Three Little Hands.....

There was a night last month in Vegas when three hands made my night, a complete turn around from what had happened up until then.  But first I have to talk about a hand I wasn’t involved in which caused me to whisper into a woman’s ear, “Your testicles are so much bigger than mine.”  I’m sure you can guess who the woman was.

A fairly new player at the table shoved pre-flop.  I’m pretty sure it was in response to a pre-flop raise from Prudence.  I can’t remember how much he had, but it was well over $100 and possibly over $200.  Prudence had him covered and called his all in.  I don’t believe she turned over her cards, but she showed them to me, sitting directly to her right.  She had two Jacks.  I really couldn’t believe she made that call with only Jacks, but she did.  I don’t think the guy showed his hand until the river.  The first four cards were harmless but the river card was….a Jack!  Prudence took down a nice pot.

As she was collecting her chips, I indeed leaned over to her and whispered, “Your testicles are so much bigger than mine.”  It was of course a reference to the story I told here where she complimented my cojones for winning a big pot with what was essentially a bad play.  Now I got to return the favor.

“I know,” she replied.  “I knew he had Aces too.  I got lucky.”  Heh heh.  This was just a day or two before the hand I described here, in the tournament, where a guy called a shove in the first level with Jacks and also caught his set on the river.  He beat pocket kings, not Aces, but close enough.  In fact, when I saw that move, and that result, Prudence’s testicles immediately came to mind, as odd as that sentence is.

As for me, I was down, after shoving with AA on a flop with that didn’t look all that scary.  I had 3 bet it to $50 but some clown with 7/8 offsuit called me and hit a straight!  I had him covered but it left with me with around $55 give or take.  Ordinarily I would have bought some more chips at that point, but instead I decided to try a short-stack strategy for awhile.  A few uncalled preflop raises gave me a few more chips.

Then, hand #1.  AQ offsuit, made it $10.  One caller, a guy who as it turned out had one buck more than me.  Ace on the flop, bet out, and was called.  I shoved on the turn, though I didn’t have much to shove with.  He called.  River was a blank.  He had A9 and since a 9 wasn’t one of the blanks on the board, I doubled up.  The guy didn’t rebuy even though he was left with a buck, he put it in the next pot, and when he lost that, then he re-bought!  I found that strange.  If he knew he was gonna rebuy, why not doing it right away instead of just throwing away the buck?  Oh well, he can explain his reasoning on his blog!

Hand #2.  LAGgy European guy bets $12 preflop.  He had been raising a lot so his range was pretty large.  I had pocket 4’s in the Big Blind so I called.  Good choice.  Flop was 224.  Always nice to flop a boat!

I checked, he bet, I called.  Turn, same thing.  On the river, I thought about betting.  Since he hadn’t gotten me to fold yet, would he bet again on the river?  I wasn’t sure.  The highest card on the board was now a 10, I put him on a big pocket pair or maybe a big Ace.  Hopefully he didn’t have pocket 10’s.  I figured the guy was aggressive enough to bet most of his range.  Sure enough, he bet.  I don’t recall the numbers but in response, I shoved.  He had me covered, I didn’t have much more than I had when I doubled up in Hand #1.  So it wasn’t much more for him to call, which he did.

I showed my flopped boat, he mucked.  He said, “I just couldn’t get away from pocket Queens.”  That was a real nice pot, a nice double up, so I flipped a red bird to the dealer.  The dealer happened to be Barry, the infamous “check-shover” of this post. After he pocketed the chip, I remembered I had promised never to tip Barry again, so I said, “Hey, I forgot, I’m not supposed to tip you.  Let me have the back.”  Of course he just laughed.  Later, while he was on break and I was returning from the Men’s Room, he passed me and said, “Nice hand, well played.”  Yeah, I pretty much expected the Euro guy to bet for me, and he did.

I was now over my original $200 buy in, but over the next half hour or so I lost a few chips, dipping below profitability for the night by a little bit.  And then came….

Hand #3.  Prudence and her boyfriend Tom had called it a night.  Tom had been sitting immediately to my right.  Yeah, I had been sitting right between them.  I considered offering to switch, but decided not to.  I wasn’t sure if Prudence had forgiven Tom for getting her to fold her pocket queens the night before, the story of which is in the post here. So I thought I might be doing them a favor by sitting between them.  Anyway, a new player took Tom’s seat, bought in for $200 and had only played a few hands when this hand occurred.

The Euro guy in the previous hand bet $12 in early position.  New guy in the cut-off seat makes it $30.  I was on the button and look down to see nothing but Aces.  Hmm…..how do I play this?

Had no idea if the new guy would call a shove.  Euro guy wouldn’t unless he had almost as good as hand as I did.  I made it $90.  Euro guy mucks instantly.  New guy calls.

Highest card on the flop was 9, but there were two of them.  Although I didn’t know the new guy’s game at all, I couldn’t imagine he thought a hand with a 9 in it was worth $90 pre-flop.  But he made a bet, less than half the pot it must have been.  I said, “all in”.  He called.  He had me covered by a bit.  He had—wait for it—pocket Kings. My Aces held up.  Another double up, the best one of the night.

The guy was pretty philosophical about.  I think I avoided saying an insincere “sorry” but I did say, “tough hand.”  He agreed, saying it was unlucky that he had just come to the table and had no read on me.  He said a lot of guys would play AK or QQ the same way I played those Aces.

I played a few more orbits and only lost chips, but not a lot.  So I didn’t quite leave the table doubling up my $200 buy-in, but I did come close.  Not bad for a night when I was down almost $150 and never bought more chips.  Just three little hands made all the difference!