Jun 07 2010
A Tale Of Two Hands
A couple of weeks back and I went to the Nautica Charity Poker tables in downtown Cleveland for the first time. While I’m not generally one to bitch about the way people play their cards (cause I do some crazy stuff as well), I’m not sure how often I’ll be going back. To say the play was “loose” would be quite the understatement. The buddy that I was there with sat down to play some $1/$2 no limit. I wasn’t playing but he said that every hand opened with a minimum of a $15 to $20 raise. That seems a bit crazy to me, seeing as the max buy in on the table was $200. But I digress.
I played in a $75/$25 knock out tournament. Each player got a $25 chip and each player you knocked out you got that bounty. There was 6 full tables so it was a decent size tourney. There are two hands that stand out in my mind. One that I probably should have busted on and didn’t, and one that I shouldn’t have busted on and did.
About the 3rd or 4th hand of the tourney I’ve got 99 under the gun. Blinds are $25/$50 so I put in a raise to $200 total. I get re-raised by a player two seats to my left and the rest of the table folds. I decide to see a flop rather than shipping the rest of my $5,000 starting stack this early in the tourney. The flop comes:
Not a bad flop for my hand by any stretch. We’re only three hands into the tournament so I really don’t have a read on my opponent. I can’t imagine he’s re-raise with 55 or 33, but he may have with 77. A7 also flashes through my mind as does a higher pair than my 99. I lead out with $300 and get snap called. Hmm. The turn comes a 2 which doesn’t look scary at all as I can’t imagine he’s re raising the UTG player with A4 or 46. I lead out once again this time for $400 and get called once again. I’d actually considered moving in but decided to make a bet instead realizing that there was a chance that he had an over pair. The river brought another 7 which left me with a 7-high board (with me holding 99):
I’ve got an over pair to a board with no flush possibilities and no real straight potential. At this point I’m not really worried about a 7 either as he re-raised me to open and I doubt he’d do that with 77 or with something like 78 or A7. I fired $500 into the pot and got raised to $1,000. At this point I really should have been concerned with an over pair to my 99 but for some reason I thought he was making a move. I call and get shown JJ. I suppose in retrospect I’m glad a 7 came rather than a 4, 6 or an 8 as I probably would have moved in and been done.
So after about 4 hands, I’m down to about half my starting stack and have to play VERY tight for the next couple of hours. I manage to quadruple up when I flop a King high flush against 3 players and I’m back up over $6,200. About an hour later I’m moved to another table and this hand comes up.
The blinds are $200/$400 and I’m in the big blind with 94 off suit (stack at $7,000 at this point). Obviously not a hand that I’d normally play but there are 3 callers so I check fully thinking that I’m not putting another dime into this pot.
Bingo!!! No flush or straight possibilities and unless someone limped with 22, 44 or 99 I’m WAY ahead. I ship my remaining $6,600 into the $1,800 pot (the small blind had folded). I get one caller and when he turns up his hand I’m a little unsure as to what I’m looking at.
I immediately start looking at the board looking for what I’ve missed. Did I misread the board and there’s a flush draw out there? Nope… only 1 club. Did I not see a straight draw out there? Nope… he’d need to make running 35 to make a straight. Oh I know… he must have me covered like 30:1 right? Nope… he’s got a stack of $8,200.
So here’s what we’ve got. He called off over 80% of his stack with no pair, no draw and over 1 over card. I wouldn’t be talking about it here if there wasn’t something to talk about, so naturally he caught runner runner clubs to end my day. As I said before, I’m not one to complain about how people play their cards, but I do have to admit that THAT hand was a bit difficult to swallow. All of that said, I’m happy to say that I protected my hand as best I could and really don’t see any way that I could have played the hand better.
As they say… that’s poker!!!
The under the gun player folds and the next player raises to $400 early in the tournament. I look down and see a nice looking King Ten suited and think for quite a while before throwing my hand away. I figure that against an early position raiser I’m most certainly behind – potentially crippled. Of course, the flop comes out with three clubs including the Ace. I could only sit and watch as the pot was pushed to someone else after I’d laid down my nut flush pre flop.
The second time I had the deal I look down and see those beautiful bullets. It’s music to my ears when the under the gun player raises. It’s folded around to me and I make a decent size raise which he calls. At this point I put him on a middle pair or AK.
A pretty terrible flop for my sevens but I do have an inside straight draw. I check giving up the lead and the button makes a reasonable bet which I call.
Talk about a beautiful flop for a pair of tens. I put in a standard continuation bet hoping he’s got something like A9 and was just calling on the button with position.
That card potentially made a straight but it’s highly unlikely that he was playing 58 to a raise (even with position). I make another bet and he raises. I think for a minute and then call. I’m scared that maybe he’s got a set but it still feels like an unpaired ace.
I’ve got an overpair to the board with my pair of tens and I was raised on the turn. This card actually scared me a bit cause after getting raised on the turn I started thinking about a possibility of being up against a set and he very likely would have called my pre flop raise with a small pair like threes. Even with that thought going through my head, I figure that the 3 on the river didn’t help him so if I was beat before I’m still beat and if I was ahead before I’m a winner. The raise on the turn really scared me so I decided to check and see if I couldn’t win at showdown or call a smallish bet on the end. He made a small enough bet that I was getting pot odds to call and he rolled over pocket aces to take a nice size pot.
There’s really only a couple of hands here that scare me but I really don’t have him on JJ, or 88. KJ and AJ cross my mind as good button hands and I’m actually hoping he’s got AJ as I’ll win a nice pot. I suppose button raises with 55 is possible but it really doesn’t concern me. A second Jack falls on the river and I’m forced once again to show down the second best hand which was best going into that last card.
Love seeing them those rockets! Love even more when someone moves all in before I’ve got a chance to act. I had the all in player out chipped by just a few so when my aces held up it was nearly a double up for me. This put me back above chip average and I propelled me for another hour or so.
All right! Finally something I can play with. My opponent bets $400 and I call. The flop comes out another beautiful Ace. She bets out again and I move all in for the rest of my dwindling stack. She (of course) flips over an A9 for a full house leaving me drawing to three outs which don’t come.
