Sunday, January 22, 2006

That was a crazy game of poker

The Lord Admiral Card Club podcast has OAR's Crazy Game of Poker (last disc, track 2) as its theme song; the Ante Up! podcast uses it as their internal bumper music. I downloaded the whole song yesterday -- it's an odd yet enjoyable reggae country tune.

It also describes a hand last night where I lost a good chunk of money. More on that later.

My favorite hand last night was when I got into a pot heads up against Darthslumlord. I'm holding 89c in the big blind, and there's two clubs on the flop. As would be expected, we both check (or was it a 75 cent bet and call?) to get the turn, which is another club. I've hit my flush. I bet small, to keep Bill in. He comes over the top for $2, I think. I assess the situation, and conclude that because he's played the same way I did, he hit his flush, too. And I'm certain that his flush is higher than mine. I fold, he shows his A5c, nut flush. Great lay-down on my part. That's $1.25 I saved on the turn, and who knows how much on the river.

But the big money-losing hand was late in the night, against Trestin (Tres, correct me if I'm wrong about any part of this hand -- it was late and I don't remember the betting amounts clearly). I got dealt pocket 9h 9d in early position. I bet my standard "I've got a hand" bet of 75 cents. Everyone but Tres bailed; he called. The flop is Qc 2c 8c. Hmm... I check. Tres checks.

The river's a 9s. I've hit my set. There's a flush possibility out there, though, and if we get a club on the river, I'll be scared. I need to bet to scare him out, to make the pot odds not worth drawing to the flush. I bet $3. He calls. He's either got two pair (Q8?) or top pair with top kicker (QA).

The river's As. Nice -- if he had QA, he's got top two pair, so I'm expecting a good call from him, or better. I bet $3, and he comes back with a raise to $8. I call.

He shows the Ac 5c he slow played -- he hit the nut flush on the flop. Brutal yet beautiful play. Kudo's to Tres.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Couple of things...

Firstly, I think you were on the button, when it was heads up, I was first to act. Pre-flop, I limped in for .25, you raised to .75, everyone but me folded, I called.

The flop came as you described, I checked first, then you checked (thinking I might check-raise maybe?)

The turn came a 9s, and (simulating a position bet), I bet .50, you raised it to $1.50 to which I paused, counted the pot, pretended to count pot-odds (for about 30 seconds), then reluctantly called.

The river came As, and still wanting to feign weakness, I checked, you bet $4 at me, I raise all in, and you call.

-Trestin

travisl said...

"Firstly, I think you were on the button, when it was heads up, I was first to act. Pre-flop, I limped in for .25, you raised to .75, everyone but me folded, I called."

Ahh... that makes sense. At first, I wondered why I would have bet 75¢ with pocket threes, but on the button it'd make sense. Eez pozition bet.

"The flop came as you described, I checked first, then you checked (thinking I might check-raise maybe?)"

No, I missed the flop. No sense tossing good money after bad. If you'd bet 25¢, I'd have folded.

Well played.