Lay It Down!

One of the biggest weaknesses that I have in my game (which I continually try to improve on) is being unable to lay down a decent hand post-flop when common sense tells me I am beat.  There is no question:  When I consider which hands have cost me the most money, it’s either bad beats (and I can’t do anything about that) or holding onto a good-not-great hand for too long.

I’ve been trying to tell myself two things:  First, it’s better to lose a little bit of money than a lot – so lay that good hand down.  And second, the nature of no-limit hold-‘em is such that if you let this decent pot go now, you will find another decent-sized pot later that you have a better chance of picking up.

So with that thought in mind, I want to post two hands I played recently.

I was at a $2/$5 no-limit table in the small blind, and thanks to some decent cards and nimble play I was the chip leader at the table with about $800 in chips.  A player in middle position who wasn’t that good doubled the big blind to $10, and it was folded around to me.  I looked down to see the Ace/Queen of Spades – a very good hand, but not exactly premium because it is so vulnerable to a bad flop.  So I called the raise for another $8.  The big blind, an extraordinarily tight player, called the raise also (this troubled me a little) and we went to the flop.

The flop was perfect – Queen of Hearts, Jack of Diamonds, Deuce of Hearts.  With such a draw-heavy board, I led out for a pot-sized bet of $30.  The big blind doubled my bet to $60 (Danger Will Robinson!), and the other  player quit.  Getting four-to-one on my call, I stayed for another card.

The turn was the Nine of Clubs.  I was really worried about this other player now.  He was so tight, and I could hardly remember a hand he’d played to this point.  But I didn’t want to surrender the action completely, so I put out a “blocking bet” of $60 into a pot of around $150.  If my opponent raised this bet, I was gone.

He thought for a REALLY long time.  Usually, but not always, I’ve found that a long pause means my hand is best.  But then he put out a raise of $80, to a total of $140.

I really hated laying down top pair with top kicker, but I couldn’t put him on a draw with that degree of aggression.  He probably had a flopped set, or maybe two pair.  I wanted to call so bad, but I let it go.

Three hands later, sitting in the “hijack” seat, the following hand came down:

An early player limped in.   I looked down to see two red eights, so I limped also.  The button limped, the big blind checked, and so four of us went to the flop.

The flop was Seven of Diamonds, Six of Spades, Five of Clubs.  So I had an overpair and an open-end straight draw – pretty nice, although with such a crowd in the hand I wasn’t sure what to think.

The initial limper bet $10 into the $20 pot – the kind of bet you make when you don’t know what else to do.  In other words, I wasn’t terribly frightened of it.  In fact, nobody was – we all called.

The turn was the Jack of Spades.  Now the initial limper bet $40 into a $60 pot.  I really didn’t put him on a Jack, so I called.  Everybody else folded, so it was heads-up to the river.

The last card was the Seven of Hearts – what a great card.  My opponent checked, and I thought about what to do.

Because of his scared river check, I still didn’t put him on a Jack, and I didn’t put him on a Seven either (for trips).  I decided that I had the best hand.  The only realistic hands that beat me were a flopped set or a flopped straight – and my opponent hadn’t bet enough to chase out hands that could challenge those holdings with a redraw.  And I didn’t put him on a higher pocket pair either, because of his weak preflop play.

Now many times I would just check behind, ready to show down the hand and move on.  But I’ve been trying to value-bet the river more frequently in these types of situations, so I put out a $60 bet.  My opponent quickly folded, and I brought in a $130 pot.

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Fox Sports Net has a new program, called “Club WPT”.  I suspect it’s an appetizer for the upcoming season of the World Poker Tour (now on FSN).  This program is ghastly.  They bring five appallingly poor amateur poker players in and they play for the life-changing sum of $5000.  It’s almost unwatchable.

Poker After Dark on NBC is a really good show.  On Saturday night, they broadcast the “Director’s Cut” program, which is a summary of the week’s action interspersed with player interviews that reveal what was their thinking behind certain plays.  But will somebody explain to me, why do they use for background music during the “Director’s Cut” the soundtrack to cheesy porn flicks?  I’m serious; watch this show sometime and listen to the background music.