I saw The Mouth sitting with a full stack at a 25/50 NLHE table along with a guy from my buddy list. The waiting list was 7 deep, but I hopped on anyway. I’ve never played with Mike Matusow myself, but I know people who will join games they don’t even know how to play if he is sitting. It’s not as though he’s terrible, but even relatively weak players are not a dime a dozen at these stakes. Anyway, we tangled in the first real pot I played.
Full Tilt Poker, $25/$50 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
CO: $5,422
BTN: $5,047
SB: $2,357
Hero (BB): $4,925
UTG: $5,927
Pre-Flop: K
K
dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG raises to $175, CO folds, BTN calls $175, SB calls $150, Hero raises to $875, UTG folds, BTN calls $700, SB folds
Flop: ($2,100) 8 8
7
(2 Players)
Hero bets $1,050, BTN calls $1,050
Turn: ($4,200) 4 (2 Players)
Hero bets $3,000 and is All-In, BTN calls $3,000
River: ($10,200) 3 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)
Results: $10,200 Pot ($3 Rake)
BTN showed 8 9 (three of a kind, Eights) and WON $10,197 (+$5,272 NET)
Hero showed K K (two pair, Kings and Eights) and LOST (-$4,925 NET)
I certainly can’t see myself playing this any differently. When 20% of the effective stacks go in pre-flop, I’m surely stacking off with KK on this board. It’s hard to say whether his pre-flop call could be a money-winner, but I have my doubts. It would depend a lot on how he plays stuff like a weak top pair or a bare flush draw, and I don’t know what his plan would have been with those.
Anyhow, the other fish left the table and Ansky too his seat on my immediate left, so I just quit. Thankfully, I’d managed to attract a pretty weak player to a 10/25 heads up game on Ultimate Bet. Initially, the guy sat with just $500, which he lost calling a raise out of position with 86o and open shoving a T72 flop for several times the pot. He’d been pretty tight, but the play was so strange that I snapped him off with 97.
I figured he’d quit after that, but instead he reloaded for $2500, which I took when I checkraised him with 33 on a 983 flop and he shoved it in with TT. Then I stacked him again with AA versus KQ on a K879 board. I wasn’t thrilled when he called the flop and shoved the turn, since he could easily have 98 or 97, but it worked out this time.
After that, he sat out but didn’t quit. I was supposed to be leaving for my father’s house for an early Christmas celebration in about half an hour, but I informed my brother we might be leaving late if this guy did reload again. My patience paid off when he reloaded for another $2500. A fish with deep pockets like this is a rare find. He’d already set me even from my shot at 25/50, and now it was time to get into the black.
He seemed to be tilting initially, or maybe just catching well, because he was check-raising me a lot more often than he had been. In fact, he won back about $1000, but fortunately did not quit me, and eventually I turned the tide on him. I called a raise out of position with JTo, and we both checked a K94 flop. A lovely Q came on the turn to give me the nuts. I potted it for $150, and he raised pot to $600. Thinking I had him for sure, I just overbet shoved another $2500 or so. He tanked and typed “wow- 444 here.” To my shock and horror, he folded.
I can’t say I believe him. Given the spots where he’d stacked off before, I can’t imagine him folding a set. JT and 99 are really the only plausible hands I could have to beat him, since I’m almost always 3-betting KK and QQ preflop. Then again, to play devil’s advocate for a moment, KQ is probably the only worse hand I would play like this. Against this guy, even something like Q9 would give me a pause when he re-potted the turn.
It was nearly time for me to leave, but I wasn’t prepared to quit this guy yet. We played for about 10 more minutes, and finally I caught him. I raised 97 on my button, and he just called out of the big blind. The flop came a A97, I bet $150, and he check-raised to $300. He did this often enough that it was probably just top pair, not a monster like Aces up or a set. I made it $800, and he shoved for $2500 with AK. My hand held, and since I was already late, I quit immediately.
I felt pretty bad about that, since it’s always poor etiquette to quit immediately after winning a big pot and especially since I was up more than three buy-ins on this guy and we’d been playing for two hours. Even though he’s probably only going to lose more money sitting with me, it’s polite to let the player who is losing decide when the match ends or at least give him some notice that you’ll need to leave soon. Oh well. Hopefully it won’t stop him from playing me again in the future!