I'm almost 2.5 hours into my standard 3 hour session right now, and something noteworthy has happened, so I am logging it.
I was on a .50-$1 table and a $1-2 table for a bit. I initially dropped $40 or so on the smaller table, but when the following hands came up I was up about $60-100 overall. Initially I hadn't liked my seat at the bigger game, since a stack about 3x the buy-in was 3 seats to my left, (
Stack A) and soon after a seat with a fairly short stack that had doubled up
calling an all in bet with 87s of all things, won some even bigger pots and worked that stack up to over $600 (
Stack B). (The max buy-in was 200.) This stack was next to the other, only 2 to my right, so now I
really didn't like my seat. I had already resolved to move to a better seat if one opened up, and this didn't hurt my resolve any.
Eventually I moved across the table to one 3 and 4 seats to the left of these guys. Much better. By the time these hands came up their stacks were more in the $300-400 range.
I picked up aces in late position, and had 3 limpers in front of me, so I raise up to $10. Two call, and I'm in last position. The flop comes 7h, 3d, qs, and it's checked to me. I throw out my continuation bet of $16, and
Stack A raises me to $32. The other player was between us, and he folded. I called.
Now, before I had even joined this table, I had clocked
Stack A, and, while I didn't have any notes on her (I've been bouncing from computer from computer since we're in the field, so my notes don't stick), I recalled that she liked to criticize the play of others, but her own play didn't strike me as particularly impressive. No obvious faults, but there you go. Since joining the table she had made two or three attempts to steal pots from me on the river. These would generally be pots where I checked the turn, and tended to be around $4 or 6, with a $22 to $26 pot. I would call, and she would show a busted gutshot. In some cases she had check raised the flop as well.
I didn't recall the check raises right then, but what I remembered were her weak bluffs. I considered check-raising only double my bet to be weak as well. I figured she could have a set, and her turn bet would let me know. (Retrospectively, I think if I was in
Stack 1's position with a set I would have called, hoping for a call from the other hand, but I'm sort of counting on the likelihood that she is making less than optimal plays, so I don't know that this reasoning should have pushed me towards the conclusion that
Stack 1 didn't have a set.)
The turn was 9h.
Stack 1 checked. I thought a little bit, and went all-in ($208). I figure she's got a queen, maybe with a decent kicker, or at least has a piece of the flop and is hoping that I do not. I figure a set would try to massage the pot.
Stack 1 called. The river was 5c. I show aces,
Stack 1 mucks. I win $513.
Stack 1 still had $200 or so left, but immediately left the table.
After the hand the guy that folded to the check-raise informed me that he had 99, and would have called my bet if not for the check-raise. He was hoping for the third nine, or that I had missed. We were still talking about the hand when I was dealt aces again in the big blind.
Shit. I was regretting chit-chatting with that guy, since observant bettors might remember what I did the last time I had aces, since it was only 4 or 5 hands ago. On the other hand, who would expect me to have them again? By the time it got back around to me four others had limped in. I decided that since I had bad position this time I really shouldn't bet any less. I bet $10, with the difference that this made it $12 because of my blind. I decided that I would rather have everyone fold than lose half my stack because I didn't raise enough. This table was pretty loose.
I got one caller:
Stack 2 as you may have guessed. The flop came 7h, 8s, 3h. I bet half the pot again, which worked out to be $16 again.
Stack 2 raised me to $32.
Talk about deja vu. The main differences here were:
a.) an 8 on the flop instead of the q, but I never noticed that the 3 was in both until now, honestly
b.) one caller instead of two
c.) flop is more connected, possible straight draw, possible flush draw
d.) this time I am first to act
e.) this time I remember specific instances of poor play from my opponent
Unfortunately, the main poor play I remembered from
Stack 2 was her calling an all-in bet with 87s. Call a $10 raise with 87s? Sure!
Anyway, this time there were alot more potential scare cards, and I really didn't feel like deciding if
Stack 2 was bluffing on the later streets. I figured she was capable of more or less anything, certainly of calling my raise with cards that fit this flop, and perhaps of representing such without it. The other thing that influenced me here was the quickness of the raise. It wasn't quite a "Raise Any" type of auto-raise, but it was quick. It was the minimum amount possible, done with minimal thought.
Now, if I was sitting on a set, or top two pair, I would be weighing my options. Do I raise up to 3 times the initial bet, or is that too strong? Do I wait 'til the turn? Will the turn bring a scare card that will ruin my action? In other words, even if I decided to do the exact same thing, it would have taken me longer, so I am suspicious of
Stack 2's holding. I reraise all-in for $513. i don't remember how long she thought, but she called, all-in for $159.
the turn was the 2h
the river was the 10h
Stack 2 shows 7s, 9d, for a pair of sevens.
Neither of us has a flush. I win $411, bringing my stack over $700. I am somewhat astounded by the weak holding (though only a rank and a suit away from the 87s I feared), but I guess she figured I had ak and she was ahead. I suppose my reraise all-in could have looked like some sort of desperation move. Maybe she figured I was banking on my past hand to scare her out of this one. Maybe she wasn't even paying attention to the other hand.
In the next 40 minutes I lost back a little over $100. This was not so bad, considering that I ran into two set-under-set situations (jjj vs. qqq, and ttt vs jjj)--the potential was there to lose MUCH more.
Many times I have changed positions to get to the left of a weak player, or, in NLHE, to get to the left of a big stack. In this case I was moving to the left of two big stacks, both of whom I regarded as bad players. I don't think I have ever seen results this sudden or decisive from such a move, however. I finished the day up $433, for a total of $2720. That is +$1170 since we went to the field. Too bad the government will make me an outlaw and I'll have to go underground. Go Leafs!
...I really think if I'd waited 'til the turn to decide what to do on the second hand I would've been pushed out, except that I may have gone all-in up front to avoid this!...I really think
Stack 2 should have read me for an overpair. How many times have you seen an oversized bet with ak or aq? Sure, plenty. But how many times have you seen this kind of raise
from the blinds with ak or aq? In No Limit? Players that do this
always have pairs. Sometimes they will have 99 or tt, but usually it will be aa or kk. Check it out. Of course this was a horrible call, but I suppose it was better than calling an all-in bet preflop with 87s. At least he had a piece of the flop. And this is just the kind of terrible call I was hoping for when I went all-in.
Meanwhile the White Sox beat Detroit 7-1. At least I didn't have anything on this one.
