Horrible Plays – 2

Here is a very “nice” example of horrible plays – both by me and by the villain.

---

Just to set some context, I didn’t have a lot of history with the villain before this hand, I had been playing pretty LAGgy at the table for a while, raising a lot pre-flop, entering a lot of pots, and generally very loose. I am sure my table image must have been pretty fishy, probably that of a maniac.

Full Tilt Poker, $0.15/$0.30 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

BTN: $56.95

SB: $60

BB: $29.95

UTG: $28.10

Hero (MP): $38.85

CO: $64.30

Pre-Flop: 5 4 dealt to Hero (MP)

UTG calls $0.30, Hero raises to $1.05, 3 folds, BB raises to $3.60, UTG folds, Hero calls $2.55

Extremely loose pre-flop raise by me, about par for course for this session. This was the 3rd or 4th consecutive pre-flop raise that somebody was 3-betting me with, and given that villain had been quiet for a while plus me having position on him, I decided to call and see how I could take this away after the flop. In hindsight, a pretty bad call, I should have folded.

Flop: ($7.65) T J 6 (2 Players)

Dream flop for me! Hit the flush right out the door. I was trying to figure out how to get all the money into the middle before a fourth diamond hit the board and killed any action.
BB bets $26.35 and is All-In, Hero calls $26.35

The villain pushed all-in. It was highly improbable that he also had 2 diamonds, at worst, he might be doing this with one big diamond, and with a less than 40% chance for him to complete that draw, it was an easy call for me – Any pair was pretty much dead on this flop, if he had a set, the villain was drawing to 7 outs and would get the full house about 1 out of 3 times. I was only a big dog if he had a higher flush, and I decided it was worth the price.

Turn: ($60.35) A (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

River: ($60.35) A (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

I definitely didn’t like these two cards – if villain had even one diamond, I was dead, if villain had pushed all in with a set, I was dead.

Results: $60.35 Pot ($3 Rake)
BB showed K K (two pair, Aces and Kings) and LOST (-$29.95 NET)
Hero showed 5 4 (a flush, Ace high) and WON $57.35 (+$27.40 NET)

As it turns out, villain had panicked on the flop, and hoped that a massive overbet would scare me away and would chase me off of any draws. My bad play pre-flop was rewarded because of this mistake.

Here is why that was a bad play -

Pre-flop – villain could have estimated that he probably had the best hand especially given the range of hands I’d been raising and opening with. His re-raise was good.
Flop – this was a pretty bad flop for him, especially given that he had 2 black kings. Checking it down after re-raising pre-flop was too weak, and it was pretty bad for him that he was out of position against me. Apart from the flush draw, the T and J also would have hit my re-raise calling range pretty hard. He now had to worry about two-pairs, a set, and probably a straight draw as well! Given all of this, his focus should have been on getting to a showdown as cheaply as possible – he was at best a small favorite against a smaller pair or a bare flush draw, about even money against a pair with a flush or straight draw, and almost dead against a set or a  made flush. If he had just wanted to deny proper odds for me to draw to a flush or straight, he should just have bet about 2/3 to the pot.

By betting all-in, he effectively risked $26 to win $7, chased away all worse hands that he could have gotten some value from, and the only hands that beat him are going to call the bet!!

I was in a very similar phase some time back, convinced that betting strong would chase away most hands, I never used to think about why or with what types of hands anybody would be calling my bets – there are many scenarios where its much better to check or make a smaller “blocker” bet – these will help you figure out where you stand, if villain raises, you are probably beaten, throw away your hand and wait for a better time. If not,  you’ve gotten some value for your hand.

Even now, I am trying to figure out the borderline between getting to a cheap showdown in scenarios like this (where I have the pair versus a strong possible made hand or strong draw), and extract values from weaker hands and weaker players who don’t even recognize that a much stronger hand is actually possible from the board!

Need Patience!

I am one of the most impatient people that I know! This is something that poker has been teaching me, but slowly, way too slowly!

I decided to take a stab at .25/.5 heads-up NL yesterday. I sat down with $30 and played patiently for a bit chipping up to about $39 or so. Villain seemed a bit too passive for heads-up play; I used to play a lot of heads-up sit-n-gos and aggression used to be the key. This villain was folding a lot of times on the button, just giving up whenever I raised out of the button, folding to my re-raises every single time, and so on. I guess that let me get a bit too cocky. Then this hand happens -

Full Tilt Poker, $0.25/$0.50 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

BB: $60.45

Hero (SB): $39.35

Pre-Flop: T A dealt to Hero (SB)
Hero raises to $1.25, BB calls $0.75

Flop: ($2.50) 3 T 6 (2 Players)

BB checks, Hero bets $2, BB calls $2

Turn: ($6.50) 8 (2 Players)

BB checks, Hero bets $6, BB raises to $16, Hero raises to $36.10 and is All-In, BB calls $20.10

River: ($78.70) 2 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

Results: $78.70 Pot ($0.50 Rake)
BB showed 8 8 (three of a kind, Eights) and WON $78.20 (+$38.85 NET)
Hero showed T A (a pair of Tens) and LOST (-$39.35 NET)

---

*ouch*

What was I thinking! Top pair facing a re-raise on the turn is never good*! God, give me patience, and gimme right now!!

*Google for “baluga’s theorem“, very interesting read.