Crazy hand

Everyone has the story about the craziest play they ever had that turned out good. Here's mine.
A single table tournament with what seemed to be full of normal players (no crazy raisers, raises usually represented what the player had) and the blinds were still low.

I should have never even been in this hand after being dealt 3/5 hearts and was second to act. After the first player folds, I thought maybe I can limp and try to steal after the flop, So I call the 20 blind. Next guy calls, then third guy raises to 110. A few folds and a call back to me. So the pot is 260 and it costs 90. Terrible odds for my holdings, but still I decided to call. Then the guy next to me who had limped shoves all in.
I prepare to muck but then noticed the initial raiser calls as does the other caller. The first all in guy is the only one who has me covered and he initially limped.

My thoughts are simply two players have AK or AQ and the third might also but likely has a medium pair. At this point though, the pot is near to 4000 and I only have about 1000 left. If indeed both players have a high ace and the third has a high pair (10s or higher) he cuts into their outs. It's still early and if I'm going to make a random play, this is it. So I call.
Mind you, had it been later in the tournament and nearer the money, no way do I call. But this is a play I might make once out of every 10 hands or so.
Here's what the others show:
AJ clubs
AK diamonds
pocket 8s

And the board comes:

9c 5s 4s 6d 5d

And my trips take down the pot eliminating two players and giving me a huge chip advantage.

Taking him down

A lot of times with wild or aggressive players, if you are tight, you want to give them the opportunity to burn themselves.

Usually they are going to notice a tight player and try to attack them, a perfectly solid strategy, especially if the tight player is in the blind.

So letting the aggressive player trap themselves becomes a solid defense for the tight player. And again, you have to pay attention to betting patterns.

From the same tournament as the previous post, the table is down to five players, and I have 1,658 chips in the big blind, putting me in for $40.

I'm dealt 3 of diamond, 6 of spades. Ugh. Wild Man calls and everyone else folds.

Flop: 6d Qs 6c

He bets 100. This tells me he hit a queen. Most of his bets have been about 3x size of the pot when he's trying to steal with nothing, about 2x pot when he hit a medium pair but there's an over card (say the flop was 6, Q, A and he had a Q) to his hand, and pot sized when he hits top pair and slightly less when he hits the nuts (not that that's happened a lot).

So I call my trips encouraging him to bet again.

Turn: 8h

That eliminates any flush draw he might have had, and likely didn't help him any more. But since he saw me call, he has to figure I too have a Q and that didn't help me either.

He bets 340. At this point I could have just called, but it seems obvious he's convinced his queen is good so he'll play whatever I bet. What I don't want is to call and then see a A or K on the river which might discourage him from a final bet, so I go all-in.

He calls and turns over a Q and 8 for 2 pair.

The river is As and I take down the pot.

But four hands later Wild Man has rebuilt his stack and is over 5,000 chips again because the rest of the table hasn't been paying attention to his patterns. (For example, after almost every time he loses a decent pot on the showdown, he bets strong preflop the next hand....this time was no exception as he raised to 100 and everyone folded to him)

Wild Man's downfall was that he got arrogant. He started raising and showing when people folded. His ultimate plan was to set someone up.

He raised his stack to over 6,000 but chased an all-in with a j/10 off suit and fell to pocket queens. When he battled me on this hand I had 4,112 chips and he had 1,516 and there were still three other players.

I was dealt A 10 off suit in the small blind. He was under the gun and moved all in. Most of the time I would respect an early all in. But his reputation said he simply was trying to steal. And if he had a legit hand I would still be ahead of him chip wise and would still be in second place. So I had no problem calling with my hand. He showed J 10 off, and after two pair on the board, my ace took the hand and the lead in the tournament.

Showing down wild players

I tend to pay a lot of attention to betting styles in no-limit.
There is a difference between being aggressive and wild.

Aggressive players tend to bet out strong when they have a playable hand, or at least know that their opponent probably doesn't.
Wild players tend to let loose on any two cards.
Knowing the fine line that separates the two can win money.
In this single table tournament that I recently won, one player had a wild betting style.
Up to this hand, I had sat back quietly folding most hands and just winning twice, mainly on uncalled raises. The players I check down here had a history of wild bets, but was also very sporadic. He had raised earlier with 10/3 off, 7/4 off and J/2 off. He had yet to showdown with any pocket pair or ace. And we were at least 30 hands into the tournament at this point.

On the hand, there were eight players left, I was on the button with 1,405 chips, 4th place. The wild man was under the gun (first to act) with 3,358 chips.

I'm dealt 6s, 4c, a hand I normally trash.
Wild man calls ($20 at this point). Seat 2 (1,722 chips, and a little loose) calls. All fold to me, so I call. Small blind posts and big blind checks for a $100 pot so far.

The flop: 5s, 6h, 5c.
That gave me two pairs, a nice situation, and since there was no pre-flop raising I have to assume that unless a blind hit a 5 or 6, I'm good.
Check. Check. Wild man bets 125. Fold to me.
At this point I know if I call I may be committed to play this hand out to the bitter end. But I also know that more than likely I'm ahead. His betting pattern suggests that. More than likely he actually started with two decent cards (K/Q or J, 10 suited maybe). Plus he hasn't seen me show any cards to this point, so he has no info on me.
Two pairs makes a 125 bet into a 225 pot fairly simple. Call. And everyone else folds making us heads up. Had anyone else stayed, it's likely I would have had to consider giving up the hand. Still, I don't want to play this too aggressively yet, just in case I am right about his hand and he hits and also it will keep me with a tight image.

Ace of clubs. Not a great card for me, but again, I don't figure him for an ace, and I'm pretty much confirmed that when he checks. I opt to check too, just to keep a tight image.
Last card is a 4 of diamonds. It hit my other hole card, but is irrelevant since my two pair are 6s and 5s.

He checks again. If he did have the ace before, he would have definitely bet out by now. But I opt to check again just in the small chance he was slow playing something strong to set me up, and more importantly if he wasn't, to be sure I show the two pair to everyone to somewhat confuse them: Am I really tight? If so, why would I play 6,4 off to begin with, and why would I call a raise with it and not bet late?

Wild man shows j,10 off and I show the winning hand for the 350 pot.

If nothing else, if everyone else at the table was paying attention it showed them not to fear Wild Man's betting. If they notice that it can become a real table assault on one player.

Starting a poker blog

It was a trip to Shreveport, La. that got this blog started. After playing a few rounds of poker I decided that, even if no one ever reads it, I would start a journal on interesting hands, and the thoughts on the play.

This day I was just intending to pass through and maybe play poker for an hour or two before heading out of town. I walked up to the Horseshoe poker room and looked at the screen. The no limit games all had waiting lists, but the 4-8 limit had an open seat, so I took it.
Mine was the last seat open at the table, and was two to the left of the dealer. As I sat for my first hand, the little old frail man to my right had the big blind, so I was first to act. My first card was a deuce, so I never even payed much attention to the second card and tossed em. Guy two to my left raised to 8 and took down the pot uncontested.

So at this point I knew nothing about the table, except that I was now the big blind. The cards come and as I am still adjusting my chip stack for my $100 standard buy-in I look down to find the King of clubs and 7 of diamonds. Not great, but a typical big blind hand.

After the player to my left folds, the raiser from the last hand calls. A couple of folds then four callers and the small blind completes his bet. I check to the $28 pot.

Then comes the flop. 7 7 7. I flop the nuts, no one knows anything about me and the pot is nice. Without much thought I check as betting here would likely reveal I had the 7.
The same guy who started the action preflop bets. This time three players follow and I can't believe how lucky this is. But all the action made sense. I figure the first guy probably had ace with low kicker or a small pair. If he had anything stronger he would have raised preflop. I figure after that the next couple of players probably had similar hands and even if someone had a stronger hand, the way the pot was being built there was no need to raise yet.

But I still can't believe how lucky I am when I call making the pot $48.

On the turn, the only card I don't want to see is an Ace. In the small chance someone was slow playing pocket aces, and they got A A on the turn/river, then I would be screwed and not even bad beat eligible as my 7 would be the only hole card I was playing (both of your dealt cards have to play to be eligible for bad beat).
No worries, the next card was a J.
Again the first guy bets $8. Two callers and a fold and a $72 pot to me. Now I ask myself do I make it 80 or 88?

I go for the raise, hoping maybe they will think the J hit me. And if they don't maybe someone else hit the J, both likely scenarios. The first guy gets a disgusted look, but calls. the other two realize they are beat and fold and the pot in $96.

The last card was inconsequential as I lead out again and get a disgusted call, taking down the $112 pre-rake pot.

I still wonder what would have happened had I just made it 80.
Id still be first to act, if i check, I figure the initial guy would have still likely led out to make it 88. I'd have to assume that the other two guys would very likely know they are beat, but the pot odds would be overwhelming. Assuming just one called, it would have been 96 when i raised to make it 112. if just one called i earn an extra 8.

But if he checks too? the action gets checked around, and I collect an $80 pot instead of $112.
And if I lead out? The other two still likely know I slowed played the 7, the one guy calls, but I still get two folds. for a 96 pot.

In either case, I sat there wondering, how wrong is it to get up and leave the table after just one hand?
I stayed and cashed in over $300 for a little over an hour worth of poker.

But its also likely that