"You're a Swell Broad"

This was another session at BSC with Prudence.   In fact, this is the session I alluded to at the beginning of this post here. So this post could actually be called, “The Comeback Kid, redux.”  But I like the title I’ve chosen better, even if it has nothing to do with poker. 

Prudence and I decided to have dinner before playing and ate at the deli near the poker room.  We were almost finished when Prudence said to me, “Turn around, now.”

I did and at first didn’t know what she was talking about.  There were three girls walking by, nothing out of the ordinary.  Suddenly one of them moved ahead and revealed a fourth girl that was part of the group.

She was blonde—I think—but that’s not the reason Prudence wanted me to see her.  No, it was because she was wearing an extremely low-cut dress.  And bursting out of that low-cut dress were a couple of humongous breasts.  The effect was that the amount of exposed boobage on display was beyond excessive.  I had actually turned the wrong way, so I had to snap my head the other way to get a better look, and sadly, in an instant, they were gone (the girls, not the breasts—well the breasts, too).  I really only got a one or two second look, but for me, it was the thought that counted.  In case you’ve forgotten, it was Prudence who, upon seeing me the first time after I published the recap of our first encounter, claimed that I was obsessed with bosoms (see here).

Prudence laughed when I thanked her.  She said that she would have done the same thing if she’d been with her husband instead of me; she would have unhesitantly pointed out the mega-cleavage to him, just as she did to me.  So I said to her, “I’m gonna use this phrase.  It’s kind of dated.  But Prudence, you’re a swell broad.”

Again she laughed.  “That’s what it takes?  That’s why we’re friends, because I pointed out that girl?”  I said no, that wasn’t it.  “It has nothing to do with friendship.  I chose my words carefully.  For pointing that gal out to me, you’re a swell broad.  And if you’d point out that gal to your husband, that really makes you a swell broad.”

The poker started off miserably for me.  I wasn’t taking notes at the table at this point, and the next day, I was unclear about how I lost my first buy-in.  One hand that hurt was pocket 10’s, I missed the set but had a straight draw.  That didn’t hit, but someone’s flush draw did.

The other hand, the one that actually cost me the rest of my stack, was with the dreaded pocket Kings.  Can you believe it, I couldn’t remember the details the next day with my “favorite” hand.  All I could remember was that I had them, and was good all the way with them, until a fourth spade hit on the river and some guy with an underpair and the flush draw got lucky.

I rebought and I can assure you that I remember what happened to that buy-in.  I’ll never forget it.  There were a lot of aggro players at this table.  My pal Brent came to deal and I was already down a fair amount of money from that second buy in.  Then, I managed to find a way to take advantage of how aggro the table was.   Under the gun, I was dealt pocket Aces.  I stopped myself from raising.  If ever there was a table I could—and should—trying limping with Aces, this was it.  I had never limped with Aces in a NL cash game before, this would be the first time.  Very few pots were limped, the odds of someone raising if I limped were astronomical.

So on this hand, everyone limped behind me.  Well, almost.  The last guy who could raise, did.  Phew.  I re-raised and both the original raiser and one other guy called.  The flop was King high, and no one called my flop bet.  Another hand I won with Brent was with 10-7 in the big blind.  To my amazement, no one raised and I saw the flop for free.  I flopped the open-ender.  I called the flop, the turned checked around and I hit my straight on the river.  That brought me back up over $200 by a bit.

As I said, there were a bunch of aggros at the table, but none more than this one guy from New York.  He was raising more than half the time.  Didn’t get to see most of the hands he was raising with but just on the percentage it was obvious he was often raising light. 

So on this hand, he raised.  Again.  As usual.  I looked down at pocket Jacks.  I don’t normally three-bet with that hand.  In fact, the only previous time I can remember doing it—in a cash game, anyway—was in that “Comeback Kid” post I linked earlier.  Even with all the other aggros at this table, I probably wouldn’t have repopped anybody else at the table.  But he wasn’t anyone else at the table, he was the guy raising all the friggin’ time.  Yeah.  I was gonna re-raise him.  He bet $12 and I made it $35.

That got rid of everyone else and the super Aggro guy made it $100.

Shit.

So he really had a hand there?

I thought long and hard.  I just couldn’t forget the fact this guy was super aggressive.  I could easily see him making that move with Ace-King, Ace-Queen, even a lesser pocket pair.  I could have folded and lost only $35.  But I felt there was a good chance I was good there.  At least, I managed to convince myself I was.

I thought long and hard.  I tanked probably as long as I ever have.  The guy had me covered.  He was probably pot committed, unless he was making a move or had played his AK as far as he wanted to go with it.  But I figured I might have some fold equity and if I called I was basically going to get it all in eventually anyway.  So I shoved.

He snap called—not a good thing.  He asked if I had Aces.  I said nothing but he showed me his hand.  Aces.  Yeah.  I guess the only thing he could put me on was the other two Aces.

Now I felt stupid.  I had shoved against Aces with a lousy pair of Jacks.  I was actually too embarrassed to show my hand at that point.  I at least if I had Kings I wouldn’t have been embarrassed,  because, you know, the ol' Aces vs. Kings situation. I can assure you, this was the only guy at the table against whom I would have played it that way.  Likely the only guy I’ve played with in many months that I’d do that against.

The guy had his Aces face up on the table while I looked on in horror.  I heard Brent say, “Robert, what did I do to you?”

I said nothing.  I knew I need a Prudence-style miracle with my pocket Jacks.

Brent put out the flop, which had both a King and a Queen.  The guy with Aces was scared, and looked at me.  He was sure that one of those two cards would have completed my set.  No, no.  I’m the idiot who shoved with pocket Jacks.

The rest of the board was low cards.  Finally I felt I might as well show my lousy Jacks.  I flipped them over as put all my chips in front of me.  I had just lost my second buy-in on friggin’ pocket Jacks.

I re-bought.  This was definitely going to be my last buy-in.  Honestly, if I did have to take Prudence home, I might have left then instead of re-buying.  So, thank you Prudence.

I was in a pretty bad mood for quite a while, but I wasn’t on tilt.  More numb than anything else.  One of the other players said to me, “I had a feeling he really did have it that time.”  Thanks.

After awhile I limped in with 9-8 of spades.  It was raised to $10 so I called, as there were two others in the pot.  The flop was Jack-9-7, rainbow.  No spades.  I checked, but then the guy who didn’t raise bet out $15, and the preflop raiser called.  Well, I had a piece and for the size of the pot, I thought it was worth calling with middle pair.

But I was thinking that with the Jack and the 9, and the 7, I’m not sure I wanted a 8 there.  I would much rather see a 9 on the turn.

And that’s exactly what I saw. 

I led out and was surprised when the guy who bet the flop raised.  The preflop raiser folded at this point.  Back to me.  Sorry, I couldn’t recall the amounts of the bets the next day.  I thought about re-raising but decided just to call.  I’m not sure why.  I think I was still spooked by that JJ hand I lost.

The river was a total blank, and I somehow checked.  It occurred to me that the guy had a boat or at least a 9 with a better kicker.  He put out a big bet that was about 2/3’s of my remaining stack.  I wasn’t about to fold, and  I figured there was no reason not to shove there, even though I didn’t have enough over his bet to get him to fold.  He of course called.

When he saw my trip 9’s, he looked for a second, then mucked.

Huh?

I guess he had Ace-Jack, and played it badly.  Prudence thought his hand might not have been that good.  King-Jack, maybe.

Anyway, I had more than a double up, and over $400 in front of me.  I had gotten back one of the two buy-ins I was down.  Nice recovery.

Then I won a hand with pocket Kings.  Yeah, it happens.  New player with a short stack raised to $10 first, another guy called.  I made it $40, new guy calls, the other guy folds.  Queen high flop, I bet out, he folded. 

Another hand that got me some chips was King-Queen of diamonds.  In position, I called a preflop raise, there were a number of players in.  Great flop for me, King and two diamonds.  I bet out, got a call.  Blank on the turn.  Another bet, another call.  Blank on the river.   I checked the river.  I felt I’d put enough money out there just top pair/second best kicker.   My King was good.  It was a pretty big pot for just top pair.

There were a bunch of little hands I won that I really couldn’t remember the next day.  Things like raising with AK, AQ, AJ preflop and having no one call my c-bet on the flop.  I raised with pocket pairs like 10’s and Jacks’s and didn’t get a call on the flop.  No big showdown hands.

But after a couple of hours, my stack had been building and building.  I had over $700 in front of me.  That was only a $100 profit but boy, after losing two buy-ins, it felt like a helluva lot more.

Then I could feel myself starting to get too cautious.  The last thing I wanted to do, after making that kind of a comeback, was leave a loser.  So I told Prudence I was ready to go, and she declined the option of playing on while I just hung out, which I would have been fine with.

But there was my last hand.  My last hand I was dealt pocket Queens.  Ok, ok, I couldn’t not play that.  I raised and had two callers.  One guy was a really tight player, the other was the Aggro guy who had busted me with his Aces.  The flop was low.  But the small blind, the tight player, led out with a bet, and Mr. Aggro called.  Hmm…..I had a feeling my Queens were no good there.  It may not have been the smartest move, but I folded.  I figured one of them had me beat.  Actually, I figured the tight player wouldn’t have bet there when I had raised preflop if he didn’t have a good hand.   So I folded and watched the rest of the action as I finished stacking my chips.

It was a good fold.  The tight player had flopped a set of 10’s.  Aggro guy had a weak Ace, I dunno why he called on the flop.  But he hit his Ace on the turn and it cost him a fair amount of chips.  I had only lost $8, and had the third best hand by the showdown.  And yeah, I knew I was definitely ready to end this session.

With my $700 in chips racked up, I happened to walk past Brent, who was on a break.  I said to him, “You had to give me that hand against the one guy I would have made that move against?”

He started to apologize, as he was noticing all the chips in my hand.  “It’s ok, I got it all back, and then some.”  That made him smile.  “That’s great,” he said.

Prudence and I had a nice ride back to her house, talking about my dramatic comeback.  On the books, it was only a $100 win, but it felt more like a $700 win to me.