In the results post for What’s Your Play? Overpair on Dry Flop, I cited a quote from Zach Ellwood, author of Reading Poker Tells, about opponents who comment on the texture of the board: “players who actually connect with the board will not want to draw attention to themselves. When someone suddenly stumbles across a super-strong hand, his natural, immediate instinct is to stay quiet and hide that information from others.” Last night, I played an interesting hand that illustrates the point somewhat humorously.
It was a $10/$10 NLHE game, and the action folded to the small blind, who opened to $40. I called with KQo in my BB, and we saw a TT8 rainbow flop.
This is one of the best hands I’d call rather than 3-bet in this spot pre-flop, so I wasn’t inclined to give up on it too easily on such a dry flop. However, his somewhat large continuation bet of $60 conveyed enough strength that I thought I was probably slightly behind Ax or a small/medium pair. As I contemplated my options, he observed, “Haha, two tens and an eight, you know that flop is all over me,” which I took as an indication that he probably wasn’t stronger than a pair 8s, so I called.
The turn was a 7, and he checked. I bet $75, and then he totally confused me by raising to $275. Was my (and Zach’s) read wrong? Did he actually flop a monster? Or was he going for some sort of weird protection raise with a weak hand because he didn’t believe me? A part of me was severely tempted to float him again, but this was an awfully strong line. Finally my good sense got the better of me, and I gave it up.
He was kind enough to flash me his 77.
No one has said it yet so I feel obliged. This is a really good post and a really good example of playing good live cash poker.