PEACHFRONT SPEAKS

a straight flush humor hand -- for the love of pete, don't try this at home

2009-03-09 - 5:20 p.m.

A good day yesterday, especially for me. Here's a blooper/humor hand for your entertainment value. Needless to say, I didn't play my other hands this horribly, or I probably wouldn't have had such healthy wins at both 15/30 and 30/60.

15/30 game with one mind-crogglingly bad player I've met before. I have T5 of hearts in the big blind. I forget the exact pre-flop action, but it's raised by somebody, and there are four people in the hand, so I'm getting 9 to 1 to call, plus the small blind money.

Flop: 7, 8, of hearts, 4 of whatever.

I check, check, check, a terrible LAGtard who is just bleeding chips bets because she always bets when checked to, button raises, I call, the other dude calls, she calls.

Turn: 6 of hearts.

Here's my stupid-ass play. Obviously I should just bet my flush here and hope to get a call from the LAGtard (who always calls because everybody is always bluffing) and anybody holding a high heart. Instead, for no known sane reason, I decide to go for the check-raise. Of course, as soon as I check, I'm kicking myself for my idiocy, but it's too late...ah well. Everybody checks, even the LAGtard. I guess nobody has anything. Sigh.

River: 9 of hearts.

That's right. I have BOTH of the possible straight flushes in my hand. Who the hell is going to call me now? I bet but I don't expect to get paid off, since nobody has made any move to suggest that they might have a big heart. The LAGtard does pay me off though, so I do get some value for my hand. The dealer cracked up laughing when I turned it over. He said that he expected me to have the T but he at least expected my opponent to have the 5. I just laughed. That opponent probably called down with K high -- oh, that isn't fair. She probably had a pair of 4s, right?

Anyhoo, how often do you get BOTH ends of the straight flush and still get paid off when nobody has the A high flush? Probably not too often...but that's why it's 15/30.

A player asked me yesterday which game I thought was better, 15/30 or 30/60. There's a theory floating around that you can earn about the same in either game, but obviously with less variance at 15/30. While I don't have so many hours at 15/30, I'm not finding this to be the case. I definitely win more at 30/60. Which is logical, of course, because if your expectation is to win say, a big bet an hour, then a big bet is twice as big at 30 than at 15.

However, there's another factor. I've been using 15/30 to warm up -- as I play less well earlier in the day or after a long break -- and I've also tried to be quick to get off tough 30/60 games. So I might be winning more at 30/60 because 1) I'm more mentally alert while playing this game, and 2) I'm choosing to stay seated for a prolonged period only when I spot some weakness. I certainly don't see myself failing to bet that turn in the hand above in a 30/60 game; I'd be thinking, OK, buddy, NO WAY you're getting a free card to hit your A high flush.

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