Overvaluing Ace-King

Before I get to the main point of this post, I just want to mention a coming attraction.  I ran into another of those women again.  You know, the kind that I love, a woman being outrageous, inappropriate and just plain fun right at the poker table, along the lines of my good friend Prudence and the totally insane Natalee.  No time to post the details of that session but let me just say, as a tease, that for the second time this trip, a woman has told me (and the other players) all about her rack right at the poker table.  And again, I mean “rack” in the sense you all want it to mean.  Just last weekend it was the vivacious Denise who did this, story (without the context, which I will hopefully get to some day) told here.

And speaking of racks, there was a woman at the table with me last night who had quite the large one, and she was absolutely working the Jennifer Tilly Effect, something I haven’t mentioned in awhile here on the blog, to the extreme.  She was a rather unusual looking woman, and I really couldn’t quite tell her age.  But I’m thinking it’s very likely her breasts were a lot younger than she was and that a plastic surgeon was involved with her at some point.  Anyway, she had gotten her money’s worth if they were indeed “add-ons” and she was only too happy to display her purchase in an extremely low cut dress.  I did lose some chips to her but I assure you it had nothing to do with this intentional distraction, I was just unlucky.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

And speaking of woman who are outrageous and who like to talk about their breasts, the amazing Kim Shannon is in town right now.  Those of you aren’t following her on Twitter should be.  If you’re not on Twitter, you should sign up just to see her tweets*, believe me, it’s worth it.  Kim makes Prudence and Natalee look like nuns and she has the most wicked sense of humor you can possibly imagine.

I’m dying to meet her but thus far she has resisted my subtle suggestions that we have a face-to-face.  I’m concerned that she may be afraid I’m a creep or even a stalker.  Sigh.  Perhaps our mutual friend Jeanne , whose breasts have appeared on my blog—at her insistence, I might add—can convince her that I’m totally harmless and we should meet.  Actually, I’m pretty sure I final tabled—albeit briefly—the WPBT tournament last year (see here) with her pal, OnAFoldDraw.  So we’re practically family.

I know she came out here to crush souls by winning a boatload of tournaments, but I would love to play a cash game with her.  Even if she stacked me once or twice, as she likely would, I’m sure it would be worth it. If I can’t get a great post out of a poker session with Kim, I should retire from blogging.

OK, enough stalling.  This is, first and foremost, a serious poker blog, right?  Yeah, right.  Since my last post told the tale of a crushing loss when some fool made a terrible call against me and got lucky, let’s discuss the flip side of that equation, when somebody made an even worse call against me and didn’t hit.  And thus ask the age-old question, “Why do poker players overvalue Ace-King?”

I had about $200 in front of me and the guy to my immediate right had just come to the table within the past 10 minutes.  He had played a few hands, don’t think he’d won any, and had about $10-$20 more than I had.  I don’t think he’d seen me play a hand yet.

Early position raised to $15 and his wife called behind him.  The two were a fun couple and the woman was especially aggressive, making big raises fairly often.  I assumed the husband had something good and I think the wife would have called his raise (not any raise, but his raise) with any two cards just on principle.  Folds to the new guy on my right who bumps it to $37.

This pleased me greatly because I had pocket Aces.  I had been thinking how much I was going to raise the $15, but the $37 three-bet made it easier.  I put out a stack of $100, about half my stack.  Husband and wife both folded.  New guy wastes no time in announcing, “all in.”

Of course I wasted no time in saying, “call.”

I really figured that this was going to be one of those Aces vs. Kings situations.  Or, maybe, just maybe, he had pocket Queens. Not so. I flipped over my hand without hesitation, and he reluctantly flipped over his, Ace-King sooooted.  My Aces were both black and he had two hearts.

I was happy, knowing he had to catch at least two cards to win.  He actually caught a King on the flop, along with two low, black cards.  The turn and the river were both hearts, too little, too late.  They were also both low…..but not low enough for us both to make a wheel that would have chopped the pot.

I had a nice double up, but I just don’t understand his play.  He had no read on me whatsoever.  If he’d seen me four bet a lot, maybe he can put me on a hand he was ahead of.  Maybe.  But failing that, I don’t get it.  Why risk that much money needlessly against a player you don’t know?

In a tournament, there are many, many situations where his play there would make perfect sense.  But in a cash game?  Risking $200 on a drawing hand when you don’t have to? 

Seriously, having no read on me, what percentage of players in a 1/2 game are gonna four-bet with a hand that doesn’t crush AK?  Even if I do that with Queens or Jacks, he’s risking his stack on a flip where he’s the underdog.  Why do that?

Does he really think the average 1/2 player is gonna make the move I did with Ace-Queen or Ace-Jack?   Perhaps he assumed I had Ace-King also and he assumed he was protecting his investment on what was likely gonna be a chopped pot?  Do poker players really think like that?

He re-bought and the rest of the time I played with him, he seemed like a fairly reasonable player.  Did he just feel like rolling the dice that one time to try to get a quick double up?

I don’t get it.  I’m not complaining, not at all.  I was quite happy with his bad play and glad he help me have a profitable session.  But seriously, who overvalues Ace-King like that?

*--not a typo, sorry.

Edited to add:  got some interesting feedback on this hand so I posted it on AVP to get even more reaction.  If you want to read other opinions of the way my opponent played AK, see here.