while I did some "real work" down in sunny Florida. I managed to
leave some time open to do some live poker playing though which is
where this weeks hand will be coming from. But first we must deal
with what happened with our last hand. For a refresher please take a
look at the previous "hand of the week" posting. With the villain
throwing out a check raise on the turn and then leading out on the
river we had to put him on something somewhat good. At the very least
he had top pair I would think. And I have to side with Phil on this
one. A good way to slow me down and really make me think is to play a
hand exactly the way our villain did. It would appear as though he
probably has us beat but I can't see us laying this down for the size
bet that he makes here and the right move I think would be to just
call. Our hero has two pair Q's and 10's and the villain was slow
playing A J suited from the small blind. Our check on the flop gave
him a chance to catch up on the turn and make his straight and it was
all over for us on the river. Way to go Mark for laying this down
although I don't think it was the right move. Too many chips in the
pot and we need to pay him off in this situation, especially with the
chip stack that we have.
And now on to this weeks "Hand of the Week". We are sitting at a 9
player table of a 1/2 no limit game. My very first time at a no limit
cash game and I was very nervous. It was a $100 min/max table so you
could only buy in for that amount. Although you could sit there all
day and accumulate chips without removing them so some players were
big stacked by the time I got there. We've been sitting for about an
hour and played a total of 3 hands very carefully putting us $18 up
before this hand starts. We are in the small blind and the UTG puts
in a small raise of $6. Seat 4 and 6 join in the fun and it folds
around to the button who puts in a raise to $16. The button in this
case over the last hour has been playing aggressively. He does a lot
of raising and has talked my ear off about his home in Vegas and all
the playing he does at the Belagio.I have also inadvertently seen his
hole cards on occasion while I'm not in a hand before he folds his
hands and noticed some semi-bluffs that he has made. We look down at
Ac Jc. I think about it for about 15 seconds and just call. Our UTG
player calls and the other 2 fold. The pot is now $62. Already a
little on the big side and I can smell trouble brewing as things can
get a little out of hand pretty fast at this table. The flop come 2h
7h Js. Not bad but a little scary as we really only have top pair
here. I decide to lead out with a bet of $25. The UTG folds and the
button calls. The pot is now $112 and we have $77 left. The turn is
the 8d. I decide to check in the hope to check raise him out of this
pot or to see if we can see the next card for free as I'm a little
worried about the heart flush and this guy has been known to chase a
bit. Well he decides to move all in for his remaining $58. We don't
have anything better then top pair and this isn't a tournament so we
are looking at almost all of our buy-in being spent on this one hand
with a pair of jacks. With so much committed and such a large pot do
we really want to let this go. So what do we do with our hard earned
money here?
Posts
4 comments:
Nice predicament you've gotten yourself into again! This is a tough one. Our villian, you say has been doing a lot of raising a semi-bluffs but he still has less of a stack than you. Did he have a larger stack and donk them off or has he been slowly losing his chips?
I think you played the hand correctly up to the turn. If you intended on setting him up for the check-raise, he did the work for you. You now need to pull the trigger and call his all-in. Your top pair with top kicker is pretty good. I'm putting the villan on a mid pocket pair or possibly a flush draw. Go ahead and get your money in with the best hand and hope he doesn't catch.
This all assumes that by taking this guy out doesn't mean he won't invite you to his home in Vegas! GL All-in!
As discussed on the podcast, I feel that the pre-flop move and post-flop move was fine. The check on the turn was a big no no...and again has placed us in No Lobster Land. But seeing you were going for the check raise...you got what you were looking for...so go ahead and call and hope he doesn't make a set or a flush on the River. I put the Villian on an Ace high flush draw.
Mark
hugerandymossfan@excite.com
What a conundrum you've gotten yourself into Batman. You indicated you were planning on check raising if given the opportunity, but then you also say you were worried about the flush draw. So what to do after the flop? You offered a pretty good bet at $25 which is called. Then the turn comes (no heart) and you check. At this point in time he probably thinks you were chasing the flush or at best hit bottom or middle pair and does not put you on Jacks. He leads out with a monsterous bet to get you to fold what he thinks is the flush draw, which means he probably is holding a pocket pair of 8s 9s or 10s, or perhaps he has two face cards like A K, Q K, A Q. By checking you lost control of the game and put your self ni a precarious position. I say you call and gain some respect at the table when you win.
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