A few weeks ago, Logan IM’ed me to say that there was a giant fish playing a 15/30 NL deep stack table. I watched for a few orbits of three-handed play and agreed that the guy was awful. He wasn’t particularly deep, so I sat down with $3000 to take a shot at him. I ended up raising 22 pre-flop, betting an A34 flop and a 5 turn, and then calling a pot on a 2 river hoping for a chop. Obviously fishy had 56 for rivered higher straight, and I’m still not sure about the river call. Obviously there shouldn’t be many 6’s in his range, but this particular player may not have been smart enough to pot the river without the straight. I still ended up losing only like $600 at that table thanks to another sizeable pot I took off a different player.
So last night I saw a pretty big fish (50/20 Poker Tracker stats) sitting at 10/20 NL. There was an open seat at the table, so I decided to try my luck. The fish ended up stacking me twice and some other guy twice in three orbits and leaving the table with nearly $8000, almost half of it mine. Ouch.
This first one is pretty justifiable, and in fact badly played pre-flop by the fish:
Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold’em, $20 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com
Hero ($1730)
UTG ($4314.50)
MP ($2667)
CO ($1210.50)
Button ($5825)
SB ($3011.50)
Preflop: Hero is BB with Ac, Qc.
2 folds, CO raises to $70, 2 folds, Hero raises to $220, CO calls $150.
Flop: ($450) Ks, 6d, 8c (2 players)
Hero bets $310, CO calls $310.
Turn: ($1070) 7c (2 players)
Hero bets $700, CO calls $680.50 (All-In).
River: ($2450.50) Kc (2 players, 1 all-in).
Final Pot: $2450.50
Results in white below:
Hero has Ac Qc (flush, ace high).
CO has 8s 8h (full house, eights full of kings).
Outcome: CO wins $2431. Hero wins $19.50.
A lot of players, and probably this guy, will peel that flop with a pocket pair even if they don’t make a set, so I definitely felt I had some fold equity for the turn shove.
This one is pretty bad on my part, and although the fish played it kind of fishy, I want to focus on what I could have done better:
Full Tilt Poker – No Limit Hold’em Cash Game – $10/$20 Blinds – 6 Players – (LegoPoker HH Converter)
SB: $2158
BB: $6102
UTG: $3001.50
Hero (MP): $2000
CO: $4284.50
BTN: $2695
Preflop: Hero is dealt Ad Qh (6 Players)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $70, CO folds, BTN calls $70, SB calls $60, BB folds
Flop: ($230) 7c 4c As (3 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks, BTN bets $160, SB calls $160, Hero calls $160
Turn: ($710) 6d (3 Players)
SB bets $320, Hero raises to $1020, BTN calls $1020, SB raises to $1720, Hero raises all-in to $1770, BTN calls $750, SB calls $50
River: ($6020) Kd (3 Players – 1 All-In)
SB checks, BTN checks
Pot Size: $6020 ($3 Rake)
SB had 5h 3h (a straight, Seven high) and LOST (-$1994)
BTN had Tc 8c (Ace King high) and LOST (-$2000)
Hero had Ad Qh (a pair of Aces) and LOST (-$2000)
I messed this one up at virtually every opportunity. One thing I’ve noticed in my very limited time at the high stakes games is that continuation bets tend to get less respect. I wasn’t really sure what I would do if the BTN raised me on the flop, so I checked. Probably I should have just bet, as that would have allowed me to get heads up with the fish in the SB most likely, which is what I really wanted anyway. After SB called, I put him on a draw, and having under-represented my hand so far and maybe induced a bluff from BTN, I should have check-raised.
On the turn, I figured SB for a blocking bet with a draw, since I didn’t figure the 6 to have hit anything. I raised, and when BTN called cold with only $750 behind, I felt he could only have a big draw. I wasn’t happy to see SB shove, and of course there’s a chance I’m drawing slim or dead. Morever, if I’m right that BTN is on a big draw, that kills some of my outs against two pair. I probably should have folded here, but I was getting good odds and pretty sure I had only the fish to worry about, and hey he is a fish maybe he’s got a worse Ace? Bah.