed a drive to the center of the fairway, hit a decent 7-wood, bump and run, 2-putt. Had I not lost the first one, would have had another par. Instead I took a 7.
Hole 8
Again my 8-iron was well short of where I thought it should be. But a good chip, a one-putt, and I had yet another par. I was playing well.
Hole 9
For a second time I sliced badly. I thought it was in play, though...there is a lot of room out there. Could not find it, dropped, pitched, then again after I shanked it, chipped back from beyond the green, 2 putt, a semi-legit7.
Totaled it up...a surprising 43. I felt like it should be more because I bookended big numbers, and 2 of my last 3 holes were big numbers. But the middle was awesome!
The back...ugh. What happened?
Hole 10
A beautiful drive yet again. Then, from just outside 100, I pulled my 9 iron right, then managed to take another 3 shots. A six.
Hole 11
I have never figured out this hole. There is no good landing place for the drive. I actually hit my driver poorly...I overswung but instead of slicing, it went about 50 yards left of where I aimed and short. It played well, though...dead center fairway at the 100 yard marker.
I then took my Gap wedge...an 85 yard club....and, facing a steep uphill to the green....OVERSHOT the green and lost the ball out of bounds. Drop, pitch, putt twice...another 6. Still no huge numbers...but definitely worse than the front.
Hole 12
This one has a very narrow fairway. If you go left, you are on a sidehill with the ball beneath your feet and it means the green is blind. If you go right you are in the creek. I crushed my drive long and straight. Then I topped my pitch, advancing maybe ten yards...then again went over the green, losing the ball. Bump and run, 2 putt, a 7.
Hole 13
Perhaps the easiest hole on the course. I pull my 5 iron left, pitch, 2 putt. A bogey looks good right now.
Hole 14
Earlier I had mentioned I am usually good for pulling my drive way left about once a round. On this hole,
It has a bit of everything...trees, water, distance, sand...it is a very challenging course, but not so tough that weak players cannot still have a good time.
Last weekend, I played a best-ball tournament with co-workers, and I looked like someone who A)had not golfed in over a year, B) was coming off shoulder problems and C) is a very poor best-ball player because I like to play every shot.
Coincidentally, I had not golfed in over a year, was fighting shoulder issues and despise best ball...I want to play my ball, get myself into and out of trouble, and see where I am at, not where my team is.
But this time I would be playing Wildwood with soft-ball teammates so I was looking forward to it.
Hole 1
This is rated the toughest hole, and for good reason. You tee off a cliff. The right side of the fairway is guarded by trees the entire way and by a water hole if you hit short and right. The left side is also guarded by trees so you pretty much have to get past the big tree guarding the corner of the dogleg on the right but not past the fairway so you can blast your second shot on this long 5.
That is exactly what I did. My tee shot was magnificent, landing left-center of the fairway and leaving me a clear second. I used my trusty 7 wood and hit straight but a bit short, landing about 100 yards off the green. No problem.
Now, normally here I like to bump and run, but in this case the creek guarding the front of the elevated green says that is a terrible idea. So I used my Gap wedge, a club I have never felt comfortable with.
Sure enough, I pulled it badly, ending up a little past the pin but in some trees left of the green. Then I chipped over the green. Then I chipped over the green again. Finally I got on the green and 2-putted for a snowman. Ugly start. Ironically, my short game is what betrayed me. Normally I scuffle trying to get close, then pitch and putt to manageable scores.
Hole 2
This one is tough. I used to have a solid 150 yard 8 iron, so I would tee short and take my 8 up that steep hill. Now, however, I cannot range my clubs, so I just blasted my driver and it was a beauty, landing me about 40 yards short of the green. A sand wdge left me about 8' from the pin. I then 2-putted for par.
Hole 3
A short 3 from a cliff, I thought I had hit it great. The ball skied, straight and true...and short. I landed about 4 feet off the green. But a nice bump and run, a 4 foot putt and I had back to back pars.
Hole 4
I absolutely crushed my drive, landing about 3 yards short of the 200 yard marker. Then my 7W landed pin high just right of the green. I then managed to chip almost over the green. A decent lag putt and a third consecutive par...2 of which should have been birdies.
Hole 5
This hole has always given me trouble. The trees to the right mean even a fade is trouble, and the sand guarding the elevated green means my beloved bump and run is no good here. I often chip onto the hill behind the green, get scared of coming into the sand...I can run up a big score quickly.
This time I crush my drive and have a nice short chip. I get over the sand onto the green in regulation, then proceed to 3-putt for a bogey. Not bad...but already I have about 4 strokes more than I should.
Hole 6
This short 3 demands accuracy. Any shot hit right or long is gone in the weeds, and there is not much room...plus the trees in front mean you have to sky your ball to get over them. I went pretty far left, just scraping the edge of the green, as close to being off as you could be. It was a tough green, but I 2-putted for another par. I was rolling!
Hole 7
My drives had been very good all day. Long and straight, little to no bend to the right. So for the first time, I decided to aim for the middle of the fairway trying to cut the corner without cutting it on this long 5, dogleg right with water and trees on the right and bifurcating the dogleg.
And promptly hit a slice like I used to do so consistently. If it had not hit a tree, it was turning so hard it might have gone boomerang on me and hit me in the back of the head.
Laying three off the tee, I then boomed a drive to the center of the fairway, hit a decent 7-wood, bump and run, 2-putt. Had I not lost the first one, would have had another par. Instead I took a 7.
Hole 8
Again my 8-iron was well short of where I thought it should be. But a good chip, a one-putt, and I had yet another par. I was playing well.
Hole 9
For a second time I sliced badly. I thought it was in play, though...there is a lot of room out there. Could not find it, dropped, pitched, then again after I shanked it, chipped back from beyond the green, 2 putt, a semi-legit7.
Totaled it up...a surprising 43. I felt like it should be more because I bookended big numbers, and 2 of my last 3 holes were big numbers. But the middle was awesome!
The back...ugh. What happened?
Hole 10
A beautiful drive yet again. Then, from just outside 100, I pulled my 9 iron right, then managed to take another 3 shots. A six.
Hole 11
I have never figured out this hole. There is no good landing place for the drive. I actually hit my driver poorly...I overswung but instead of slicing, it went about 50 yards left of where I aimed and short. It played well, though...dead center fairway at the 100 yard marker.
I then took my Gap wedge...an 85 yard club....and, facing a steep uphill to the green....OVERSHOT the green and lost the ball out of bounds. Drop, pitch, putt twice...another 6. Still no huge numbers...but definitely worse than the front.
Hole 12
This one has a very narrow fairway. If you go left, you are on a sidehill with the ball beneath your feet and it means the green is blind. If you go right you are in the creek. I crushed my drive long and straight. Then I topped my pitch, advancing maybe ten yards...then again went over the green, losing the ball. Bump and run, 2 putt, a 7.
Hole 13
Perhaps the easiest hole on the course. I pull my 5 iron left, pitch, 2 putt. A bogey looks good right now.
Hole 14
Earlier I had mentioned I am usually good for pulling my drive way left about once a round. On this hole,
Friday
Breaking 100
Every so often, I start out too aggressive. Case in point; 1st hand, I pick up 9/2 suited in the big blind. Under the gun +1 click-raises, everyone folds, and I randomly elect to call. I guess because they were suited? No, more because the click-raise often indicates weakness.
The problem with doing this is sometimes you hit. 9d/Js/4c does not hit a lot of pre-flop raises. Maybe pocket pairs or J/10 suited? So I bet out and he re-raises. I am done with the han….what? I called? Hmm. Turn is a harmless 3d.
I bet again and he makes a big re-raise. I belatedly realize I am not just beat but crushed. So I toss off 1.20 on the first hand with 2nd pair, weak kicker. Not a promising start.
Worse, I started with just 5.15 so now I am sitting behind 3.95. On the bright side, I learned my lesson. After several folds, I raise from the cut-off with 4/5 off, the button re-raises, and I fold instead of continuing with a weak hand.
I do not regret the raise as it was the correct move based on frequency of success, and I did not get caught up in “I raised, so am obligated to call the re-raise” type hands.
Well, not that time. Later I raise with a more reasonable 7/8 off, the blind click-raises, and that raise I call. Click raises are often responses to position raises. They usually check-fold the flop. This time the flop is Jh/9H/3D so I have a gut-shot. He raises and I…CALL? What? Turn is the Qd, he raises, I fold. Much too late, but I fold.
Now I go into passive mode. Sitting behind 2.30, with a click-raise and call, I also call from the small blind with pocket 8s, but check fold a flop with an Ace and Jack on it.
I am playing poorly so after a couple more blinds go away, I quit for a while down about 3 bucks. I then restart with 10. This is a curious choice. I do not feel like I was playing well…so why play more? And if I am going to play longer, why risk a larger stack?
First hand, under the gun limps, I check with A/4 hearts. Flop is 7H/Ad/2S. I check-call his .15 cent raise. Turn is the Jd and I check-call .25. And the river is the Ks. Lots of hands beat me, I am only ahead of A/3. I check and win, my aces beating his pocket tens.
Had he simply raised them pre-flop he would have won the blinds. Not great play on my part…but he made it cheap enough I could see the river reasonably.
Sometimes, though, taking a break and catching a break change your methods. I open raise from the small blind with 2/9 off and the big blind folds. When I am playing poorly, I fold that and give away 15 cents.
Sitting behind 10.58, I open from the button with a typical power-house, the 10/3 off. The big blind, with 5.64, calls. I am not too bothered. Lots of big blinds do that and check-fold all sorts of flops. The flop is pretty good for me, 8H/2S/10D. Only hands I am really worried about are A/10, K/10, Q/10, and 10/J. Maybe 9/J for the draw…I bet .40 into the .61 cent pot, he calls.
The turn is the 10S. I backed into trips. Kicker nothing to be proud of…but I like my chances. He checks and I decide to trap, checking behind. The turn is the 5s, giving a flush possibility. Now he leads out for 1.40. Oops.
Do I call? He did call on the flop…he beats me with any ten or any two spades. I should have bet the turn but I got tricky. Do I re-raise? Fold? Aggh! Instead of betting, I got sneaky and now I have a tough decision. Ultimately, I cannot lay down the trips, figuring if he hit the back-door flush, I goofed badly. Sort of. He had the K/Q off, so he was on a pure bluff. I ended up winning a nice little pot.
One easy way to tell if I am playing well or poorly is how I play A/J. This is my trouble hand, and I should just fold it…but it is strong enough to open raise. So every time I see it, I mentally tell myself, “I can raise with this, but I cannot call.” So when I pick it up in middle position, the Under the Gun raises, and I fold, I am happy. I am back to playing decent poker.
Or am I? Later, I pick up A/8 off in the cut-off, plenty good to open raise with in light of some of the trash I play. The big blind calls, and the flop is A/8/8. Does not get much better than that. He checks, and I raise. Very seldom do I slow-play, but in this format, this would be the time to. I pick up a few cents, but he might have caught on a later street.
At the same time, slow-playing is not my style, so it is often not a good idea to switch in the middle of a session. It is a skill I need to add, though. Playing live, I slow-play all the time. Online…not so much.
But I will occasionally take a flier on a hand in position. Some sessions, it is a bad idea to call with A/x suited. This session I make such a call when the cut-off raises to .30 and I am on the button with Ac/9c. The flop is 5h/Tc/2h. He checks and I bet, he folds. I just had him read for being on a position raise, I went with it and it worked. Sometimes this is a good idea, sometimes a bad idea.
A while later I am sitting behind 13.26 in the big blind when the under the gun limps, the hi-jack raises to .45, and I elect to call, as does the original limper. The flop is 6d/4d/Ks. With two players behind me who have both shown strength, I check as do they. The turn is the 6c, I bet, the limper folds, the raiser calls. The river is the Ac, I check, he goes all in 3.01 into the 2.62 pot, and I fold.
I think he was slow-playing a big hand and am fine with this hand. If I had hit my set I think I would have made a nice score.
Nor would being pushed off a pot slow my aggression. Next opportunity, I opened to .30 from the button with J/4 off. As often happens, the big blind calls, I miss the 5s/ks/9h flop, he checks, I bet, he folds. This game is easy…
But it is not just blind aggression. The very next hand I fold J/8 suited from early position. It is all about position. I open fold K/Q off as well. 9/J suited runs into a call and re-raise, time to fold.
Open to .30 from the cut-off with another monster, the 3h/5c. The big blind calls. The flop is 8c/2d/4s. He checks, I bet .40 cents, and he click-raises. I hem and haw briefly. Click-raises scream weakness to me, and if an Ace hits, I think he will call a big bet. I call. The turn is the 6S, giving me the straight. He comes out firing for .70 cents, I bump it to 4.35, he folds. Guess I should have slow-played…
The next hand I am the big blind with 9/Jd…and everyone folds. I pick up the small blind uncontested. Nice!
Several unimportant hands happen, and then one that illustrates why I have loosened up my raising requirements so much. Sitting behind 13. 68, I pick up a real hand, pocket aces under the gun +2. I make my standard raise to .30 and everyone folds. I pick up the blinds and that is it.
Well, if everyone is going to fold when I have Aces, they will fold when I have K/Q off as well. That is an argument that I am folding too many marginal hands. I just have to be willing to lay them down when people play back at me. This belief only grows when the next hand again I have everyone fold to me in the big blind.
There are times when I get a “feel” that people are playing tight on Rush and really widen my raising requirements. This is going to be such a time. Or is it? People play back at me a couple times, do not pay me off when I hit a straight, and I get a hair more cautious.
With 12.07, the under the gun limps, I call from the hi-jack with A/10 suited, the big blind checks. The flop is Qc/7D/8c. They check to me and I bet my flush draw. The big blind folds, the limper calls. Turn is the 4d and he check-calls my bet again. The river is the 9s. I missed. He checks. Now, to figure out what is happening.
There were a couple of draws on the flop; gut-shot straight if he had something like J/10, open-ended straight if he had 9/10, or of course he could be playing suited cards and have missed the flush. Pretty much anything else has me beat, but he might fold with a low pair. I bet, he folds, I win.
A while later I get involved in a hand by accident. I have the suited one gapper, 8/10h in the big blind. 2 limpers, the small blind completes, I check. The flop comes 9d/2d/kc. Checked to me. No hand, no draw, 3 other people in the hand, no need to get involved. Check check check. Turn is the Js. Interesting. A queen gives me the straight to the King, though of course an Ace/10 would crush me, or a 7 would give me the nut straight…provided it is not a diamond. So really 6 clean outs. Might as well bet and see what they think.
20 cents is half the pot, sounds good. One caller. River is the 7c, a perfect card. It completes no obvious draws yet gives me the nuts. The pot is only about 80 cents. How to extract the maximum? I figure he has the 9 or jack and wants to see a cheap showdown. I over-bet, 1.40, trying to look like a desperate bluff. Turns out he had A/J and calls me down. I can see where he would have been nervous about the King so did not re-raise me on the turn, but it also shows the value of aggression. The King was still there on the river, he had no idea where he was in the hand and ended up losing way more than he needed to.
Meanwhile, by betting my draw I kept the price right, controlled the hand, and yes…I got lucky to hit my straight…but by not re-raising the turn and letting me bet it, he gave me the right price.
A while later the under the gun limps, I raise to 50 from the next seat and everyone folds. Open limps spell weakness. (I had A/Q off.)
Sensing weakness often means more than having a hand. Under the gun raises to .35, the small blind completes and I decide I have enough of a hand to call as well from the big blind. The flop is the 8d/4d/Qh. The small blind leads out for 10 cents…into a dollar pot. It does not matter if I hit or not, that is a call…and if nobody was behind me, I might even re-raise. But there is someone behind, so I just call, and he calls as well. The turn is the 5s and again the small blind min-bets, I call, and the first raiser…folds? What? The river is the 8S, the small blind again raises to .10 cents, I bump it to .80 cents, he folds. I take down the pot. If my 10/J off was the best hand, I would be surprised, but I did not need the best hand to win this pot. If I had to guess, the small blind hit the 4 or else had a diamond draw that missed.
Actually, that fits it well…he wanted to see it cheap and made the defensive bet to keep the pot small. But his passive-aggressive under bets just begged me to re-pop him and take it away so I did.
Other times, actually having cards helps. After making a couple poor plays, and having a couple real hands go south, I am sitting behind 9.49. UTG+2 raises to 30 cents, the next guy calls, and I decided to call from the big blind with pocket 7s. Really I plan to flop a set or fold. I miss my set, but the 8c/9d/6s flop gives me an open ended straight to go with my pair. I bet out .40 into a .90 cent pot, the initial raiser meekly folds and the caller calls again. The turn drops the 6h. With no re-raise on the flop, I figure this is my pot to bet, so I do, betting .80 cents this time and again he calls. The river is the 5c, giving me my well disguised straight.
But it is not all sweetness and light. Pocket 8s, 9s, 5s or less likely 6s have me crushed, and all of those are quite believable. Less believable but still possible is the unlikely 7/10. So do I check, hoping to play pot control and/or induce a bluff, or do I value bet? Hey. This is me. Value bet, except I over-bet 2.30. Turns out he had 8/9 and slow-played 2 pair to lose a good-sized pot.
Hence my aversion to slow-playing. A few dozen hands later, I have 11.57 in front of me and pick up pocket 9s in the small blind. Middle position click-raises, it is folded to me, I re-pop to 60 and he calls. I elect to re-raise because playing out of position is no fun. So when he calls, I am thinking I need to hit to win.
I like the flop, 6c/9h/Ad. With any luck, he has something like A/K. I check, he bets .65 cents. Hey, slow-playing sometimes works! The turn is the Jd and I lead out for 1.50 which he calls. The turn is the 3c. Time to value bet. I just echo my last bet, 1.50 and he calls. And shows K/Jh. Wow. I should have gone all in, if he would call a total of 4.25 with second pair he would have called off his last 1.60 as well. I missed a nice pick-up there, but do drag a nice pot.
Play on, winning some and losing some, working my way up to 17.24 when I pick up Aces under the gun. I raise to 30, the next guy calls, the cut-off calls, and the small blind calls. The flop is 6d/10c/Kd. I am hoping one guy has A/J or J/10 and another A/K or something. They all have between 10.56 and 11 dollars except yellowbird with 8.35. First guy checks, I bet the pot, second guy calls, third guy raises to 6.50 and I have to think. How likely is a set?
Pocket 6s or tens probably call there, pocket kings probably re-raise pre-flop. So maybe a set. Maybe a draw. But maybe A/K. I raise to 11.70, they both call all-in. The first guy has q/9 off and is drawing to a gut-shot straight. The second guy has two pair, Kings and tens. Uh-oh…I made a mis-step. I need a 6, ace, or running cards to pair. Fortunately, the turn is an Ace and I pull in 27.88 after the 1.99 rake.
I should have recognized the re-raise meant I was behind. I mis-read the situation and got in trouble against two players. Of course, one of them played much worse than I did. And frankly, calling with K/10 and Q/9, suited or not, is never a recommended play. Those are the type of “marginal hands” that get people in trouble. Top two…I definitely understand the flop raise. And had I waited for the turn, who knows if we would have all gotten it all in? Admittedly poorly played by me…but after all the 21-1 beats I have taken on the river, I do not feel the least bit bad. They called with bad hands, one temporarily took the lead, the other was on a ridiculous draw, and I did have 6 outs twice and 9 outs once. For a pot that big I will take a shot every now and again.
Now I am sitting behind 34.56 and have to make a choice. Often, when I get a big hit like that, I start playing poorly and give a lot of it back. Should I just call it a night or keep playing? I am having fun, have been playing well, so I keep going.
I am picking up lots of pots in lots of ways, and this next one is typical. I open from early with A/Kc. The small blind calls, leaving himself 3.40. The flop is an innocuous 7s/10s/2c. He hesitates, then bets .80. I ponder coming over the top but decide to merely call. I doubt that flop helped him and it feels like a “test the waters” bet. Sure enough, he checks the 6s turn, I bet 1.10, he folds. Nothing exciting or major, not a big pot, but picking up lots of these little ones adds up.
And they come my way more often the more aggressive I am. From the hijack I bump it to .30 and the cut-off calls. He is sitting behind 29.83, so I need to be careful. All I have is the Js/9c. The flop is the Qs/3h/Jc and I do my standard .40 continuation into a .70 cent pot. He calls. The turn is the 7d. He did not re-raise me on the flop, so I doubt the queen. I bet .80 cents and he click-raises. Had he made a legit raise here, he wins the pot. That feels more like a “do you mean it?” query, so I snap-call. The river is the 3s, I bet 2.20, he takes his time and folds. Had I not been aggressive, I probably lose to a J/10 type hand. Instead, I probably stole the pot from a better hand.
And for the second time in the session, I make a poor choice…maybe. Sitting behind 38.49 I pick up A/Kh on the button. I raise to .30, the small blind re-pops to .90. This actually is my first sign they have a hand as usually the small blind folds or at most calls. He is sitting behind 17.96, so I can take him for a lot. I call.
The flop is gorgeous…9h/kc/4h. I have top pair, top kicker, and the nut flush draw. I raise to 1.00 and he goes to 3 almost instantly. Hmm. He did not have to think about it, he has a big hand. He could have A/K, pocket Aces, pocket Kings, pocket 9s, or pocket 4s. For whatever reason, instead of calling, I re-pop to 10/90. He raises all-in and it is 6.16 to call.
I now revise him to having one of the pocket pairs. Only a set would play like that, I am obviously behind. However, there is about 30 bucks in the pot so I am getting 5-1. I am less than 3-1 against making the flush, so my aggressive play means it is an easy call. Sure enough, he flips up pocket kings, so it is top set against nut flush draw. The turn is a harmless 7d, but then on the river I break his heart, catching the 5h.
The irony here is I played this hand poorly. He showed obvious strength pre-flop and on the flop. My re-re-raise to 10.90 might be the most ridiculous thing I have done. Yet my poor play was rewarded with a monstrous 34.02 pot (after the equally ridiculous 2 dollar rake).
But I do not feel bad about it. I have taken a lot of much worse beats from much worse plays. I at least had top pair, top kicker, and a great draw. I am a dog, but not so huge a dog that this is abominable…merely bad play and I am not a good enough player to get away from such a huge draw.
I am, however, good enough to learn from it. In the future, I will just call the re-raise and see what the turn brings, playing some pot control.
Now I am sitting behind 54.55, only 10 bucks below the most I have ever held in a session. Again I consider packing it in, but elect to keep playing. However, I will keep a close eye on it and if I am acting bulletproof…making more calls based on pure aggression instead of reads they are weak….or if I am playing hands I should not or folding hands I should, I will quite. But soon I lay down suited connectors to heavy pre-flop action and re-pop a larger-than-average raise with pocket queens.
Time goes on and I find myself in a raising war. Under the gun I open to .30. The cut-off, sitting behind exactly 10 bucks, elects to bump it up to 80 cents. That is a weird amount. A click-raise goes to .50 cents, a pot-size bet goes to 1.05. So it shows he is a tricky player who actually is putting some thought into how much he wants to re-raise. Turns out I like my hand and want to play it…but want to play it pre-flop so I take my time and then raise to 2.55. He takes his time and re-pops to 6.70. About this point I figure he has Kings or Queens and re-pop to put him all in for his last 3.30. He calls and shows A/K off. This is a guy I want to play more. My Aces hold up and, after rake, I add another 8.81 to my stack. And now I have the most I have ever had, 65.79.
I almost quit just because of that. I am afraid I will play scared, not wanting to lose when I need to play fearlessly and aggressively. But I keep playing. That fear is shortly answered. Under the gun raises to .35, I re-pop with the “pot bet” button to 1.20 with pocket Kings, and he calls. The 8h/5h/5c flop brings a check from him, a raise from me, and I pick up another modest pot.
Again, many better players would say I mis-played this hand…but with just a single pair, I do not want to play a big pot, and my chances of improving are slim. I like to win lots of small plots and play few big ones. Just my style. Unless, of course, I hit the nuts…then I like to play monster pots.
Sometimes when I have deep stack, I will get a wild hair and play a drawing hand. I open to 30 with A/4c figuring I have about a 60% chance of picking up the blinds and a solid 70% chance of winning on the flop with a continuation bet even if called. I get a bit more action when the next seat flat calls and the button click-raises. Well, that just screams weakness to me, so I call the .20 cents.
When I raise to .30, I know it is only a 20 cent raise over the blind, but it FEELS like a 30 cent raise because I am not getting the big blind discount. So when I raise to 30 and he re-pops…into the raiser and a caller…another 20 cents, he is just being ridiculous. I am calling .20 to win 1.05, or better than 5-1, and I assume the next guy will also call so it is more like 6-1. I am calling that all day, all night and most of tomorrow.
So with a pot of 1.65, the flop comes 8c/6c/ks. I hit nothing but do have the nut flush draw. I lead out for .70, the original caller folds, and the button again click-raises. That is at best a feeler bet. And not a smart one. I have to call .70 to win 3.05, so way better than 4-1. Lets say I put him on Pocket Kings. I am getting a stupendous price to draw to the nuts. However, the way he has played that hand, I do not think he is that strong. The click raises indicate a soft Ace or something goofy like K/9, K/10, maybe even a medium pair.
I call. And the turn gives me the nuts. It is the 10c. I love that card. It hits a lot of hands, giving straight draws or making 2 pair with hands like K/10. Now, how to extract the most? I could bet, if I were afraid he had a set and was drawing to the full house. I do not want to give him the infinite odds. But if I think he has a weaker hand, I should check to let him catch up.
I am fairly positive he does not have a set, so at worst I am against 2 pair and a 11-1 favorite. ( I figure if he has 2 pair, then I “know” 8 cards…my own two, the 4 on the board, and that he has 2 cards in his hand that match the board, in which case it does not matter which ones.) If the board pairs, I will re-evaluate at that point…
Except he shoves all in his last 2.18. Easy, easy call. At the moment I have the absolute nuts and worst case scenario is he has a set and is drawing to 10 outs, so I am either an 11-1 favorite, a 4.4-1 favorite, or holding an unbeatable hand. I am not surprised when he flips up A/K, as it fits with how he played the hand, neither being a club. He is drawing dead and I pull down another 8.23 pot.
Now I am sitting behind 71.02 and again the thought crosses my mind…quit while you are ahead. But then I get a wild hair…I want to see if I can break 100. So I keep going.
One good thing about having a deep stack is I can play against more raises. Sitting behind 69.45 I pick up pocket deuces on the button. The cut-off, sitting behind 18.81, raises to .40 cents. Now, if I only have 3 or 4 bucks, I have to fold that because even the implied odds are no good. But here, I am going to try to win 18.81 so I can take a flyer on a trash hand. I call. Then the big blind, with 11.18, raises to 1.90. It is folded back to me.
There is 1.30 in the pot, I need to call 1.60 to win 3.90. A little better than 2.4-1, not even close to the 8-1 odds I need. Worse, if I am behind about 10 bucks or so, it is 20% of my stack and I have to fold here. With almost 70 bucks, it is a drop in the bucket and I can call in position. No need to get fancy, with him re-raising a steal position raise and a steal position caller, he can have a wide range of hands…medium pockets or better, A/10 or better, any suited ace…lets take a flop and see what he does.
8s/jh/2h. Jackpot. I flopped my set. The only obvious draw is a heart flush, though I suppose a super loose player on a move could have re-raised with 9/10 suited and if he did, he is not going away if that suit is hearts. He leads out 3.70. Either he hit the flop hard or else he has an over pair. So I think he has Queens or better, maybe A/J, and less likely a set of Jacks or set of 8s. The 8s seem unlikely and it feels like an overbet for A/J or a flush draw, but they are still possible.
So really, the only hand I am behind is pocket Jacks, and I think he has a better starting hand than that. I think for a bit, then re-raise him a pot-sized bet…he calls his last 5.58 all-in. He has Aces. The turn and river are blanks, I stacked him. Ah, the joys of playing deep-stack…if I folded pre-flop, I would have missed out on a big hit. And sitting behind 79.61.
Ironically, a few hands later I pick up the deuces again. In fact, after a number of folds, it is the next hand I play. With 2 limpers, I complete from the small blind and the big blind checks. I weakly check the 7h/8s/8h flop and fold to a bet after we turn a queen. I should have bet the flop. Even if someone re-raises….a bet is in order here.
But I am not above making a move. On the button I pick up ks/5s. Not a monster, and one I usually fold to any action. This time the cut-off open limps. I decide he is not serious and raise it to .40 cents. To my surprise he calls. The flop is 8d/10d/kd. Great flop for me…suited, straight draws, high cards. He checks, I raise, I win.
At the same time, I miss a possible value bet opportunity. Under the gun open limps, I raise to .50 from the cut-off, the first limper calls. Flop is Ks/10S/2H. He check-calls my raise to .60. Time to put him on a hand. A/10, J/10, medium pair seem most likely. Better and he would re-raise, worse and he would fold. Turn is the 10h. He checks, I bet 1.20, he calls. River is the 6h.
Now, it is unlikely he is slow-playing trip tens and also unlikely he rivered the back-door flush…but possible. All I have is A/K, so Kings up…but one pair on the board. A lot of hands he could have called with…A/10, K/10, J/10…are out there. I meekly check behind and he mucks his J/Q, a missed straight draw. I am up to 80.69.
And starting to get too aggressive. From the cut-off I open raise to .30. The big blind, with 7.96, calls and we take the flop heads up. The flop is 6d/10h/5h and he comes ut betting. I go through the normal routine…A/10, a heart flush draw, J/10, maybe big pocket pair higher than a ten or a set. I re-raise to .70 cents and he calls.
The turn is the 3s and he leads out…for .20 cents. Into a pot of about 2.60. That is a defensive bet. I narrow it down to a likely flush draw and raise it to 1.50. And he calls. I am not happy. I am done with this hand. I have nothing. Then he checks the Ac on the river. If my read is right, he has a modest flush draw and just missed it. I bet 2.60 int the 5.32 pot…and he folds. I win with King high and virtually no chance of having the best hand. Woo-hoo! But stupid…
I get pretty aggressive, splashing around in lots of pots and playing them aggressively. I play pocket kings and K/j off the same way. I pick up several pots, lose a couple, and am having a great time, bouncing around between 79 and 82 bucks.
Presently I call a guy with 10.84 who opens under the gun for .35. That raise indicates they are raising the pot and I have A/q off and position as I am in the cut-off. I often fold here, but this time I call. Mixing up my game I guess. The flop is 2h/2s/3h and he raises .50 cents. For whatever reason, I sense weakness and re-raise to 1.60 which brings a rapid fold.
I keep splashing about, raising pocket 10s on the flop with a king and turn with a queen, raising 2.4 from the button, just generally raising and re-raising like mad. After a while, with 83.18 in front of me, I pick up As/Qh under the gun. I open to .30, sirbluffalot calls with 8.39 from the next seat, a fold, then a re-pop to 80 cents by a guy with only 8.90 to start. Not a good raise yet again…if it is folded to me there will be 1.05 in the pot and the raise will be only 55 cents. I will call that all day. As does sirbluffalot.
The flop is the 9s/Qc/3c. I bet 1.20, sirbluffalot folds, and the re-raiser makes another horrible raise, click-raising to 2.40. I am curious what he is doing here so I call. The turn is the Jd which I am not happy about. It completes the straight if he is playing something like a K/10 maniacally…which his poor betting means he might do. In the right circumstances, K/10 is a good hand. Against an under the gun raiser and a call, re-raising it is begging to be broken. I check…and he checks behind.
What a weird hand. The river is worse, dropping the Ks. I am behind A/K, K/Q, K/J, K/10, K/9…and this guys betting patterns tell me those are all possible. Also possible is some sort of suited connector flush draw or even something like J/10. I raise to 3.50 with my second pair…and he folds the 6.86 pot to me. Wow. So bizarre. What can you re-raise in that situation, click-raise the flop, check the turn and fold the river with? I wish I could see his cards…
A while later, pocket nines on the button. I love pairs on the button. They always seem suspicious when you raise, yet it is entirely possible to have a legit hand on the button. Middle position click-raises, I bounce it to .60 cents, he calls. The flop is Kc/6h/Tc and he checks.
If I re-raise pre-flop and you check to me, I will raise about 95% of the time. I bump it to .70. That is actually a raise I hate, but it makes sense. I raised to .60 pre-flop, so it seems like a weak bet of just slightly more than pre-flop but into a much larger pot…but it fits my ½ -2/3 pot bet size I like to stay with. So it is a real quandary…should I alter it when my flop bet would match my pre-flop bet?
Admittedly, the situation arises more frequently when I raise to .30 pre-flop and get one caller in the blinds as after the rake, the pot is about .61 cents or so. But it also comes up frequently when I re-raise someone pre-flop. Definitely an area I need to work on.
I am not surprised when he calls. The turn is the 8d, he checks, I put him to the test with a 1.60 bet and he folds. All sorts of hands he could have, and his passive play costs him a pot he could have had. With two overs on the board, both of which hit a lot of hands he could reasonably hold, he could make me lay it down with any reasonable raise at several points in the hand.
Later on, it is folded to the small blind who click-raises. I come over the top to .60 cents from the big blind and he folds. I had pocket nines…but I should make that move with deuce-seven, too.
I guess I should show the level of play I sometimes face. Under the gun limps, I call with As/5s hoping to see a cheap flop and hit a flush.
This, by the way, is a poor play that I over-use. Sure enough, the cut-off bumps it to .55 cents and for the rest of the hand I will be out of position against the aggressor. Since he only has 4.41 behind, I will be calling .45 to win 5 bucks but need it to be 7.20 to justify the call. But the limper makes it easy by pushing all in.
Easy fold since that almost always means Aces. The re-raiser calls. I figure Aces versus Kings or Queens or, if a really weak player, A/K. But no, it is…I am embarrassed to write this…pocket tens for the limp-re-raiser versus K/10 suited? What?
The first raise against two passive players I love. Great move, K/10s is a great hand in that instance. But when the limper re-raises you all in, have the discipline to fold. No need to call off another 3.86 with what is now a trash hand. Of course, he got rewarded when he rivered the straight after turning a queen and rivering a jack…and the Ah/qh were on the board which meant his incredibly bad play would have been a royal flush had the river jack been a heart instead of a diamond.
Lets see how I play pocket tens. Sitting behind 86.35, I pick up tens on the button. I open to .30 cents and the big blind comes over the top all in for 13.78. Wow, massive overbet…small to medium pair? A/K? Aces, Kings, Queens? We will never know. I am not risking that amount pre-flop when I might be a 3-1 dog or worse when I can simply fold and go back to raising monsters like the K/3 off when I have position. Easy fold.
After all, a weak hand like pocket tens cannot compare to a power house like 3h/9c. Under the gun limps, everyone else folds, I check from the big blind. The flop is 2s/3c/10d. That hits very few limp-worthy hands so I lead out with a pot-sized bet, 20 cents. He calls. The turn is the 6d which does hit a few suited connector type hands but I lead out for 30 cents anyway and he folds. Clearly, proper aggression works for me.
Sometimes I chase my draws too long. I am in the cut-off with A/6h and two people limp to me. I decided to try to see a cheap flop and limp along. The big blind checks and we take the flop four handed. The flop is decent…8c/Jh/5h. For me, this is a pretty good flop. I have the nut flush draw and got in cheap. As long as it stays cheap, I am happy.
First guy checks, second guy bets .25 into a 42 cent pot. Third guy folds, I call, first guy folds.
The turn is the Jd which is one of the worst cards in the deck from the standpoint of now I would believe lots of hands that have trips, so even if something like the King of Hearts rolls off I do not want a big pot. Well, he checks, and, never one to be smart, I bet .50 cents, trying to take it down. He calls and the river is the pseudo-beautiful 9h giving me the 5th nuts.
Of course, he is UNLIKELY to be playing the J/9, J/8, J/5 and if he had pocket jacks he would have played it different, so when he checks I go ahead and make a value bet of 1 dollar, which he calls with pocket tens. Perfect. I sucked him in, and on the river got him to pay off with a worse hand. His cautious check on the turn, while prudent, probably made an extra 1.50 for me as I doubt he calls nearly as much if the pot was smaller.
The thing is, I was getting a pretty good price pre-flop and on the flop, not necessarily straight pot odds, but implied odds for sure. However, though I did pull in a pot of 3.69, in the long run that is a losing play because I called a total of 35 cents and to properly play the hand, I need to get about 5.60. This is a play I make quite a bit that if I tighten up might improve my overall results.
It is just so hard for me to lay down what could turn into the nut hand. But it is hard to get paid off when you are holding the nuts. All of which makes it very hard to get the right price on it which means I need to make smarter decisions. This is one way I can become a much stronger player with better long-term results.
It is not easy to ignore the lure of a potential big pay-off, but it should be because I can make nearly the same amount just by picking up numerous small pots with aggressive raisers instead of a few modest pots with passive calls.
Example; the next hand I play I raise the Qs/6d from the cut-off, perhaps a seat too early for this hand except I have notes on the big blind. Sure enough, everyone folds. Now, I have been raising the blinds left and right but mention this one just to contrast it to the hand that looks good because I won but was actually poorly played when examined more closely. Here I raise a trash hand and pick off the blinds.
The next hand I play I open to 30 under the gun with Ah/js, the big blind calls and check-folds to my continuation bet on a 2h/Qd/Ac flop. I like that even more than just winning the blinds. An extra 20 cents a shot is always nice. And it does not require cards.
From the cut-off I open to .30 cents with the Kc/3h. The button calls and we take the 9h/8s/2c flop heads up. I lead out for 40 cents, he folds. Who needs flush draws? It is a hard lesson to learn, but I need to learn it. In three hands I have picked up almost a buck…and with the flush hand, I only made like 1.80. But here I have risked the same 30 cents three times, there I risked the 35 cents I called and the 50 cents I lead out on the turn. Play smarter, not luckier. Grr.
Again I raise from the cut-off, though by some quirk of nature I actually have a pseudo-respectable hand, the Js/Kh. Both blinds call sitting behind 9.91 and 11.30 each. I am pretty happy when the flop is Jd/Ks/3c. If I am going to raise trash hands, flopping Kings up is a pretty good result. They check to me and I continuation bet. The small blind checks, but the big blind check-raises me to 1.75. Suh-weeeeeet! Flat call or re-raise?
If he has A/K he will keep raising, if he has A/J he might be done either way, if he has K/10 or worse he is done. I flat-call, he checks the 2s turn, I bet out and he folds. I end up picking up a nice 4.11 pot when all I was really trying to do was to steal the blinds.
And for the first time, I am over 90, sitting behind 90.81.
And then I get a couple people playing back at me, a couple flops I get re-raised, and get down to 86.61. So I tighten up, go back to just trying to win the blinds and start building my way back up.
And one hand shows why raising the big blind is always wise. I am able to check in the big blind with 7/10off. I flop a 7, bet it, get called, turn a second 7, bet my trips, get called, river the full house, bet but they fold. Still, they gave me over a buck when a pre-flop raise would have driven me off the hand. I can raise that trash but will not call with it.
Sitting in the small blind, I call the button’s raise to 30 cents with the 9h/10h. The big blind also calls and we see the 6h/7h/4c flop. I have a flush draw and two over cards and no chance of winning a showdown. Time to bet my draw. I lead out for 40 cents, the big blind folds, and the button calls. It is at this moment that I decide he is on the flush draw and am no longer sure I want to hit mine. The turn is the Ac and I figure it is a good bluffing card, so I lead out for 80 cents and he calls. The river is the Js. I have nothing. But I also think he has nothing. He has a busted flush draw. I lead out for 2.10…and he folds. I win the 3.08 pot with what absolutely has to be the worse hand.
A while later with one middle position limper I complete from the small blind with the Kh/Js. What a weak move. The big blind checks and we see a 7H/Jh/Kd flop. I bet .40 cents, the big blind re-pops to 2.35. For whatever reason, I decide he cannot have A/K or K/Q or two pair and raise his last 1.43 to put him all in. He calls…and we split the pot with both of us having K/J off. I played very poorly in this hand. Tying a pot costs money as you lose to the rake…and I was very fortunate he did not have one of the better hands.
Yet aggression overall has done well for me. Sometimes it lets me have multiple chances to win a pot; I can stay in a hand I am betting that I could not stay in if facing a raise. With Qc/Kd I open to 30 cents from middle position, the cut-off calls and we take the flop heads up. He is sitting behind 10.33 so I need to be careful, by which I mean make a continuation bet of .40 cents into a .61 cent flop on an As/3d/Jd flop which he calls.
If he had re-raised me I would have to fold a gut-shot, but with what Cloutier calls the “first in vigorish” I keep the initiative. The turn card is great, the 10h. I hit my straight. Never one to slow-play, I keep betting, 90 cents and he calls. The river is a harmless 8s, I have the nuts. I am afraid he will check behind if I slow down, so bet 1.20. Sure enough, he has just enough to call…an A/Q…but probably would not have bet. He had me crushed on the flop, played conservatively, and I pull in a 5.37 pot.
After a few more blind steals I am sitting behind 94.21 when I pick up Jd/Kd in the small blind. It is a requirement to raise this strong a hand when folded to, and I oblige, only to be called by the big blind, sitting behind 4.28. The flop is 10s/Kc/5h and I continuation bet 40 cents which he calls. The turn is the 6c, I raise to 80 cents and he does the “has yet to work” click-raise move which I call. Now we have a large pot, the river is the 8c and I bet 2 bucks, with him having just 1.98. He calls and shows Ac/10d. I take down the 7.99 pot.
What was he thinking? That I bet the flop and turn, called a re-raise on the turn, and bet the river with nothing? He has the Ace of clubs, so I guess not being afraid of the runner-runner flush makes sense…but calling off 4.38 with second pair against constant aggression? Very interesting maneuver. Not a good one…but at least interesting. These are the players I want to be in a lot of pots with because while there are plenty of better players on here and I tend to do poorly against them.
So now I am at 97.92 and desperately wanting to get to 100 dollars just to say I have done so.
After a while I am at 99.19 and think I have it for sure. Under the gun click-raises, I am under the gun + 2 and re-raise to .75 cents with pocket Aces. I figure he will call and check-fold the flop and I will quite with over 100. But everyone folds. My Aces pick up 35 cents…but not enough to bring me home. I laugh quietly to myself, thinking I have made much more with 2/7 than Aces.
A while later, 2 people limp, I complete the small blind with 10c/Qd…and the big blind, correctly sensing weakness, busts it to .70 cents. One limper folds, the other one and I call and the flop comes down 10s/6d/Ah. Never one to shy away from raising second pair, I raise it 1.20, they both fold, and I have 100.90. I instantly fold the next hand and quit.
The problem with doing this is sometimes you hit. 9d/Js/4c does not hit a lot of pre-flop raises. Maybe pocket pairs or J/10 suited? So I bet out and he re-raises. I am done with the han….what? I called? Hmm. Turn is a harmless 3d.
I bet again and he makes a big re-raise. I belatedly realize I am not just beat but crushed. So I toss off 1.20 on the first hand with 2nd pair, weak kicker. Not a promising start.
Worse, I started with just 5.15 so now I am sitting behind 3.95. On the bright side, I learned my lesson. After several folds, I raise from the cut-off with 4/5 off, the button re-raises, and I fold instead of continuing with a weak hand.
I do not regret the raise as it was the correct move based on frequency of success, and I did not get caught up in “I raised, so am obligated to call the re-raise” type hands.
Well, not that time. Later I raise with a more reasonable 7/8 off, the blind click-raises, and that raise I call. Click raises are often responses to position raises. They usually check-fold the flop. This time the flop is Jh/9H/3D so I have a gut-shot. He raises and I…CALL? What? Turn is the Qd, he raises, I fold. Much too late, but I fold.
Now I go into passive mode. Sitting behind 2.30, with a click-raise and call, I also call from the small blind with pocket 8s, but check fold a flop with an Ace and Jack on it.
I am playing poorly so after a couple more blinds go away, I quit for a while down about 3 bucks. I then restart with 10. This is a curious choice. I do not feel like I was playing well…so why play more? And if I am going to play longer, why risk a larger stack?
First hand, under the gun limps, I check with A/4 hearts. Flop is 7H/Ad/2S. I check-call his .15 cent raise. Turn is the Jd and I check-call .25. And the river is the Ks. Lots of hands beat me, I am only ahead of A/3. I check and win, my aces beating his pocket tens.
Had he simply raised them pre-flop he would have won the blinds. Not great play on my part…but he made it cheap enough I could see the river reasonably.
Sometimes, though, taking a break and catching a break change your methods. I open raise from the small blind with 2/9 off and the big blind folds. When I am playing poorly, I fold that and give away 15 cents.
Sitting behind 10.58, I open from the button with a typical power-house, the 10/3 off. The big blind, with 5.64, calls. I am not too bothered. Lots of big blinds do that and check-fold all sorts of flops. The flop is pretty good for me, 8H/2S/10D. Only hands I am really worried about are A/10, K/10, Q/10, and 10/J. Maybe 9/J for the draw…I bet .40 into the .61 cent pot, he calls.
The turn is the 10S. I backed into trips. Kicker nothing to be proud of…but I like my chances. He checks and I decide to trap, checking behind. The turn is the 5s, giving a flush possibility. Now he leads out for 1.40. Oops.
Do I call? He did call on the flop…he beats me with any ten or any two spades. I should have bet the turn but I got tricky. Do I re-raise? Fold? Aggh! Instead of betting, I got sneaky and now I have a tough decision. Ultimately, I cannot lay down the trips, figuring if he hit the back-door flush, I goofed badly. Sort of. He had the K/Q off, so he was on a pure bluff. I ended up winning a nice little pot.
One easy way to tell if I am playing well or poorly is how I play A/J. This is my trouble hand, and I should just fold it…but it is strong enough to open raise. So every time I see it, I mentally tell myself, “I can raise with this, but I cannot call.” So when I pick it up in middle position, the Under the Gun raises, and I fold, I am happy. I am back to playing decent poker.
Or am I? Later, I pick up A/8 off in the cut-off, plenty good to open raise with in light of some of the trash I play. The big blind calls, and the flop is A/8/8. Does not get much better than that. He checks, and I raise. Very seldom do I slow-play, but in this format, this would be the time to. I pick up a few cents, but he might have caught on a later street.
At the same time, slow-playing is not my style, so it is often not a good idea to switch in the middle of a session. It is a skill I need to add, though. Playing live, I slow-play all the time. Online…not so much.
But I will occasionally take a flier on a hand in position. Some sessions, it is a bad idea to call with A/x suited. This session I make such a call when the cut-off raises to .30 and I am on the button with Ac/9c. The flop is 5h/Tc/2h. He checks and I bet, he folds. I just had him read for being on a position raise, I went with it and it worked. Sometimes this is a good idea, sometimes a bad idea.
A while later I am sitting behind 13.26 in the big blind when the under the gun limps, the hi-jack raises to .45, and I elect to call, as does the original limper. The flop is 6d/4d/Ks. With two players behind me who have both shown strength, I check as do they. The turn is the 6c, I bet, the limper folds, the raiser calls. The river is the Ac, I check, he goes all in 3.01 into the 2.62 pot, and I fold.
I think he was slow-playing a big hand and am fine with this hand. If I had hit my set I think I would have made a nice score.
Nor would being pushed off a pot slow my aggression. Next opportunity, I opened to .30 from the button with J/4 off. As often happens, the big blind calls, I miss the 5s/ks/9h flop, he checks, I bet, he folds. This game is easy…
But it is not just blind aggression. The very next hand I fold J/8 suited from early position. It is all about position. I open fold K/Q off as well. 9/J suited runs into a call and re-raise, time to fold.
Open to .30 from the cut-off with another monster, the 3h/5c. The big blind calls. The flop is 8c/2d/4s. He checks, I bet .40 cents, and he click-raises. I hem and haw briefly. Click-raises scream weakness to me, and if an Ace hits, I think he will call a big bet. I call. The turn is the 6S, giving me the straight. He comes out firing for .70 cents, I bump it to 4.35, he folds. Guess I should have slow-played…
The next hand I am the big blind with 9/Jd…and everyone folds. I pick up the small blind uncontested. Nice!
Several unimportant hands happen, and then one that illustrates why I have loosened up my raising requirements so much. Sitting behind 13. 68, I pick up a real hand, pocket aces under the gun +2. I make my standard raise to .30 and everyone folds. I pick up the blinds and that is it.
Well, if everyone is going to fold when I have Aces, they will fold when I have K/Q off as well. That is an argument that I am folding too many marginal hands. I just have to be willing to lay them down when people play back at me. This belief only grows when the next hand again I have everyone fold to me in the big blind.
There are times when I get a “feel” that people are playing tight on Rush and really widen my raising requirements. This is going to be such a time. Or is it? People play back at me a couple times, do not pay me off when I hit a straight, and I get a hair more cautious.
With 12.07, the under the gun limps, I call from the hi-jack with A/10 suited, the big blind checks. The flop is Qc/7D/8c. They check to me and I bet my flush draw. The big blind folds, the limper calls. Turn is the 4d and he check-calls my bet again. The river is the 9s. I missed. He checks. Now, to figure out what is happening.
There were a couple of draws on the flop; gut-shot straight if he had something like J/10, open-ended straight if he had 9/10, or of course he could be playing suited cards and have missed the flush. Pretty much anything else has me beat, but he might fold with a low pair. I bet, he folds, I win.
A while later I get involved in a hand by accident. I have the suited one gapper, 8/10h in the big blind. 2 limpers, the small blind completes, I check. The flop comes 9d/2d/kc. Checked to me. No hand, no draw, 3 other people in the hand, no need to get involved. Check check check. Turn is the Js. Interesting. A queen gives me the straight to the King, though of course an Ace/10 would crush me, or a 7 would give me the nut straight…provided it is not a diamond. So really 6 clean outs. Might as well bet and see what they think.
20 cents is half the pot, sounds good. One caller. River is the 7c, a perfect card. It completes no obvious draws yet gives me the nuts. The pot is only about 80 cents. How to extract the maximum? I figure he has the 9 or jack and wants to see a cheap showdown. I over-bet, 1.40, trying to look like a desperate bluff. Turns out he had A/J and calls me down. I can see where he would have been nervous about the King so did not re-raise me on the turn, but it also shows the value of aggression. The King was still there on the river, he had no idea where he was in the hand and ended up losing way more than he needed to.
Meanwhile, by betting my draw I kept the price right, controlled the hand, and yes…I got lucky to hit my straight…but by not re-raising the turn and letting me bet it, he gave me the right price.
A while later the under the gun limps, I raise to 50 from the next seat and everyone folds. Open limps spell weakness. (I had A/Q off.)
Sensing weakness often means more than having a hand. Under the gun raises to .35, the small blind completes and I decide I have enough of a hand to call as well from the big blind. The flop is the 8d/4d/Qh. The small blind leads out for 10 cents…into a dollar pot. It does not matter if I hit or not, that is a call…and if nobody was behind me, I might even re-raise. But there is someone behind, so I just call, and he calls as well. The turn is the 5s and again the small blind min-bets, I call, and the first raiser…folds? What? The river is the 8S, the small blind again raises to .10 cents, I bump it to .80 cents, he folds. I take down the pot. If my 10/J off was the best hand, I would be surprised, but I did not need the best hand to win this pot. If I had to guess, the small blind hit the 4 or else had a diamond draw that missed.
Actually, that fits it well…he wanted to see it cheap and made the defensive bet to keep the pot small. But his passive-aggressive under bets just begged me to re-pop him and take it away so I did.
Other times, actually having cards helps. After making a couple poor plays, and having a couple real hands go south, I am sitting behind 9.49. UTG+2 raises to 30 cents, the next guy calls, and I decided to call from the big blind with pocket 7s. Really I plan to flop a set or fold. I miss my set, but the 8c/9d/6s flop gives me an open ended straight to go with my pair. I bet out .40 into a .90 cent pot, the initial raiser meekly folds and the caller calls again. The turn drops the 6h. With no re-raise on the flop, I figure this is my pot to bet, so I do, betting .80 cents this time and again he calls. The river is the 5c, giving me my well disguised straight.
But it is not all sweetness and light. Pocket 8s, 9s, 5s or less likely 6s have me crushed, and all of those are quite believable. Less believable but still possible is the unlikely 7/10. So do I check, hoping to play pot control and/or induce a bluff, or do I value bet? Hey. This is me. Value bet, except I over-bet 2.30. Turns out he had 8/9 and slow-played 2 pair to lose a good-sized pot.
Hence my aversion to slow-playing. A few dozen hands later, I have 11.57 in front of me and pick up pocket 9s in the small blind. Middle position click-raises, it is folded to me, I re-pop to 60 and he calls. I elect to re-raise because playing out of position is no fun. So when he calls, I am thinking I need to hit to win.
I like the flop, 6c/9h/Ad. With any luck, he has something like A/K. I check, he bets .65 cents. Hey, slow-playing sometimes works! The turn is the Jd and I lead out for 1.50 which he calls. The turn is the 3c. Time to value bet. I just echo my last bet, 1.50 and he calls. And shows K/Jh. Wow. I should have gone all in, if he would call a total of 4.25 with second pair he would have called off his last 1.60 as well. I missed a nice pick-up there, but do drag a nice pot.
Play on, winning some and losing some, working my way up to 17.24 when I pick up Aces under the gun. I raise to 30, the next guy calls, the cut-off calls, and the small blind calls. The flop is 6d/10c/Kd. I am hoping one guy has A/J or J/10 and another A/K or something. They all have between 10.56 and 11 dollars except yellowbird with 8.35. First guy checks, I bet the pot, second guy calls, third guy raises to 6.50 and I have to think. How likely is a set?
Pocket 6s or tens probably call there, pocket kings probably re-raise pre-flop. So maybe a set. Maybe a draw. But maybe A/K. I raise to 11.70, they both call all-in. The first guy has q/9 off and is drawing to a gut-shot straight. The second guy has two pair, Kings and tens. Uh-oh…I made a mis-step. I need a 6, ace, or running cards to pair. Fortunately, the turn is an Ace and I pull in 27.88 after the 1.99 rake.
I should have recognized the re-raise meant I was behind. I mis-read the situation and got in trouble against two players. Of course, one of them played much worse than I did. And frankly, calling with K/10 and Q/9, suited or not, is never a recommended play. Those are the type of “marginal hands” that get people in trouble. Top two…I definitely understand the flop raise. And had I waited for the turn, who knows if we would have all gotten it all in? Admittedly poorly played by me…but after all the 21-1 beats I have taken on the river, I do not feel the least bit bad. They called with bad hands, one temporarily took the lead, the other was on a ridiculous draw, and I did have 6 outs twice and 9 outs once. For a pot that big I will take a shot every now and again.
Now I am sitting behind 34.56 and have to make a choice. Often, when I get a big hit like that, I start playing poorly and give a lot of it back. Should I just call it a night or keep playing? I am having fun, have been playing well, so I keep going.
I am picking up lots of pots in lots of ways, and this next one is typical. I open from early with A/Kc. The small blind calls, leaving himself 3.40. The flop is an innocuous 7s/10s/2c. He hesitates, then bets .80. I ponder coming over the top but decide to merely call. I doubt that flop helped him and it feels like a “test the waters” bet. Sure enough, he checks the 6s turn, I bet 1.10, he folds. Nothing exciting or major, not a big pot, but picking up lots of these little ones adds up.
And they come my way more often the more aggressive I am. From the hijack I bump it to .30 and the cut-off calls. He is sitting behind 29.83, so I need to be careful. All I have is the Js/9c. The flop is the Qs/3h/Jc and I do my standard .40 continuation into a .70 cent pot. He calls. The turn is the 7d. He did not re-raise me on the flop, so I doubt the queen. I bet .80 cents and he click-raises. Had he made a legit raise here, he wins the pot. That feels more like a “do you mean it?” query, so I snap-call. The river is the 3s, I bet 2.20, he takes his time and folds. Had I not been aggressive, I probably lose to a J/10 type hand. Instead, I probably stole the pot from a better hand.
And for the second time in the session, I make a poor choice…maybe. Sitting behind 38.49 I pick up A/Kh on the button. I raise to .30, the small blind re-pops to .90. This actually is my first sign they have a hand as usually the small blind folds or at most calls. He is sitting behind 17.96, so I can take him for a lot. I call.
The flop is gorgeous…9h/kc/4h. I have top pair, top kicker, and the nut flush draw. I raise to 1.00 and he goes to 3 almost instantly. Hmm. He did not have to think about it, he has a big hand. He could have A/K, pocket Aces, pocket Kings, pocket 9s, or pocket 4s. For whatever reason, instead of calling, I re-pop to 10/90. He raises all-in and it is 6.16 to call.
I now revise him to having one of the pocket pairs. Only a set would play like that, I am obviously behind. However, there is about 30 bucks in the pot so I am getting 5-1. I am less than 3-1 against making the flush, so my aggressive play means it is an easy call. Sure enough, he flips up pocket kings, so it is top set against nut flush draw. The turn is a harmless 7d, but then on the river I break his heart, catching the 5h.
The irony here is I played this hand poorly. He showed obvious strength pre-flop and on the flop. My re-re-raise to 10.90 might be the most ridiculous thing I have done. Yet my poor play was rewarded with a monstrous 34.02 pot (after the equally ridiculous 2 dollar rake).
But I do not feel bad about it. I have taken a lot of much worse beats from much worse plays. I at least had top pair, top kicker, and a great draw. I am a dog, but not so huge a dog that this is abominable…merely bad play and I am not a good enough player to get away from such a huge draw.
I am, however, good enough to learn from it. In the future, I will just call the re-raise and see what the turn brings, playing some pot control.
Now I am sitting behind 54.55, only 10 bucks below the most I have ever held in a session. Again I consider packing it in, but elect to keep playing. However, I will keep a close eye on it and if I am acting bulletproof…making more calls based on pure aggression instead of reads they are weak….or if I am playing hands I should not or folding hands I should, I will quite. But soon I lay down suited connectors to heavy pre-flop action and re-pop a larger-than-average raise with pocket queens.
Time goes on and I find myself in a raising war. Under the gun I open to .30. The cut-off, sitting behind exactly 10 bucks, elects to bump it up to 80 cents. That is a weird amount. A click-raise goes to .50 cents, a pot-size bet goes to 1.05. So it shows he is a tricky player who actually is putting some thought into how much he wants to re-raise. Turns out I like my hand and want to play it…but want to play it pre-flop so I take my time and then raise to 2.55. He takes his time and re-pops to 6.70. About this point I figure he has Kings or Queens and re-pop to put him all in for his last 3.30. He calls and shows A/K off. This is a guy I want to play more. My Aces hold up and, after rake, I add another 8.81 to my stack. And now I have the most I have ever had, 65.79.
I almost quit just because of that. I am afraid I will play scared, not wanting to lose when I need to play fearlessly and aggressively. But I keep playing. That fear is shortly answered. Under the gun raises to .35, I re-pop with the “pot bet” button to 1.20 with pocket Kings, and he calls. The 8h/5h/5c flop brings a check from him, a raise from me, and I pick up another modest pot.
Again, many better players would say I mis-played this hand…but with just a single pair, I do not want to play a big pot, and my chances of improving are slim. I like to win lots of small plots and play few big ones. Just my style. Unless, of course, I hit the nuts…then I like to play monster pots.
Sometimes when I have deep stack, I will get a wild hair and play a drawing hand. I open to 30 with A/4c figuring I have about a 60% chance of picking up the blinds and a solid 70% chance of winning on the flop with a continuation bet even if called. I get a bit more action when the next seat flat calls and the button click-raises. Well, that just screams weakness to me, so I call the .20 cents.
When I raise to .30, I know it is only a 20 cent raise over the blind, but it FEELS like a 30 cent raise because I am not getting the big blind discount. So when I raise to 30 and he re-pops…into the raiser and a caller…another 20 cents, he is just being ridiculous. I am calling .20 to win 1.05, or better than 5-1, and I assume the next guy will also call so it is more like 6-1. I am calling that all day, all night and most of tomorrow.
So with a pot of 1.65, the flop comes 8c/6c/ks. I hit nothing but do have the nut flush draw. I lead out for .70, the original caller folds, and the button again click-raises. That is at best a feeler bet. And not a smart one. I have to call .70 to win 3.05, so way better than 4-1. Lets say I put him on Pocket Kings. I am getting a stupendous price to draw to the nuts. However, the way he has played that hand, I do not think he is that strong. The click raises indicate a soft Ace or something goofy like K/9, K/10, maybe even a medium pair.
I call. And the turn gives me the nuts. It is the 10c. I love that card. It hits a lot of hands, giving straight draws or making 2 pair with hands like K/10. Now, how to extract the most? I could bet, if I were afraid he had a set and was drawing to the full house. I do not want to give him the infinite odds. But if I think he has a weaker hand, I should check to let him catch up.
I am fairly positive he does not have a set, so at worst I am against 2 pair and a 11-1 favorite. ( I figure if he has 2 pair, then I “know” 8 cards…my own two, the 4 on the board, and that he has 2 cards in his hand that match the board, in which case it does not matter which ones.) If the board pairs, I will re-evaluate at that point…
Except he shoves all in his last 2.18. Easy, easy call. At the moment I have the absolute nuts and worst case scenario is he has a set and is drawing to 10 outs, so I am either an 11-1 favorite, a 4.4-1 favorite, or holding an unbeatable hand. I am not surprised when he flips up A/K, as it fits with how he played the hand, neither being a club. He is drawing dead and I pull down another 8.23 pot.
Now I am sitting behind 71.02 and again the thought crosses my mind…quit while you are ahead. But then I get a wild hair…I want to see if I can break 100. So I keep going.
One good thing about having a deep stack is I can play against more raises. Sitting behind 69.45 I pick up pocket deuces on the button. The cut-off, sitting behind 18.81, raises to .40 cents. Now, if I only have 3 or 4 bucks, I have to fold that because even the implied odds are no good. But here, I am going to try to win 18.81 so I can take a flyer on a trash hand. I call. Then the big blind, with 11.18, raises to 1.90. It is folded back to me.
There is 1.30 in the pot, I need to call 1.60 to win 3.90. A little better than 2.4-1, not even close to the 8-1 odds I need. Worse, if I am behind about 10 bucks or so, it is 20% of my stack and I have to fold here. With almost 70 bucks, it is a drop in the bucket and I can call in position. No need to get fancy, with him re-raising a steal position raise and a steal position caller, he can have a wide range of hands…medium pockets or better, A/10 or better, any suited ace…lets take a flop and see what he does.
8s/jh/2h. Jackpot. I flopped my set. The only obvious draw is a heart flush, though I suppose a super loose player on a move could have re-raised with 9/10 suited and if he did, he is not going away if that suit is hearts. He leads out 3.70. Either he hit the flop hard or else he has an over pair. So I think he has Queens or better, maybe A/J, and less likely a set of Jacks or set of 8s. The 8s seem unlikely and it feels like an overbet for A/J or a flush draw, but they are still possible.
So really, the only hand I am behind is pocket Jacks, and I think he has a better starting hand than that. I think for a bit, then re-raise him a pot-sized bet…he calls his last 5.58 all-in. He has Aces. The turn and river are blanks, I stacked him. Ah, the joys of playing deep-stack…if I folded pre-flop, I would have missed out on a big hit. And sitting behind 79.61.
Ironically, a few hands later I pick up the deuces again. In fact, after a number of folds, it is the next hand I play. With 2 limpers, I complete from the small blind and the big blind checks. I weakly check the 7h/8s/8h flop and fold to a bet after we turn a queen. I should have bet the flop. Even if someone re-raises….a bet is in order here.
But I am not above making a move. On the button I pick up ks/5s. Not a monster, and one I usually fold to any action. This time the cut-off open limps. I decide he is not serious and raise it to .40 cents. To my surprise he calls. The flop is 8d/10d/kd. Great flop for me…suited, straight draws, high cards. He checks, I raise, I win.
At the same time, I miss a possible value bet opportunity. Under the gun open limps, I raise to .50 from the cut-off, the first limper calls. Flop is Ks/10S/2H. He check-calls my raise to .60. Time to put him on a hand. A/10, J/10, medium pair seem most likely. Better and he would re-raise, worse and he would fold. Turn is the 10h. He checks, I bet 1.20, he calls. River is the 6h.
Now, it is unlikely he is slow-playing trip tens and also unlikely he rivered the back-door flush…but possible. All I have is A/K, so Kings up…but one pair on the board. A lot of hands he could have called with…A/10, K/10, J/10…are out there. I meekly check behind and he mucks his J/Q, a missed straight draw. I am up to 80.69.
And starting to get too aggressive. From the cut-off I open raise to .30. The big blind, with 7.96, calls and we take the flop heads up. The flop is 6d/10h/5h and he comes ut betting. I go through the normal routine…A/10, a heart flush draw, J/10, maybe big pocket pair higher than a ten or a set. I re-raise to .70 cents and he calls.
The turn is the 3s and he leads out…for .20 cents. Into a pot of about 2.60. That is a defensive bet. I narrow it down to a likely flush draw and raise it to 1.50. And he calls. I am not happy. I am done with this hand. I have nothing. Then he checks the Ac on the river. If my read is right, he has a modest flush draw and just missed it. I bet 2.60 int the 5.32 pot…and he folds. I win with King high and virtually no chance of having the best hand. Woo-hoo! But stupid…
I get pretty aggressive, splashing around in lots of pots and playing them aggressively. I play pocket kings and K/j off the same way. I pick up several pots, lose a couple, and am having a great time, bouncing around between 79 and 82 bucks.
Presently I call a guy with 10.84 who opens under the gun for .35. That raise indicates they are raising the pot and I have A/q off and position as I am in the cut-off. I often fold here, but this time I call. Mixing up my game I guess. The flop is 2h/2s/3h and he raises .50 cents. For whatever reason, I sense weakness and re-raise to 1.60 which brings a rapid fold.
I keep splashing about, raising pocket 10s on the flop with a king and turn with a queen, raising 2.4 from the button, just generally raising and re-raising like mad. After a while, with 83.18 in front of me, I pick up As/Qh under the gun. I open to .30, sirbluffalot calls with 8.39 from the next seat, a fold, then a re-pop to 80 cents by a guy with only 8.90 to start. Not a good raise yet again…if it is folded to me there will be 1.05 in the pot and the raise will be only 55 cents. I will call that all day. As does sirbluffalot.
The flop is the 9s/Qc/3c. I bet 1.20, sirbluffalot folds, and the re-raiser makes another horrible raise, click-raising to 2.40. I am curious what he is doing here so I call. The turn is the Jd which I am not happy about. It completes the straight if he is playing something like a K/10 maniacally…which his poor betting means he might do. In the right circumstances, K/10 is a good hand. Against an under the gun raiser and a call, re-raising it is begging to be broken. I check…and he checks behind.
What a weird hand. The river is worse, dropping the Ks. I am behind A/K, K/Q, K/J, K/10, K/9…and this guys betting patterns tell me those are all possible. Also possible is some sort of suited connector flush draw or even something like J/10. I raise to 3.50 with my second pair…and he folds the 6.86 pot to me. Wow. So bizarre. What can you re-raise in that situation, click-raise the flop, check the turn and fold the river with? I wish I could see his cards…
A while later, pocket nines on the button. I love pairs on the button. They always seem suspicious when you raise, yet it is entirely possible to have a legit hand on the button. Middle position click-raises, I bounce it to .60 cents, he calls. The flop is Kc/6h/Tc and he checks.
If I re-raise pre-flop and you check to me, I will raise about 95% of the time. I bump it to .70. That is actually a raise I hate, but it makes sense. I raised to .60 pre-flop, so it seems like a weak bet of just slightly more than pre-flop but into a much larger pot…but it fits my ½ -2/3 pot bet size I like to stay with. So it is a real quandary…should I alter it when my flop bet would match my pre-flop bet?
Admittedly, the situation arises more frequently when I raise to .30 pre-flop and get one caller in the blinds as after the rake, the pot is about .61 cents or so. But it also comes up frequently when I re-raise someone pre-flop. Definitely an area I need to work on.
I am not surprised when he calls. The turn is the 8d, he checks, I put him to the test with a 1.60 bet and he folds. All sorts of hands he could have, and his passive play costs him a pot he could have had. With two overs on the board, both of which hit a lot of hands he could reasonably hold, he could make me lay it down with any reasonable raise at several points in the hand.
Later on, it is folded to the small blind who click-raises. I come over the top to .60 cents from the big blind and he folds. I had pocket nines…but I should make that move with deuce-seven, too.
I guess I should show the level of play I sometimes face. Under the gun limps, I call with As/5s hoping to see a cheap flop and hit a flush.
This, by the way, is a poor play that I over-use. Sure enough, the cut-off bumps it to .55 cents and for the rest of the hand I will be out of position against the aggressor. Since he only has 4.41 behind, I will be calling .45 to win 5 bucks but need it to be 7.20 to justify the call. But the limper makes it easy by pushing all in.
Easy fold since that almost always means Aces. The re-raiser calls. I figure Aces versus Kings or Queens or, if a really weak player, A/K. But no, it is…I am embarrassed to write this…pocket tens for the limp-re-raiser versus K/10 suited? What?
The first raise against two passive players I love. Great move, K/10s is a great hand in that instance. But when the limper re-raises you all in, have the discipline to fold. No need to call off another 3.86 with what is now a trash hand. Of course, he got rewarded when he rivered the straight after turning a queen and rivering a jack…and the Ah/qh were on the board which meant his incredibly bad play would have been a royal flush had the river jack been a heart instead of a diamond.
Lets see how I play pocket tens. Sitting behind 86.35, I pick up tens on the button. I open to .30 cents and the big blind comes over the top all in for 13.78. Wow, massive overbet…small to medium pair? A/K? Aces, Kings, Queens? We will never know. I am not risking that amount pre-flop when I might be a 3-1 dog or worse when I can simply fold and go back to raising monsters like the K/3 off when I have position. Easy fold.
After all, a weak hand like pocket tens cannot compare to a power house like 3h/9c. Under the gun limps, everyone else folds, I check from the big blind. The flop is 2s/3c/10d. That hits very few limp-worthy hands so I lead out with a pot-sized bet, 20 cents. He calls. The turn is the 6d which does hit a few suited connector type hands but I lead out for 30 cents anyway and he folds. Clearly, proper aggression works for me.
Sometimes I chase my draws too long. I am in the cut-off with A/6h and two people limp to me. I decided to try to see a cheap flop and limp along. The big blind checks and we take the flop four handed. The flop is decent…8c/Jh/5h. For me, this is a pretty good flop. I have the nut flush draw and got in cheap. As long as it stays cheap, I am happy.
First guy checks, second guy bets .25 into a 42 cent pot. Third guy folds, I call, first guy folds.
The turn is the Jd which is one of the worst cards in the deck from the standpoint of now I would believe lots of hands that have trips, so even if something like the King of Hearts rolls off I do not want a big pot. Well, he checks, and, never one to be smart, I bet .50 cents, trying to take it down. He calls and the river is the pseudo-beautiful 9h giving me the 5th nuts.
Of course, he is UNLIKELY to be playing the J/9, J/8, J/5 and if he had pocket jacks he would have played it different, so when he checks I go ahead and make a value bet of 1 dollar, which he calls with pocket tens. Perfect. I sucked him in, and on the river got him to pay off with a worse hand. His cautious check on the turn, while prudent, probably made an extra 1.50 for me as I doubt he calls nearly as much if the pot was smaller.
The thing is, I was getting a pretty good price pre-flop and on the flop, not necessarily straight pot odds, but implied odds for sure. However, though I did pull in a pot of 3.69, in the long run that is a losing play because I called a total of 35 cents and to properly play the hand, I need to get about 5.60. This is a play I make quite a bit that if I tighten up might improve my overall results.
It is just so hard for me to lay down what could turn into the nut hand. But it is hard to get paid off when you are holding the nuts. All of which makes it very hard to get the right price on it which means I need to make smarter decisions. This is one way I can become a much stronger player with better long-term results.
It is not easy to ignore the lure of a potential big pay-off, but it should be because I can make nearly the same amount just by picking up numerous small pots with aggressive raisers instead of a few modest pots with passive calls.
Example; the next hand I play I raise the Qs/6d from the cut-off, perhaps a seat too early for this hand except I have notes on the big blind. Sure enough, everyone folds. Now, I have been raising the blinds left and right but mention this one just to contrast it to the hand that looks good because I won but was actually poorly played when examined more closely. Here I raise a trash hand and pick off the blinds.
The next hand I play I open to 30 under the gun with Ah/js, the big blind calls and check-folds to my continuation bet on a 2h/Qd/Ac flop. I like that even more than just winning the blinds. An extra 20 cents a shot is always nice. And it does not require cards.
From the cut-off I open to .30 cents with the Kc/3h. The button calls and we take the 9h/8s/2c flop heads up. I lead out for 40 cents, he folds. Who needs flush draws? It is a hard lesson to learn, but I need to learn it. In three hands I have picked up almost a buck…and with the flush hand, I only made like 1.80. But here I have risked the same 30 cents three times, there I risked the 35 cents I called and the 50 cents I lead out on the turn. Play smarter, not luckier. Grr.
Again I raise from the cut-off, though by some quirk of nature I actually have a pseudo-respectable hand, the Js/Kh. Both blinds call sitting behind 9.91 and 11.30 each. I am pretty happy when the flop is Jd/Ks/3c. If I am going to raise trash hands, flopping Kings up is a pretty good result. They check to me and I continuation bet. The small blind checks, but the big blind check-raises me to 1.75. Suh-weeeeeet! Flat call or re-raise?
If he has A/K he will keep raising, if he has A/J he might be done either way, if he has K/10 or worse he is done. I flat-call, he checks the 2s turn, I bet out and he folds. I end up picking up a nice 4.11 pot when all I was really trying to do was to steal the blinds.
And for the first time, I am over 90, sitting behind 90.81.
And then I get a couple people playing back at me, a couple flops I get re-raised, and get down to 86.61. So I tighten up, go back to just trying to win the blinds and start building my way back up.
And one hand shows why raising the big blind is always wise. I am able to check in the big blind with 7/10off. I flop a 7, bet it, get called, turn a second 7, bet my trips, get called, river the full house, bet but they fold. Still, they gave me over a buck when a pre-flop raise would have driven me off the hand. I can raise that trash but will not call with it.
Sitting in the small blind, I call the button’s raise to 30 cents with the 9h/10h. The big blind also calls and we see the 6h/7h/4c flop. I have a flush draw and two over cards and no chance of winning a showdown. Time to bet my draw. I lead out for 40 cents, the big blind folds, and the button calls. It is at this moment that I decide he is on the flush draw and am no longer sure I want to hit mine. The turn is the Ac and I figure it is a good bluffing card, so I lead out for 80 cents and he calls. The river is the Js. I have nothing. But I also think he has nothing. He has a busted flush draw. I lead out for 2.10…and he folds. I win the 3.08 pot with what absolutely has to be the worse hand.
A while later with one middle position limper I complete from the small blind with the Kh/Js. What a weak move. The big blind checks and we see a 7H/Jh/Kd flop. I bet .40 cents, the big blind re-pops to 2.35. For whatever reason, I decide he cannot have A/K or K/Q or two pair and raise his last 1.43 to put him all in. He calls…and we split the pot with both of us having K/J off. I played very poorly in this hand. Tying a pot costs money as you lose to the rake…and I was very fortunate he did not have one of the better hands.
Yet aggression overall has done well for me. Sometimes it lets me have multiple chances to win a pot; I can stay in a hand I am betting that I could not stay in if facing a raise. With Qc/Kd I open to 30 cents from middle position, the cut-off calls and we take the flop heads up. He is sitting behind 10.33 so I need to be careful, by which I mean make a continuation bet of .40 cents into a .61 cent flop on an As/3d/Jd flop which he calls.
If he had re-raised me I would have to fold a gut-shot, but with what Cloutier calls the “first in vigorish” I keep the initiative. The turn card is great, the 10h. I hit my straight. Never one to slow-play, I keep betting, 90 cents and he calls. The river is a harmless 8s, I have the nuts. I am afraid he will check behind if I slow down, so bet 1.20. Sure enough, he has just enough to call…an A/Q…but probably would not have bet. He had me crushed on the flop, played conservatively, and I pull in a 5.37 pot.
After a few more blind steals I am sitting behind 94.21 when I pick up Jd/Kd in the small blind. It is a requirement to raise this strong a hand when folded to, and I oblige, only to be called by the big blind, sitting behind 4.28. The flop is 10s/Kc/5h and I continuation bet 40 cents which he calls. The turn is the 6c, I raise to 80 cents and he does the “has yet to work” click-raise move which I call. Now we have a large pot, the river is the 8c and I bet 2 bucks, with him having just 1.98. He calls and shows Ac/10d. I take down the 7.99 pot.
What was he thinking? That I bet the flop and turn, called a re-raise on the turn, and bet the river with nothing? He has the Ace of clubs, so I guess not being afraid of the runner-runner flush makes sense…but calling off 4.38 with second pair against constant aggression? Very interesting maneuver. Not a good one…but at least interesting. These are the players I want to be in a lot of pots with because while there are plenty of better players on here and I tend to do poorly against them.
So now I am at 97.92 and desperately wanting to get to 100 dollars just to say I have done so.
After a while I am at 99.19 and think I have it for sure. Under the gun click-raises, I am under the gun + 2 and re-raise to .75 cents with pocket Aces. I figure he will call and check-fold the flop and I will quite with over 100. But everyone folds. My Aces pick up 35 cents…but not enough to bring me home. I laugh quietly to myself, thinking I have made much more with 2/7 than Aces.
A while later, 2 people limp, I complete the small blind with 10c/Qd…and the big blind, correctly sensing weakness, busts it to .70 cents. One limper folds, the other one and I call and the flop comes down 10s/6d/Ah. Never one to shy away from raising second pair, I raise it 1.20, they both fold, and I have 100.90. I instantly fold the next hand and quit.
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