You Decide #2
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Here is a hand that I played months ago. It stuck with me (you'll see why shortly).
I was in Atlantic City, in the Trump Plaza poker room. It was my first time there (I have yet to return). I was sitting at a $1/2 No Limit Holdem Table with 9 players total. I sat down with about $120. I was two seats to the left of the big blind. The first hand I was dealt was AA. I was ecstatic. What a way to start!
The man on my right checked. I raised the pot to $7. There were about three callers followed by the button (Sloppy Joe, cause the guy was a fat, sloppy looking feller), who raised it to $20. I reraised another $20 on top. All the callers folded, and Sloppy Joe called. The flop was ideal: 38T, no flush draw. I bet $20, right off the bat. Sloppy Joe pushed his stack all in, another $26 on top. I called. He had pocket tens. I lost to the set of tens.
I should probably keep my opinion about the hand to myself, but I'm too conceited for that. I do think I made one error. I should have realized that Sloppy Joe only had so much chips in the first place. If he was willing to be $20, I should have pushed him hard, and went all in myself, pre-flop. I was definitely the favorite at that point, so I couldn't be faulted for making that move if he called. However, I could have won a decent sized pot (the $7 calls, and $20 reraise) if he folded. Instead, I had my Aces cracked.
Now, the other side of it is that my fundamentals were there. I raised to get people out of the hand, so I didn't have a bunch of drawing hands out there. I called the $26 because the pot odds were good. I just wish I had seen what was coming.
In the end, I won $150 at that table. I got extremely lucky when I played Q2 suited hearts and got a flush draw and top pair. One cocky player and I were betting back and forth at each other. I had a tough decision when the turn did not help me. But in the end, I called a bet that put me all-in, about $60+ dollars, which is a lot in my stakes. He had pocket Ks, but I cracked them with an Ah on the river. This was a hand that I don't think I necessarily played well. But I figured he had the Ks (pat on the back for that), and I knew I would win with a heart, 2, or Q. That provided me with 13 outs, which was not great, but worth a shot, since I had top pair.
Alright folks, I'm off to Vegas tomorrow, for my first time. Wish me luck. I'll try to post some while I am there. If that doesn't happen, I'll post a summary when I get back. Happy Poker.
posted by Jordan @ 5:41 PM,
2 Comments:
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At 6:51 AM,
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This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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At 4:00 PM,
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He reraised to $20. Then you reraised him another $20. I would have at least reraised $40 here. But that probably does not matter cause I feel he would have called anyway. Bad flop for you. It happens. All in all you will win most of the time in the above situation.
