I played an interesting hand yesterday in a $2/$4 kill side game following a tournament at the Burton Street poker club. I was dealt Q♣T♥ in the small blind ($1) and it was folded to Nick on the button. He raised, making it $4 to go, I called and the big blind folded. I thought about re-raising to shut out the big blind and represent strength against the button’s probable steal attempt, but my flat call worked well since the big blind folded without a fight. Now the pot was heads up, and I had decided that I was going to try to take it no matter what flopped. The flop came A 3 4 rainbow, and I checked, knowing that Nick would bet at it. As planned, he bet, and I check raised with only Q high. This may not sound like a great move, but I have played with Nick plenty, and I know that he is a strong player and is capable of folding weaker hands in heads up pots. Plus, a check raise often represents much more strength than simply betting out since you opponent has already bet, thereby representing strength himself. In this case, I expected him to fold all unpaired hands, especially random steal hands like J♠7♦. Of course if he re-raised me there I would have mucked.
As it turns out, Nick just called my check-raise. Now what was going on? If he had a legitimate hand like AJ he might have re-raised, and of course he could be slow playing a low set planning on raising the turn when the price doubled, but I just didn’t get that read off of him. Clearly my raise had caught him off guard and I sensed that he was calling to see what I had in store for him on the next street. The turn was a 5, making a one card straight possible with any deuce. Now I went into a little bit of acting. I feigned like I was planning on betting at any card but then had to think about whether to bet or not once the 5 hit (by this my unspoken body language was screaming: ACE!). Sure enough, I decided to fire away with my now weaker pair of aces (oh wait, it’s still a Q high isn’t it) and my opponent folded, but first showed me KK! Of course I assured him that I had the Ace and told him how shocked I was at his excellent lay down. Actually, I came up with the very believable story that I had A7 and decided to bet the turn since I had picked up a gutshot straight draw.
Ok, so what can be learned from this situation? The number one lesson is that you do not need to make the best hand to win pots if you find appropriate situations to bluff and have good reads on your opponents (and I do mean good reads, not the imaginary wishful thinking reads of which all of us including myself are guilty). On a more specific note, the power of following through with the “second barrel” of a bluff is exemplified here. If I had decided to give up after the flop it certainly would have gone check-check and my Q high is no math for an overpair. There is another element to this hand as well. Clearly my deduction that Nick was on a pure steal before the flop was incorrect (he had the second best possible starting hand in Hold’em). Unfortunately for him, the preflop action when combined with his position practically forced me to play my QT in that spot, and likewise caused me to bluff at the pot. Of course if I had known what he held I would have folded immediately. So I guess you could say that two wrongs sometimes make a right in poker, but please, don’t play according to that!
