Damning the River

Another pretty great night on Party – the good fortune continues, up about 130 BB at .5/1 this week (after losing 12 BB at 1/2 the previous week).  Tonight featured two particularly interesting hands with Aces, which I feel like I’ve been getting more than my fair share of the time.  One hand, I capped pre-flop with Aces, 6 players, flop comes 55J with two diamonds, I bet, three callers, then I hit my Ace on the turn, and that’s when the hell broke loose, because the other pre-flop raiser had Jacks full of fives – ouch, for a 29 BB pot for me.

Here’s a trickier hand, which I might have misplayed.  I’m in the small blind with Aces, raise, get 5 callers.  Flop comes Ac, 7h, As.  I’d only really thought through playing four of a kind of a smaller variety (say sixes) – against the loose tables, I’d still jam it if there were enough players in and there were enough overcards or draws available.  Here, I figured I had no choice but to slow play – maybe I’d get some flop callers, but I figured I could pass that up in hopes of making a more profitable play on the turn.  The turn is the 5d.  Now there are no flush draws, so my only hope is that someone has a pocket overpair to the 7, or a 7 or 5, or wants to bluff, and will bet it.  From the small blind, I figure that my showing weakness on both the flop and turn, I’m begging for a bet – if I raised pre-flop, why would I be checking twice unless I didn’t have an ace? (or were slowplaying….).  Well, it gets checked around again.  The river comes a meaningless 9.  I bet, everyone folds.  I think checking the flop was definitely right (forgoing maybe, mayhbe 3 SB bets then for the opportunity to get more bets later by checking).  The turn is a little tricker.

With my thrill of success out of the way, let me discuss a few mistakes and leaks:

1.  I keep trying to slip in from too early with KJo.  When it’s loose-passive, it makes some sense to try to get in from late-early, but you really don’t want to play that from those positions against a raise. Lee Jones points this out very specifically that it is almost always wrong to play this hand from early.   I came in and got raised tonight, having to throw the hand away on the flop after calling that raise.  I also have been trying to cut back on my calls with the smaller pairs closer to the front.  Ed Miller suggests playing any pocket pair from middle in a game where only 3-5 players come in pre-flop, but even from early in a game with 6-8.  I think I took that too much to heart at first and gave away too much money.  That leak has been closed a bit, now I need to deal with the KJo one.

2.  I’m in the small blind with 99 and fail to raise with only 3 players in.  I generally would not raise with 99 from early position – only from middle or late.  From the small blind, it’s a little trickier.  I could have knocked out the big blind and isolate a little more.  And, with only 3 others in, there was a good chance I had a decent edge.  In any case, the flop comes with an A and then two lower unconnected cards. I figure, this is my only chance to represent it, or to try to charge people on the flush draw, or to extract money from people with second pair, or to get other overcards out.  So I bet and immediately get raised on my left.  I call here after the other two drop.  The flush is not made on the turn, I check, and he bets. When I called, I thought he might just be on the draw, now I think he has the ace, and I’m screwed. I drop.

This all feels very wrong.  I think it all started with not raising, and then spiralled from there.

3.  Finally, I had 78c in the big blind, free flop with 5c, Kh, Qc, and free turn 4d gives me an inside straight draw.  Given that everyone showed weakness on the flop, it’s possible no one has the higher pairs. It’s also possible I have the strongest draw. With three others in, I bet.  First of all, this wasn’t quite for value.  Second, someone might very well have a better flush draw, weakening any value in the bet.  Third, the likelihood of spiking a pair and having it pan out are still incredibly small. Fourth, there’s the possibility of a raise. Anyway, I bet, call, raise, one fold, I call, other guy calls.  River is a 5h, we fold to the turn raiser. 

If anything, I should have just check-called instead of betting. The pot wasn’t that big.

Filed by at 12:17 am under dtrStories
Comments Off on The Roll Continues, Quad Aces, and a Few Mistakes