Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Table 126 Red, Part Deux

In an effort to try and be able to recall things so that I could post accurate blogs, I attempted to keep audio notes using my cell phone on the breaks. Unfortunately, I really didn’t think of this idea until later in the day. My buddy Dan got eliminated from the event prior to the dinner break, and prior to his being eliminated, we’d meet up on the breaks and discuss our current status, so it wasn’t until he was eliminated and we didn’t meet up on a break that I got this bright idea. Because of this I actually have quite a good set of notes about that first table I was at.


I left off the last post about an hour in to play. I had worked my stack from the original 3K to approximately 5100 without meeting much resistance. I had been dealt Ace-King in a hand that had been raised so I reraised, everyone folded to the initial raiser who called my bet. After a Jack-high flop he checked and I led out with a bet to take down that pot. I was dealt pocket Kings immediately following that hand and when I raised no one called. In fact, I was dealt Kings twice during the entire day, and never saw a flop with it either time (which I guess I was perfectly fine with considering what happened to me with Aces last year). Creepy Neck Guy had also built up a stack after eliminating the player in Seat 10 (pictured here). I mentioned that Creepy Neck Guy was playing quite loose, playing many hands more than most players at the table. It was at about this time I got involved in my first significant pot of the day.


The hand began with me in the small blind. Everyone folded to a player in mid to late position. He had been playing somewhat tight and appeared to be selective with his hands. He raised to about 3x the big blind. Another player called, and when I looked down at my cards in the small blind I saw As-8s. Considering the raise and the possibilities I decided to call. The big blind also called. The flop that hit the board was a Queen-high flop with two spades, giving me a flush draw. I checked, expecting to check raise the initial raiser, but to my surprise the big blind led out with a bet. The initial raiser then called the bet, and it was folded to me. I was one of the larger chip stacks at this table, so I decided to put the “squeeze” play on the players. The squeeze play is when you raise two players where player 1 bets and player 2 calls (such as the scenario here). What the squeeze play does is put a significant amount of pressure on the 1st player who bet since he doesn’t know player 2 is going to do, and it may force him to fold any marginal hand. I didn’t think the big blind had much since if he did, he probably would have checked it to the initial raiser. Often times a player just calling will be holding a marginal hand, so the squeeze raise might chase that second player out of the hand. Well, the first part of my plan worked perfectly. The big blind folded his hand. The initial raiser (pictured) had other ideas, though. He pulled the trigger and moved all in at this point. This pretty much pointed to a big hand (set/3-of-a-kind, two pair). His stack size was close enough to my stack size that if I decided to call I was pretty sure I’d either be out or very close to out, and I wasn’t prepared to put all my chips in on a draw just quite yet so I folded, leaving me with 1800 chips.


While I sat brooding about losing a lot of chips, I thought a little more about pulling that trigger. The player who won the pot had a couple things that all should have screamed “Danger!” at me:


  1. He had been playing tight and showing good hands to this point
  2. Being the initial raiser, his “just call” of the lead out bet on the flop should have told me, in combination with item 1, that he probably hit this board HARD

Well, now I was stuck down about half of my original amount, and I was in need of a double up. Fortunately for me, about half an hour later I was dealt pocket Aces in late position. I raised, was reraised by the player on my immediate left (pictured), and when I moved all in, he thought for a long time but folded Ace-Queen face up. I was surprised he folded since he only needed about 600 more chips to call after his reraise, but he was running a little low, and I guess that those 600 chips he felt could be used better elsewhere.


So after nearly doubling up there I was able to win a decent pot with King-Ten against a player (pictured) who showed he was absolutely incapable of folding if he hit any piece of a board. In the hand where I eliminated him, I had King-Ten in the big blind. He made a minimum raise, so I’m pretty much guaranteed to call with any two cards that are Ten or higher (also known as a “Twenty” hand, e.g. KT, QJ, QT, etc.). The board came: King-Jack-x. I led out, knowing he’d call with any piece, and he was playing too many hands to have a good one all the time. He moved all in and, after some deliberation, I decided to call with top pair, Ten kicker. He table Ace-Jack for second pair, and soon went to the rail when the turn and river provided no help to him.


I got involved two more pots that I had notes on at this table. I was dealt Ace-Ten on the button, and with three other players just limping to the big blind I limped along and was fortunate enough to see this flop: King-Queen-Jack. This gave me the nut straight. The other thing about a board like this is it’s the type of board that would hit other players as well, so when everyone checked to me on the button, I led out with a bet of about half the pot, hoping that someone with a piece of that board would also play. As it went back around everyone folded! I couldn’t believe that no one had a piece of that at all, but it was another pot moving my way, so I couldn’t complain too much.


The last pot I remember was sort of humorous. I had 2-4suited in mid to late position. Once again several players limped, so I decided to call hoping to flop something big. I completely missed the flop, and when everyone checked to me I checked, too. The turn also missed me, and once again everyone checked to me. This time I decided to fire a pot-sized bet to take the pot down. Creepy Neck Guy kind of looked at me funny and folded, and then the guy who raised me big earlier did it again. This time my fold was pretty easy, and as soon as I did Creepy Neck Guy said to me, “I’m glad you did that (bet out) because I was gonna do that if you didn’t”. I kind of got chuckled at that. At least he and I were on the same wavelength.


Shortly after this, our table broke. I was so happy to hear this since as other tables broke down, cash games were starting, and the speaker system in our section was turned on for calling players to the table. We were directly under one of those speakers, and it was starting to get quite annoying and difficult to hear player actions at the table. Unfortunately, I got moved to….Table 129 RED, so I was still in that section. That table broke about 10 minutes later, and I got moved to my next table, 90 Orange.

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