Hella Hold'em

Ahhh, it's so nice when I can take I-80 home. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, the 38 minute ride is so much nicer than the 65 minutes it takes me to go the back way (thus avoiding the construction).

I managed to cash out even tonight, after 9 hours at Trump. Less than impressive, yes - but at least my lessons were cheap! I was actually down a bit. Something like this:

Gatorade: -6
Time: -126

(Holy shit... I'm never calculating how much time costs ever again... Well I woulda been up a hundred bucks if it weren't for time).

So I cashed out down thirty bucks. Anyway... on to my lessons.

1. Bet yer nuts.

I probably cost myself a little bit of money on a hand whereby I check-called my nut straight when it hit on the turn (KJ on a board of 9-10-x-Q), then checked the river hoping to check-raise. He checked behind me. Why the hell get all fancy? Just bet the damn thing.

I'll tell you why I checked the river - and it's a bad habit of mine that I really need to get over. I don't shift the action well. My opponent had raised preflop, and I called (amongst others). I flopped the gutshot with 2 overcards, and he bet out small. I called. Ditto the turn; I'd hit my straight, and I check-called. When the river came, I knew I was in danger of the check-behind, but I couldn't pull the trigger and shift the action. Something in my brain goes, "If I bet out now, it'll be SO OBVIOUS that I have a hand."

Well, no shit, sherlock. It'll be plain as day when you get checked behind and have to show the nuts at showdown and expose your play for the pussy move that it was. Sorry for the foul language. But that's what it was; just about the lamest, weakest move I could possibly make.

So... the lesson here is, bet yer nuts, or else look like a complete wussy. (PG-13)

2. Don't min-raise your nuts.

I have an excuse for this one, though it's an excuse that leads to a sub-lesson in this case.

I'm in the big blind and I get to see an unraised flop of 2-3-6. The small blind says, "I'll check my straight to you." If you were in my brain, you would have heard me scream,

Shit!! Do I have 3-4 or 4-5????!!!"

And I'm usually so good at remember my hole cards - suits and all. Couldn't remember these. So I checked.

The turn brought another deuce, and the small blind bets out $35. I made it $80 to go, now that I've checked my hole cards to see that in fact I do have the 4-5 for the straight. Everyone else folds, and the small blind calls. He said to me (as part of a conversation with our tablemates), "She knows was I have," and for once I did... so when the third deuce came on the river, and the small blind bet out, I knew I was toast. I laid down my straight, and he showed me the fourth deuce.

He told me in our conversation to follow that he'd have laid down his set on the turn if I'd have made a big bet, like $180 to go.

Here's my question though: isn't that a bit of an overbet of the pot? Let's say there were 7 limpers (I don't think there were that many, but let's just say). $35 in the pot preflop. No betting on the flop. On the turn, the small blind bets $35, making it $70 in the pot. Making it $80 all day, to me, seemed reasonable; a pot-sized bet or so. Do I really want to overbet here, and fear a full house (or the dooming quads)? I would think that in most cases, with one card left to come, I want the guy in the pot with me. With his trip 2's (2 of which were on the board), he's got - what - 3 3's, 3 6's, and one 2 that beat me? 7 outs with one card to come. As more than a 3:1 favorite to win at that point, I'm not sure my objective should be to get this guy outta the pot.

Chime in with your opinions - this is one where I think I'd play it the same way again if I was in the same situation. (I do, however, wish I had remembered my hole cards, because I'm pretty sure I'm betting that flop). Doyle would say I shoulda just bet out anyway. I had a piece of the board, if I had 3-4 :)

Of course, I'd have rather won the small-ish pot than lost the $85 or so that I lost, but what can ya do. I can't argue with the case 2.


I have another bone to pick. (With who? I dunno. It's 6am and I should be sleeping!)

After reading Doyle yesterday, one thing that surprised me is his recommendations for play of AA and KK, primarily because you'll either win small pots with those hands, or lose big ones.

Tonight, early in my very first round of play at the 200NL feeder table, my KK got brutalized after I got a guy all in on an innocuous flop. I had him covered by $20 or so, and he had pocket 8's. I was flying high for all of 4 seconds or so, when the dealer turned an 8 to give the guy a set of snowmen.

At my second table, snowmen did some big damage to me again, this time when I held pocket Aces. The guy to my right raised preflop to $35, and I re-raised to $75 all day (preflop). Everybody else folded, and he called. We saw another harmless flop, and I put him all in. I can't remember what he had - maybe another $65 in front of him. He called with his 8's. Victory is mine! Then the dealer turned the guy a third 8, and I couldn't get a damn Ace to save my life.

At my last and final table, (I finally made it to Maigrey's table) I had AA twice and QQ once. All 3 times, everybody folded to my preflop raise (which was the standard 5x-7x the big blind each time).

So - I lost crazy money with my big pairs preflop, and won crap with them.

I think I should start playing them like, say, pocket 4's. Flop it or drop it. Right?

OK, fine, I'm being a bit extreme here. But seriously. I totally see how in no limit, defense is the name of the game when it comes to big pocket pairs. It's a miracle they ever hold up in a big pot. They sure don't for me.

Moving on...

I saw the biggest pot I've ever seen tonight. 3 guys went all crazy betting, to the tune of a nice $2,000 pot or so. One guy had the nut flush draw; another had a set of 5's, and the third guy had an overpair to the board. The flush hit. It was a whole lotta sick. The same guy (the winner) hit another big hand with some boat-over-boat action and was sitting at our 200NL table with at least three grand in front of him.

C'mon, poker gods! Bring me just one night like that! Mama needs a new couch!

Time for bed. 'Nite all.