I haven’t posted much to my blog lately, and there are two reasons for this. First (and most) of all, I’ve been pretty busy with my real life. Work has picked up, which is always a good thing but particularly good when the economy as a whole is in recession. And second, I’ve had a terrible string of poker sessions lately, and it’s no fun to blog when the news is bad. It’s just been loss after loss after loss. Poker is like that sometimes. When it happens to me, I just have to drop out of the game, go off somewhere, and look at my game really closely to see whether I’ve been playing badly or just have been getting bad cards. I should probably find a poker coach or poker buddy that I can bounce things off of, but since I don’t have one posting to this blog really helps as an alternative. (By the way, I’ve decided that my recent results are due to a bit of both – bad play and bad cards.)
Since my luck has started to turn a bit, I’ve got an entry to blog about.
If you’re a regular reader to my blog, you know how much I despise Ace/Jack has a starting hand. Here’s another example of why I’m convinced it’s just a bad trouble hand.
It was really early in the session of a $2/$5 no-limit game. In fact, the button hadn’t even made it around its first orbit since I sat down. I was in the cutoff seat (one to the right of the button). The action folded around to me, and I looked down to see my “favorite” hand, Ace/Jack of diamonds. Since nobody else had shown any interest in the pot, I decided to throw a bet out and see whether I could just pick it up without seeing a flop. I raised to $15. Everybody folded around to the big blind, who called my raise for another $10.
The flop came Jack of Clubs, Two of Spades, Three of Spades. I had top pair with top kicker, but I didn’t like seeing such a draw-heavy board. My opponent over-bet the pot for $35. I decided that he had a made hand, and that he didn’t want to see me draw out on him. Big deal, I also had a made hand! So I flat called.
The turn came Nine of Clubs. Without any hesitation, my opponent bet $65. By now, my tell-detector was starting to ring. From his mannerisms, I could see that this guy really thought he had a good hand. But I still thought my hand might be better, so I called again.
The river was the Ten of Spades, and my opponent almost beat the dealer into the pot with a bet of $140. At this point, I was so frustrated I could have bitten a poker chip in two. My rule of thumb is, when you don’t know how an opponent plays, it’s safer to just assume he means what he’s saying. It’s a conclusion that I’ve reached the hard way. And here my opponent was screaming that he had my hand beat. Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t. But I decided to let the $220-plus pot go, and wait for some other opportunity. After all, the beauty (and of course the curse) of no-limit hold ‘em is that you can lose one pot, and make it all up on the very next one.
I kept my eye on this guy until he left the table, and I concluded that he was pretty loose pre-flop but excellent post-flop; so consequently I’ve decided that my fold was good, although I wish I’d have done it a street sooner.
This brings us to the very next hand. I was in the “hijack” seat, one to the right of the cutoff. It was folded to me, and I looked down to see the King of Spades and Jack of Diamonds. Again, since nobody else wanted the pot, I put $15 in to see if I could snag the blinds. I admit it was pretty loose by my standards; maybe I was a bit on tilt from the last hand. Or maybe I just wanted it to look like I was on tilt. The button raised it another $10, and it folded back to me. I wasn’t thrilled now with my hand, but the pot was laying me four and a half to one, so I was obliged to call.
The flop was Two of Hearts, Eight of Clubs, King of Clubs. So I had top pair once more! I bet $30, just enough to chase away the flush draw. My opponent raised me another $30. Again because of the pot odds, I called. I should add here that I wasn’t getting any tell from him that made me think I was beat, but I was going to be cautious going forward anyhow.
The turn was the Four of Clubs, so the flush draw arrived. I didn’t really think he had it. I put out a $80 bet, and this time he just called.
The river was the Four of Diamonds. I really thought I was the winner here. I had my opponent covered, and I could see he was a bit nervous. I put him all-in (a little over $175) and after a short delay, he put in the crying call. I showed my two pair (Kings and Queens with a Jack kicker) and he mucked, so I don’t know what he had; I’m guessing an underpair to my Kings. Maybe he paired the flop, with an Ace-Eight. Regardless, I pulled in a pot of over $600.
So this makes the point how you can lay down a decent hand that might be best but might not be, and surrender a good pot; only to pull in a bigger pot with a better hand later on – maybe even the very next hand, like what happened to me.
Meanwhile, I ended up getting a revenge hand against my first opponent later on. Here is how that came down:
I was in the cutoff seat once more, and again the bad guy was the big blind. By now I was the deep stack at the table, just barely edging out my opponent’s chipstack.
The blinds posted ($2 and $5). The first player folded, the next player called. Two more folds, then the next player called. I looked down to see two black eights, so I called. The button called, the small blind folded (getting 11-to-1???) and six of us went to the flop.
The flop was Eight of Diamonds, Ten of Clubs, King of Hearts – a beautiful rainbow flop that gave me some well-hidden trips.
The big blind – my nemesis – put out a min bet of $5. The next player called, then a fold, I called, the button folded, and three of us took the turn card.
The turn was the Six of Clubs. Some draws were starting to come in, and I was ready to take the pot now. The big blind put out $20. The next guy folded, and now I was heads-up. I raised to $60. He doubled my raise to $120 and I called.
The river was beautiful – the Eight of Hearts. The big blind bet $150. I decided how much to raise; ended up pushing all-in for $400. It wasn’t too much of an overbet, and I was hoping it looked a little desperate.
My opponent went into the tank for ages. I just tried not to move or anything. He thought and thought and thought, and just when I had decided that he wasn’t going to call off the rest of his chips, he called. I showed my quads, he said “nice hand” and mucked, and I brought home a pot of over $1000.
I love poker.
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