The Tiltboys
« Home | Caption Contest! » | Publisher's Wager Results » | Phil, you're still short 23k » | Politics of Deception » | True Story » | Phil-Gordon-8x10-Hot » | Welcome to Tiltboys 2.0 »
Sunday, February 19, 2006
funny hand
A little mini-comedy from last night's Hold'em session:
There's a guy at the table named Roland, he's talking to
me about liking the book and reading our trip reports,
meanwhile we're both looking for some way to get the
other guy on tilt.
He's a strong player but I think I have a good
line on his play, and he surely has a good line on mine.
A hand comes up where I'm in the small blind and he's
in the cutoff. He raises pre-flop and gives off what I
think is a small tell. I thought I saw him getting
ready to just call, and then decide to raise when he saw
that there were only two limpers (one of whom was a weak
and easy player.) I put him on a small-middle pocket pair,
trying to thin the field.
I had QJ. Usually I'm going to fold this hand out of
position to a raise from a tight player. But given my tell,
I decide to play. Big blind calls, as do the two limpers.
Flop is 779. I check and watch the other players interest
level. They look bored and check around to Roland. He bets.
I decide to try a steal play based on a few things:
1) I don't think anybody else caught anything
2) Pot is reasonably big, but not so big as to encourage chasing.
3) Roland has to put me on a very narrow range of
hands given my preflop cold call. He probably has
me on AJ, ATs, KQ or a pocket pair. So I can represent
having a pocket pair by raising here.
4) He has to give my raise some respect, because there
are three other players to act after me.
Everybody folds, Roland calls. I've still got him on a pocket
pair, maybe just taking one off to see if I bet the turn.
Turn is a T, now I've got a straight draw also. I bet out.
Roland thinks for a little while, then decides to raise me.
Maybe he thinks he can get me to fold the medium pocket
pair I've been representing. Maybe he thinks I'm just bluffing.
Maybe I'm totally wrong about my tell and he actually has AA or 99.
I'm stuck now. I think about re-raising, but I figure him
to call me down. I can't fold with a draw that might have
a lot of outs against the hand I originally put him on. So I
call, intending to fold unless I river a pair or straight.
River is an A. Change of plan. Given the range of hands
I think Roland has me on, an A should be a very scary card
for him. I bet into him again as a last-chance bluff.
He grabs his cards and nearly mucks. Then he pauses, ever
the conscientious pro evaluating his decision. He takes a long,
long time and ends up calling. He says something like, "here's
my worst call of the night", and flips up has hand. 66.
The rest of the table goes nuts. Here this supposed "pro"
put a zillion bets into the pot with an under pair, against
a "tight" player who had called his raise from out of position.
Then I say, "wow, nice hand! I didn't have you that strong."
and muck my hand. It was almost funny enough to be worth losing
5 big bets.
Add a comment
Blog: Home | Feed (Atom)
