Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Aggressiveness and Position Rewarded

My weekend of poker wrapped up pretty well. I was able to play a little $10/$20 Limit Hold 'em, where bluffing actually becomes part of the game again. At the lower limit levels you pretty much just have to resign yourself to being able to showdown the best hand. Once you start hitting the mid levels, aggressiveness is rewarded a little more, and every now and then you can pull off a decent bluff. I have two hands that I'll go through here. The first one was a complete bluff. The scenario is as follows:

$10/$20 Texas Hold'em - Table Cane Corso (Real Money)

Seat 9 is the button

Total number of players : 10

  • Seat 1: Player 1( $464 )
  • Seat 2: Player 2 ( $472.93 )
  • Seat 3: Player 3 ( $150.50 )
  • Seat 4: Player 4( $419.50 )
  • Seat 5: Player 5 ( $691 )
  • Seat 6: Player 6 ( $490 )
  • Seat 7: Player 7 ( $442 )
  • Seat 8: Player 8 ( $644 )
  • Seat 9: Face ( $241 )
  • Seat 10: Player 10 ( $1153 )

Player 10 posts small blind [$5].

Player 1 posts big blind [$10].

So I had the button here and I was dealt: [ Qd 2d ]

Everyone folded to me and I decided to raise. Player 10 in this hand was a player I had encountered before in a different session, and I had noticed that he usually did not defend his Small Blind unless he had at least an Ace. He decided to reraise, and although I knew I was behind it was only going to cost me $10 to see a $70 pot. It's hard to fold that. Here is how the flop came down:

8d, Jc, Jh

Player 10 had to act first and he led out and bet. Now since he bet I really didn't believe he had a Jack so I decided to call here. The turn came Kc. He led out and bet again. I figured that if I had a chance to win the pot this is where it would have to happen. I raised hoping that he didn't have either a Jack or a King. If he was defending his blind with an Ace, I was just praying it was A9 or worse. If he has AQ or AT he still would have a gutshot and I didn't think he'd lay that down even with incorrect pot odds. The bluff worked, as I assume he believed I had a J or K. With the betting amounts going up on the turn, it's too hard to call that knowing that you are going to maybe pay off that $20 and another $20 at the river to get to a showdown. It was a nice little pot ($147) on a hand that really isn't worth much. It also helps that I usually play pretty tight, so if I'm raising at the turn it wouldn't be too hard to believe I had originally raised with a hand like AJ, QJ, AK, KQ, or KT from the button, and there was a good chance all of those hands had the lead.

The second hand wasn't so much a bluff as much it was just pure aggressiveness combined with position. Here was the scenario:

$10/$20 Texas Hold'em - Table Vision Won (Real Money)

Seat 7 is the button

Total number of players : 10

  • Seat 1: Player 1 ( $426 )
  • Seat 2: Player 2 ( $1176 )
  • Seat 3: Player 3 ( $504 )
  • Seat 4: Player 4 ( $494 )
  • Seat 5: Player 5 ( $556 )
  • Seat 6: Player 6 ( $302 )
  • Seat 7: Face( $326 )
  • Seat 8: Player 8 ( $570.50 )
  • Seat 9: Player 9 ( $435 )
  • Seat 10: Player 10 ( $490 )

Player 8 posts small blind [$5].

Player 9 posts big blind [$10].

so once again I had the button here and was able to try and steal:

Dealt to Face [ Ks 9h ]

I raised and was reraised by the BB, and this time I decided to reraise, capping the betting. I had been playing pretty tight, and he had no reason to not believe I had a big hand, and I didn't want to give him a reason to think that. After the flop came:

Jh, Jd, 2c

and he checked in front of me it was a green light to bet. Usually when a pot is capped preflop in the $10/$20 game, you usually are going to see AA, KK, QQ, or maybe AKsuited. Everyone now and then you get a crazy loose maniac, and I appreciate those guys, because they know how to ship it. As I said before, I had been playing pretty tight, so I figured he would believe my capping it meant something. I bet the flop, and he only called. Ironically enough, as this hand was being played I was thinking about the move I had pulled off on the other table. My opponent was in the same situation I was in that hand. When the turn came 4c and he checked, he very easily could have pulled off the same move I had done earlier and check-raised me, and I would have had almost no choice but to let the hand go. Instead the second bullet fired worked and he released his hand. Another nice little pot ($122) for what really amounted to a junk hand. Sometimes it just doesn't matter what your cards are if you've got enough courage to fire a bullet to see where you stand.

Now, I don't usually play junk cards like that, but I'm going to have to be ready to fire some bullets with position if I have the right types of players at my table when I'm playing at the WSOP. I'm in Lexinton this week so I won't have any online poker, but I am going to Caesar's in Indiana after I stop in Lousiville to pick up a Hard Rock Cafe Hurricane glass. I'm sure I'll have a story or two from there.

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