PEACHFRONT SPEAKS

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pocket aces suck and then you die 2010-05-29 - 2:14 a.m. A long day for a small win at 2/5 NL. My best table was the first table, where I had a nice predictable little den of weak-tights. At one point, the weak-tight wife on my left even inveigled the floor into letting the weak-tight husband sit to her left. I did OK pushing them off pots even out of position, but a decent Asian regular who had position on them could hardly lift his racks when they -- and moments later, he -- left the table. It seems like all the real people left to go to dinner or something on a fine Friday night, leaving me with a cast of rather formidable bluffers and mind-gamers. I tried a second table, and it was worse than what my first table had become. So I stumbled over to the Wynn and was seated immediately in a really weak game. Crikey, of course, it was weak -- it was 1/3. But they opened a new 2/5 NL table almost within minutes, and I played there the rest of the evening. Upshot of the day? If I hadn't lost $600 by picking up a garbage hand like pocket Aces, I would have had a large win for the day. Instead, I had a small win. Hand #1: I'd Really Be a Much Poorer Person if I picked up Pocket Aces more Often I have $615 in my stack and, I gather from the comments of my opponents, an image of a loose, somewhat clueless player. An early hand where I tried a steal raise to $25 on the button with Q8, got four callers for a $125 pot, and then flopped something like an 882 flop probably had a lot to do with it -- although I fail to see how my play was all that terrible there, but whatev. Anyway, a random player in middle position raises to $20, another somewhat weak-tight Slavic dude calls from the cut-off, button and small blind fold, and I look down at A ♣ A ♥. They've seen squeezes and steal-raises from me before, although they seem to assume that they're just wild reckless idiocy, I guess, because I make it $80 to go, and Mr. Random calls. Weak-tight, of course, goes ahead and folds. Pot is $185. Flop: Q ♣ 4 ♠ 7 ♠ I bet $100, and he makes a min-raise to $200, which I could interpret to mean that he has some piece of the flop, such as a Queen or a spade draw. He could also have a huge pocket pair himself here, given the size of the raise he called. If he has QQ, it's a tragedy, but I'm thinking KK or JJ is not out of the question here, so instead of playing defense against the flush draw, I decide to shove against his KQ or his KK while I'm still ahead, ha ha. So I push all-in. He Hollywoods for about two years and finally calls. Turn: Q ♦ River: 2 ♦ To no one's great surprise, his Q ♠ 9 ♠ is the winner. Actually, if I'd known he had that much of the board, I'm not sure what I would have done. He's never folding when he has both top pair and the spade re-draw here. Considering his hand, whether I push flop or turn, I'm getting the same result. But I'm not sure if I should have played it differently anyway. How often does he actually show up with KQ or Q9 here? Hmmm. Hand #2: Ace Queen in Poor Position My primary opponent in this hand was the weak-tight Russian dude immediately to my right. He limps in under the gun, which is a bit of an expenditure of funds for this guy. I have $330 in my stack and I'm not looking to hit any stack-pot ratio magic numbers with my A ♦ Q ♦ since I believe that I can use my judgment to out-play these guys. I overlimp and it folds around to the blinds, who both call. There's a small $20 pot, which is fine for my "small pot" hand. It's also interesting that I've gone from UTG plus 1, to being the effective button. 4 players. Flop: 2 ♥ 3 ♠ 5 ♠ The small blind who is somewhat transparent bets $20, fold, fold, and I float this flop with a plan to steal on a favorable turn. Turn: 3 ♦ Well, there it is. He grudgingly bets $25 because a man on TV said one time about the C-bet, it's a good thing to do. I raise to $75. He calls. If this ain't a spade draw, I'll eat my hat. River: J ♣ Check, I bet $100, and he is forced to fold, all the time muttering about how, "I had a lot of outs, I had ALL the flush and straight outs." Whatever, dude. Why should my A ♦ Q ♦ split the pot with your A ♠ Q ♠ when I can grab it all? And if he really folded A ♠ K ♠ -- he flashed his fellow Russian very quickly as he folded -- then I impress even myself, because I stole the whole pot, instead of just half. Most times, though, I'm thinking the river bet might be an unnecessary risk here, since I would often have my opponent high-carded anyway. Hmmmm again. Hand #3: I Flop A Set but It'll Break Your Heart The thing about your nits and weak-tights is that you can steal all day long, but you're not making much if you stumble backward and fall over the table and somehow come up out of the gutter with a real hand. Here, my main opponent is the villain from Hand # 1. At this point I have $330 in front of me. I'm UTG+1 with 7 ♥ 7 ♦ Limp-a-la-zoo-la, and we're 7 players to the flop, $35 pot. Flop: 7 ♣ 6 ♣ 2 ♥ I have a note that makes no sense now, that tells me that I realized that he was going to bet. I'm going to guess that what I really thought was that one of the weak-tighties, not necessarily him (and not calling him one of the weak-tighties) would feel honor-bound to bet some token bet at their flush or straight draw. In any case, I checked and let it get to the villain, and he bets a mighty $25. Folds back to me, I make it $75 to go, and all fold back to him. He calls. Whew. My plan is to shove on a non-club turn. Turn: Q ♦ I do shove, and he folds. The point of this hand is to ponder whether I would have done just as well to lead, in hopes of getting more callers, but I suspect that with this particular line-up, if I lead, they all just fold anyway. There just wasn't any way to get much money in this pot. At least I forced him to pay an extra $50 to see a turn card. * * * Wow. I just realized that I forgot to write down the details of my last, most interesting hand at the V, where I made a terrible read on a table full of bluffers and re-bluffers, and then rivered the best hand. Wheeeee. So we'll move on from V hands to W hands. Hand # 4: When a Set Becomes a Bluff-Catcher The villain is a drunk, young, gorgeous Russian girl who could be a model. I have no experience with this type of player so can make no assumptions. Haven't been at the table too long, but long enough to know she's had a few Vodka Red Bulls. 5 fine folks limp, she calls in small blind, and I pick up 6 ♥ 6 ♦ in the big blind, so I check. 7 players, $35 pot. My stack is $300 because I've been caught in some bluffiness. Flop: 6 ♣ 7 ♦ 3 ♦ She bets $20 from the small blind. Oh FFS. I hate to knock out all my fine contributors, but I don't wanna slow-play and let the diamond draw get there. I raise to $60. Everybody else folds, and she calls. Turn: 2 ♦ Well, hell. If she was on the flush draw, she got there. If she wasn't, I have little to gain by betting. I think I would do better to try to induce a river bluff. Now, let me say here that I don't usually try to induce bluffs from No Limit female poker players, because most of them that I've encountered have been so clueless that they wouldn't even go for it. (Unlike the situation in limit, where there are lots of good aggro females that would pounce on a show of weakness like it's red meat.) But, hell, we've got these weak-tight Russian men, and this lovely young drunk Russian female, and maybe she's the one with the balls, because otherwise how would they ever get anything going? And even if she's too young to remember it, I'm old enough to recall a time when they pretty much co-ruled the world. So when she checks, I check. River: J ♠ Tee hee, my simple plan might be inane but it works. She bets $100 with her 8 ♣ 5 ♣ and I call to win a decent pot. Hand # 5: Never Draw To An Inside Straight Except When You Do I have a $430 stack, which is close to the effective stack size in this hand if not the smallest stack. I pick up 7 ♦ 6 ♦ in early position and raise to $15, not because it's a good hand to play out of position, but because I have a system for occasionally signaling me to get involved with these bluff hands to keep from being too easy to read. Anyhoo, I get a call from a tattoed aggro guy somewhere in the middle, big blind calls, and now we've got a $45 pot. 3 players. Flop: Q ♥ 4 ♠ 8 ♣ Well, ain't that special. I has flopped a gutshot and you don't. I check, and tattoo guy decides to bet $25 at this pot. Big blind folds. I know damn good and well that aggro is just on a steal. I raise to $75. He folds. Next... Hand # 6: Why Pocket Aces Suck Part 2 I pick up A ♠ A ♣ in the lojack. Folds to me, I raise $15, and only the aggro small blind from the last hand calls. Pot is $35. 2 players. Flop: J ♠ T ♣ 9 ♣ Oh FFS. You know that part about not C-betting when it HAS to hit your opponent's hand? Well, once in a blue, I actually remember that advice. Check, check. Turn: 8 ♣ Oh FFS redoubled. There's no way THIS player ain't ahead of me when he checks. If he had bullshit, he'd at least try to push me off the hand. Instead, he checks. I has no choice. I wanna cry, but what can I do? I check. River: Q ♥ He checks a third time, and I turn over my hand and say, "Well, we're playing the board." He reveals Q ♠ 4 ♠ for a turned straight, and we split a tiny pot. He raises his glass of green tea, a little surprised, because he just didn't think I had it in me to check three times. (We've played together before.) Hey, I'm catching a clue train, tee hee. back - next All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2002-2017 by Elaine Radford