Posted by Junelli 2:24 PM
Last night I had a big night playing $5-$5 NL. There was one hand that I played particulaly well based on a good read of the situation.

The players were a standard mix of 2-3 nits, 2-3 strong players, and the rest were maniac gamblers. Over the course of the night, I had tried to avoid marginal situations and difficult decisions with these people because it was likely going to be for all my chips.

After 4 hours, I felt like I had a very good read on most of the players at the table and was cognizant of the rhythm of the game. During this time though, I was stuck. But I felt confident that I was going to book a profit at the end of the night, and I even sent a text message to McAndrew at 12:15am telling him that, "I'm gonna win tonight. I can feel it." Of course, I said this while being stuck $200. Talk about wishful thinking!

This was my first time at this relatively new club near my house, but I recognized or knew about 80% of the players. Most of them are regulars at some of the other places I play. One Iranian guy in particular had a lot of money and was a gambler. He was constantly raising preflop (10x the BB). He liked to bet draws and also was caught bluffing on several occasions. He was stuck about 1,500 I think, and was clearly not playing well.

Late in the night, I got K7 on the button and was able to see a multiway flop for $15. The flop was K73 rainbow. I knew my top two pair was good, and when 5 people checked to me I bet $50 (about 2/3 the size of the pot). I was called by only the losse/aggressive Iranian.

The turn was an Ace. Clearly not the card I wanted to see, but I would still be ahead if he held a lone Ace. I was way behind if he held AK, A7, A3, etc.

He checked to me, and I quickly fired out $100. He called again, and at this point I started to worry about what he had. The pot was $275 and I was planning on checking the river if given the opportunity.

The river was a Q, making the board K73AQ. He hesitates for a brief moment and then leads out into me all-in for $475. Now I had a very tough decision.

I took an extremely long time thinking about what to do. I asked him if he called all the way with JT (i.e. rivering the nut straight). He didn't answer.

I started going back through my memory of the hand so far, and his betting. I didn't think he had a JT, becuase I felt confident he wouldn't chase a runner runner straight. However, even if he did do that, I didn't think he would lead out all-in for $475 into a $275 pot if he had made the nuts. His bet was very peculiar. Why didn't he want to get some action on his hand? Up to this point, I had been immediately betting on all previous streets, and he had no reason to think I would stop at this point.

Did he have AK, AQ, KQ? I didn't think so, because he would've raised me on the flop or turn. Thus far, he had been playing this hand very passively.

I also thought about my own table image. I had been playing extremely tight, and was generally folding 95% of the time. Several times I had made big bets, and then folded to a raise. It could be that he thinks he can push me out of the pot.

After going through all these scenarios in my head, I was genuinely perplexed by his bet. In my experience, if you're perplexed by the way someone is acting, it's usually because they're bluffing. They've played a hand a certain way up until the end, and then they drastically switch gears and represent something that's contrary to how they've been playing thus far. In other words, if something doesn't smell right, it usually isn't.

I call his all-in bet, and he immediately said "Good Call" and mucked his hand. I never even saw his cards. That was a nice $1,225 pot, and I felt really good about making a tough call.

1 Comment(s):

Posted by  Dr Fro, at 5:50 PM, June 29, 2006  

The other cause for a perplexing move is that the player backed into a hand. Sometimes I correctly read that a player is making a move on an earlier street, but then they end up getting a runner-runner straight!

Nice read

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