Yesterday I made a spur of the moment decision (read: gamble) to buy in direct to a $1000 WSOP satellite on Poker Stars. The play was plenty weak, and in fact I doubled up on the first orbit with QQ versus AQ on a Q-high board. Unfortunately, within half an hour I was back down to average when I got it all in with a flush versus 99 no heart on an 8-high, three heart flop. Turn 9, river 8, and his runner runner full house is good for a 120 BB pot. I lasted just past the first break before getting it in with the nut flush draw versus AQ on a Q-high flop. Since my opponent held an A, I was drawing to 9 outs and couldn’t hit them.
I still ended up having a good night that included a final table of the $129 Ultimate Bet bounty tournament (out in 10th, though, boooo) and a very nice run at 2/4 NL. Some interesting hands, in no particular order:
I’m a Psychopath
I was back down around 2500 chips in the $1000 satellite with blinds 15/30 (still plenty of room to play, thanks to the great structure in these). I open limped 33 in the SB, not something I do do often, but with these stacks, getting reraised sucks, and I knew the BB to be a kind of generic tight-aggressive player who I expected to play pretty predictably. He raised to 90, and I called.
The flop came out 7h 6c 6h. I’ve been trying to force myself to get more aggressive when I’m out of position with marginal hands, especially in spots like this where it’s so likely that the BB doesn’t have much either. So I check, he bets 120, and I raise to 350. He calls. Ugh. This is why I’m always nervous to check-raise here: it’s so likely that this board missed him that my check-raise is going to look like a bluff. That means he could be calling me with trips, a better pair, a draw, Ace-high, or just complete air. Now we’re playing a big pot, I’m out of position, and I don’t know where I stand.
The turn clears things up for me by putting out the 7d. Now I know where I stand: I can’t beat the board. I check, and the BB bets 360. I decided he had nothing, as any hand that thinks it’s best is very likely to check this turn for pot control. I wouldn’t expect him to bet a 6 or any pair here, and frankly I’d be surprised if he bet Ace-high. Maybe he has a 7, but just from a Bayesian perspective that’s not that likely, and even if he had one, I don’t know that he’d bet it. I know figure him for a draw or air with some risk of a 7. So because I’m a bitter psychopath, I call planning to bet into him on the river representing a full house, most likely the lower one.
The river is the Jc, and I bet 740 into a pot of about 1600. He folded, but in retrospect, I don’t like this play. My hand looks a lot more like a busted draw than I thought it would at the time. The only thing that gives me any credibility is my small bet, which looks an awful lot like a value bet, but that also makes it easier for a suspicious player to look me up with Ace high. Given that this bluff cost me 1100 chips between the turn call and river bet, I don’t think it was worth while, though it did feel pretty sweet to pull it off.
Playing Position With Deep Stacks
Something I’ve really been trying to work on lately, with some success I think, is learning to play my position better when stacks get deep at cash tables. If you get good at this, you can make it damn near impossible to play marginal hands out of position against you. Even good players who would probably tell you they understand the importance of position let themselves get into too many marginal situations out of position, probably because they don’t regularly play with opponents who can punish them for it. I think that learning to be one of those opponents will be crucial if I want to start playing higher stakes cash games.
In this hand, the action folded to the SB, a pretty decent regular who’s been at a bunch of my 2/4 tables lately. I’m pretty sure he’s a winner in this game. I’m sure he views me as aggressive, but probably as tricky and good as well. He opens for $14 with a little over $900 behind. I don’t know what his range here is, but I think he has to have some kind of hand, as he’s setting himself up to play out of position against a decent player with 230 BB effective stacks (I had him covered and then some).
I reraise very aggressively in these blind on blind confrontations, and I also call pretty light, especially when we’re this deep. There are just so many ways to outplay a guy. You’ll be able to call lighter, value bet thinner, and bluff better than he will. Given that he isn’t likely to be starting with a great hand himself, you could probably justify calling with any two in this spot. I’m certainly going to be at least calling with anything playable, which includes any two suited or connected cards. Here, I called wtih Ts 3s.
The flop was Jh 8h Tc, giving me middle pair with a bad kicker on a very coordinated board. The SB bet $22, and I called, figuring that there will be a ton of scary turn cards that will force him to slow down or give up whether or not he has the best hand. Although I could be good here, I don’t really intend to go to showdown unless I improve. I mostly just want to set myself to take it away if he shows any weakness later in the hand. By the way, with stacks this deep, my opponent really ought to be potting it if he’s going to bet at all on a board this coordinated. That will at least make it tougher for me float him, chase draws, or even play medium strength hands of my own.
The turn is the 6h, putting three hearts on the board. A heart was one of the scare cards I was planning on betting at. The SB bet $60, and I had to think for a few seconds. He probably does play a flush this way, but I felt he could have a much wider range. Just as I did, he’ll likely look at the heart as a good scare card to bet whether or not he has a strong hand. If he does have something like top pair or two pair, he’ll want to avoid giving me a free river if I’m still drawing, and he’s probably smart enough to know that I’m definitely going to fire at this card if he shows weakness by checking.
I felt that if I made a good-sized raise here, it would be very difficult for him to continue with the hand. He still had more than $800 in his stack, and a raise here allows me to threaten all of it. He’ll have to figure that if he just calls, I’ll always shove the river with a flush and sometimes without one, putting him in a tough spot with anything less. If he shoves on me with less than a flush now, he’s risking quite a lot of money in a spot where he could be drawing very thin. And since I won’t always have a hand that will pay him off (as I don’t in this situation), he can’t count on implied odds to justify a call with something like the Ah hoping to improve on the river.
So I raised to $214, and he folded. It’s possible that I was ahead all along, but even then I still shut him out from improving or bluffing me on the river. The key point here is that my well-timed raise allowed me to threaten $800 of my opponent’s money while only costing me $200 of my own. That’s the power of position and aggression combined.