A Couple of Hands of Poker

Well, my last two posts had precious little to do with poker, so here’s a post about a couple of memorable hands from last week.  One involving me, and one, unfortunately, involving the unlucky Prudence.

The first hand occurred during the afternoon session that I described in my last post here.  Yes, it happened right after Jeanne told me not to look at her boobs and right before she and her pals begged me to photograph them.  And of course, Lightning was there to witness this hand.

I had chipped up just a bit from my $200 buy in (I guess I had approximately $220 in front of me).  In late position I was dealt pocket 8’s.  A few limpers and I joined in the limping.  Note, that was probably a mistake.  I guess I should have raised.  Still not comfortable yet raising with such a middling pair though.  Turned out this move was a very good one for me.

The flop was 8-7-6 (or possibly 5), all hearts.  So I hit my set but had both the straight and the flush to worry about.  Or a straight flush, for that matter.  But realistically, the flopped straight or the flopped flush, or someone with a good draw to either, was my concern.

It checked around to me, so I bet out $10, about the size of the pot if not maybe even more.  I got two callers.  Probably both on draws, or slowplaying a monster?

The turn card was a black 3, which didn’t figure to help anyone in the hand, or in the entire room, for that matter.  Again checked to me, this time I bet $20 or $25, and both of the other guys called.

I was fairly well convinced I might be in trouble if I didn’t fill up.  Those guys were calling with something, and there was no big pair out there.  So I was very, very happy to see the river card, which was the three of hearts.  Pretty much the best possible card I could hope for.  If one of those guys need a fourth heart for a flush, they would likely pay me off  Quad three’s seemed very unlikely—why would anyone call on the flop with only a pair of three’s?  Sure the flopped straight flush was a possibility, but that’s pretty much worrying about monsters under the bed.  If someone hit that on the flop, I’m prepared to lose my stack to them—that’s poker.

Again, it was checked to me.  Now I have to figure out the size of my bet.  I didn’t want to make it too big.  I figured if someone hit their flush on the river, the paired board would be scary to them.  A big bet would likely not get a caller.  A too-small bet might cry out that I had a boat and thus also risked not getting any callers.

Still, I thought small would work better than big, so I put out $30 just praying for one caller.  If not, the pot was a decent enough prize as it was.

The next person to act had me covered, and he thought not very long and announced raise!  Awesome! I dismissed the straight flush possibility and waited to hear the size of his raise.

“$100 more.” he said.  Oh wow.  That made it easy for me.  If he was going that far, I was going all the way.

The other guy insta-folded.  No idea what he had, but it wasn’t worth an additional $130 (or more) to him.

Now, I probably have to work on my technique here, because I know the thing to do is prolong the decision, make it look like it is a tough one for me.  But I probably said “all in” a little too fast for my own good.  Nevertheless, the guy asked for a count of how many chips I had just put into the pot with my all-in bet, and the dealer counted it out for him.

I knew instantly the pot was mine.  If he had the straight-flush, he says “Call” before I finish saying “all-in.”  Dealer counts my chips and I don’t remember the number, but the key thing here is that it wasn’t much more than $100 he had already raised.  Point being that the guy was pot committed to call me no matter what.  Having put in the $100 raise, he had to call me shove there.

So after hearing my count, he shrugs and says "call."  I flip over my boat and he turns over—King of hearts, three of diamonds?

Really?  Really? He made that move with only the second nut flush, not the nut flush?

Thank you lord, for giving me this donkey.

I would have bet anything he had the Ace of hearts there.  Instead he was losing not only to my boat but to someone holding the Ace of hearts (maybe the third guy folded the Ace, knowing my action screamed “boat.”)

Now, I can understand him making a “crying call” there.  In fact that would have been the play to make.  For only thirty bucks, you call and hope I’m bluffing or playing a weaker flush (or a straight).  But raising there?  On a paired board?  Without even the frickin’ Ace?  Yikes, what a bad play.  The big raise committed him to calling my shove.  Lucky me.  Lucky, lucky me.

All he said when he saw my hand was, “I didn’t see that coming.”  No shit.  I guess he put me on a flopped weak flush.  Whatever, it was sure nice for me. 

Lightning looked at me and shook his head in total disbelief.  And he tweeted, “@Robvegaspoker gets fish to double him up - boats rule!”

With the money from the other guy who never bet on the river, I had more than doubled up. Very nice.

I had a good overall session.  Top pair held up when I called someone’s bluff.  Twice I was in late position and made a big 3 bet pre-flop after a bunch of people called a small ($6,$8) raise.  I mean like $30.  One time I had pocket Queens, the other time I had pocket Aces.  I think I told Lightning I had Aces both times, but I misremembered.  It was Queens the first time.  Both times I just took down the pot preflop, there was enough money from the small raisers to make it a profitable move.  Ended up with a nice $370 profit for a two hour session.

And after cashing out, I had three women demanding that I take a picture of their breasts.

The other hand I’m talking about is per request by Prudence.  She had a bad night that last night I was in town.  She had lost a few buy-ins.  When she got short stacked she would say, “all-in, re-buy.”  Once I pointed out that we were playing a cash game, not a tournament where re-entries are allowed.

Anyway, down to her last buy-in for the night, short stacked ($50-$70, something like that), she raised with pocket Queens.  One caller, the only other woman at the table, who was having a good nite.  After Prudence asked me to blog about this hand, I asked if it was ok for me to mention the other woman in this story had big tits.  She laughed and said sure.  So, Prudence’s opponent for this hand had big tits.  She had a low cut top, too; there was plenty of “no limit cleavage” on display. Also, to put it politely, it looked like this woman had definitely gotten her moneys worth at more than a couple Vegas buffets. 

The flop was two 8’s and a lower card.  Prudence shoved (the large-breasted villain may have bet first, I’m not sure who had position).  But the LBV called her shove.  Neither of the last two cards on the board would have seemed to have mattered.  Certainly the 7 on the river couldn’t have mattered, right?

Nope.  After all the cards were out, the LBV showed her hand—pocket 7’s.  She had called Prudence’s shove with a lousy pair of pocket 7’s, was behind all the way, and hit her two-outer on the river to take the last of Prudence’s last buy-in.

Sometimes when people play really dumb in this game, it works to your favor (see first hand in this post).  Other times, their bad play results in incredibly dumb luck and you lose money when you get it in good, as they say.

It’s a crazy game.