In following with my typical Tuesday evening routine I walked up to Pete's house tonight to play in his $1/$2 limit Hold'em game with a Kill. For the uninitiated, a "Kill" game is one in which the betting limits double on hands following two wins in a row by the same player. Anyway, this game is mostly for kicks, the play is typically very loose and I seem to have a good knack for acquiring some pretty bad beats there. But this blog is not intended as a bad beat museum, rather a way for me to express my thoughts on poker's intricacies.
One hand in particular is worthy of note, whereas we were discussing its potential for being posted here. I will not disappoint, here it goes:
The hand started with a little fluke. The first card in the deal was accidentally flipped up, it was the Q♦. I was in the small blind ($0.50) and would have received that card. When the cards were re-shuffled and dealt again I looked down to see, sure enough, the Q♦J♦. It folded around to Trace in the cut-off seat. He had been raising with crap all night and sure enough, he popped it up this hand, too. I tossed in the $1.50 extra and the big blind opted to call as well. The flop came down J♣9♥4♦, and I checked with the intention of raising if Trace bet. It was checked to him, and I did raise, but was a little disappointed when Curtis called the raise cold. Trace just called as well.
This is a spot where I could be beaten by a hand like AJ or KJ, but it seemed like a strange play to check the top pair on the flop, so I figured he had a draw (it is pretty typical for players with draws to cold-call raises on the flop). Another 9 hit on the turn, which was a good card for me as it did not hit a draw, and as long as Trace didn't raise he probably was in bad shape against my pair of Jacks. I bet again, and recieved two callers. The river was a blank, but since both players called the turn I wasn't taking the chance of getting raised and decided to just check. Sure enough, Mr. Cold Call bet right out. Trace reluctantly called and I knew that the competition for the pot would be between me and Curtis with the mystery hand. At this point I decided that he had AJ and said, "I think you have AJ" (see the way that works). But the pot was large, and the slim chance that he had JT or something like that made calling a single bet pretty easy.
To my alarm and aversion, he turned over 98 off suit for trip nines. Of course Trace was the one with JT. WOW. My mind immediately rushed back to the flop. I had played it soooo beautifully, by checking around to the loose-aggressive preflop raiser and check raising to shut out garbage draws, or at the very least charge them the maximum to draw to slim outs. Obviously, according to my plan, my check raise on the flop was supposed to shut down the bad middle pair draw (come on, he didn't even have an over to go with it) and get Trace heads up when I had him dominated. Of course, I had the pair of nines dominated as well, but sometimes it is good to get as many outs against you out of the pot as soon as possible.
I couldn't resist doing a little Hellmuth at the table, but I would like to think that I did it in a kinder, gentler way than Phil would have. I don't give lessons online or at the casino. I've learned that it's one of the worst moves you can make at the table. But in this case it was a friendly home game environment, and I felt like a little venting/constructive criticism was in order. Of course, you look kind of silly giving the guy who just beat you in a pot instructions on how to play better, but what can I say - I'll make an ass out of myself for the sake of another player's edification.
Regardless, that was one pot, and I did make my share of good hands tonight, as well as suffer a few other outdraws, nothing too egregious. In the end I put together a decent win for $1/$2, which is rare at that game.
After all, "It's gambling."
