A Well-Played Hand

I just have to post this hand, because I am so pleased at how well I played it!

It was a $1/$3 no-limit table.  I was in the cutoff.  A new player had just come to the table and posted, so even before the cards were dealt, there was $7 in the pot.

The player under the gun cold-called the big blind.  I had been watching his game for a long time, and I really wasn’t very impressed at all.  He was one of these young guys I wrote about earlier, basically a tell machine, playing way too many hands and unable to figure out why he was slowing going bust.

The next player also limped.  I had been watching his game too, and he was a good player.  However, he’d just suffered a couple of really bad beats and had just re-bought, and was on serious tilt.  I wondered whether I would be able to take advantage of that observation.

The next player was the new one who just posted, and he checked his option.

It folded to me, and I looked down at Ace of Spades, Ten of Diamonds.  As I recently wrote, I’m not terribly fond of playing this kind of hand with a lot of other players already in.  But the pot was laying me 13-to-3 so if my hand held even a 23.1% chance of winning, it was worth a call.  Add the implied odds if the flop hit me, my position, and the fact that I really believed I could outplay at least two of the players in the pot, and the decision to call wasn’t too tough to make.

The button folded, so next up was the small blind.  She was a very tight and tentative player, and although she was getting 8-to-1 on her call she inexplicably folded!  The big blind checked, so it was five players to the flop; the pot held $16; and I had position.

The flop came Ten of Clubs, Six of Clubs, Eight of Clubs.  Ugh.  I had top-pair with top-kicker, which was pretty good, but all those damn clubs!  With my luck, somebody had already flopped the flush.  Well, at least I had position.

The big blind checked.  The young gun also checked.  Mr. Tilt thought for awhile, and put out a $7 bet.  The new guy folded, and it was to me.

That kind of bet made me think that he didn’t have the flush, or at least not yet.  I frankly thought that it was a tilt bet.  I considered a raise here, but with two players yet to go (one of whom could be slowplaying) and a hand which really wasn’t all that spectacular, I decided to play it a little timid and so I just called the bet.

Much to my surprise and interest, the small blind and young guy both folded, so it was just me and Mr. Tilt and the $30 pot.

The turn brought the Four of Diamonds; a rather inconsequential rag.  Mr. Tilt again took his time, and then put out a $20 bet.

I was more sure now than before that he wasn’t on the flush, based on my read and the amount of the bet.  It didn’t take me too much thought to call him.

The river was the Jack of Diamonds.  At this point, Mr. Tilt just checked!

Yahtzee!  I was convinced that I had him now.  What would make a good value bet?  I put $25 into the $70 pot.  After some more thought, Mr. Tilt called.

I showed my Ace/Ten, and he showed Queen/Ten.  The $120 pot was mine!

(Not that it mattered much.  A few hands later, I gave it all away when I picked up a pair of Jacks in the big blind.  The flop came Queen-Jack-Four; the button bet big, I raised, he went all-in, I called, and he turned over his pocket Queens and took the big, big pot with set-over-set.  That’s poker, folks.)