Found myself at Aladdin and sat down in the $200 cap $1-2 NL game. The table seemed tight and predictable and I started raising with anything decent. I was promptly, duly and thoroughly run down and stuck $100.
Around this time three members of a family showed up to play, and the cute daughter sat next to me. Mike Caro wrote something about how you should play at tables with hot girls cause the guys will be distracted. Gee, Mike, you don't say. It's good advice for a Cistercian monk but not for me.
I reloaded to the $200 cap and a hand came up where a guy unexpectedly straddled, and with a few limpers I woke up in the small blind with pocket kings. I raised to $18, and then something even more unexpected happened. The big blind was a quiet middle-aged British dude who had been reading Card Player magazine the whole time and folding everything. It seemed the poker game going on around him had little to do with him personally and he frankly found it a little distateful. When my $18 hit the felt he immediately announced "All-in" for $160. I called and my hand held up against his JJ. He told me he thought I was making a move, so I guess he had noticed all my raising.
A couple other hands, the first of which I really misplayed. I raised with KK and it came KT7 with two clubs. I was heads-up against a calling station. She led out at me for 15 dollars. I smooth called with the intention of pushing the turn no matter what came. She was only 100 behind. The turn was a terrible card for me, the Queen of Clubs. Not terrible because I was beat. I knew I had the best hand, as she wasn't the type to lead with any draw. But terrible because she thought I may have drawn out on her. She bet the same amount as her flop bet and folded to my push.
I definitely should have raised the flop. When a calling station has a made hand and she likes her hand and your hand is better, it's dumb to just call and let the next card scare her. She'll call your flop raise and then she'll be pot committed no matter what comes next.
Another hand came up where I called with 7-5 in position and the flop came 752. The big blind led out for twice the amount of the pot. I guessed he'd picked up a big-blind-not-so-special, either 7-2 or 5-2. I raised, sorta expecting him to push, but he just called. The turn was a putrid looking deuce, and he pushed for about $100, more than the size of the pot. I was now losing to any overpair like 99 and of course to the hands I had put him on. But I was suspicious cause if he'd been slowplaying two pair, why would he now push when he'd filled up? Eventually I asked him, "Do you have a deuce?" He started to say something but the words stopped in his throat. "Do you have anything? You have 3-4?" He stayed quiet and I said, "I call." "You caught me, dude," he said and flipped over 3-4. River changed nothing.
Played five hours and the game broke. Cashed out $750. Plus $450 for the session.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
You know, I think I've learned more (or, at least, an equal amount) about this level of psychology in poker from watching "high stakes poker" as I have from all other poker TV combined. I'm reminded of a recent episode I saw where Ted Forest flopped bottom set (2's) to Dr. Al Nasseri's middle set (5's). Forest raises, and Nasseri spends over a minute considering his options, even going so far as to remove his chip cover. I say to R, "this is a terrible acting job. He's VERY lucky that Forest has such a good hand, because he would throw away anything worse than a set when Nasseri re-raises here. Anybody but Mike Caro has to call." Sure enough, Nasseri goes all-in, and Forest calls, but Nasseri was really lucky there.
Dr. Al Nasseri is a gynecologist, but he really SHOULD be a Bond villain.
Post a Comment