Thursday, April 12, 2007

A day in the Garden

I went over to Hawaiian Gardens today and while the games weren't that good overall I managed to lose a buyin. I was playing in some marginal situations and making what I thought were good calls and raises but a few of them i got into trouble. One hand I was in the BB with Qd 3c and there was 1 limper and the SB. We saw the $30 flop of Qc 8s 2c. SB checked, I bet $20, the limper called and the SB raised to $80. Now the SB was not a bad player. I really had a feeling that he would not be doing this with a Q bigger kicker or even in fact with two pair. Why check raise in such a small pot with a club draw out there when you can easily assume that no one has any interest in this pot. I didn't put him on a steal by any means but I felt like he had a good hand but it was still behind mine. Simply stated, I didn't think it was a kicker problem. If he had just a Q he would most likely check the turn after I called his $80. In fact, I put him on a combo hand like 8cXc. I didn't think he would fold this type of hand as he only had about $300 to start the hand so I wouldn't want to give him the chance to see both the turn and the river here and instead let him see the turn and miss and give him a chance to fold. So I called the $80 and the limper folded. The turn brough the 7s. He took time and took a long time to bet out $130. He had only $100 behind so I had no fold equity by raising him. I stuck with my read and called him with the intention of calling the last $100 on any river card outside of a club or 8. The river brough the 6s and he put the $100 in and I called. He turned over the 7c8c for 2 pair. So again, my flop read and general read overall was right. If he were not in the blind I could conceivably put him on 6c8c or 7c8c and possibly fold but in the SB he very well could have had Kc8c, 8c4c, or any other combination of 8cXc based on my read.

The second hand also came against the same player. I limped UTG with Ad8d. About three others limped and the SB called and then our villain in the BB makes it $65. I was feeling loosy goosy and i felt like i could easily outplay him because i was sure he had a pair 10s-Qs. Yes it was a bit loose but there was about $40 dead in the pot so I was almost getting 2:1 and I was comfortable against that player. The flop came Ks Jh 3h. He checked kind of meakly. I could have tried to win it right there and represented AK which would have been consistent with limpcalling a nice raise UTG but i thought that he very well may have hit a set of Jacks or was scaried with QQ or 1010 so I would get a few chances to hit my A or i could represent a heart flush. So I checked. The turn brought the 8h. A great card for me as I could represent the heart flush and have outs if called. He bet out a meak $80 or so and I just could feel his two red Queens trying to get through the hand cheaply. So I raised him to $200. He very reluctantly called and was not too please with it either. At this moment, I was 100% sure he had either QhQx or 10h10x and if it didnt come a Q,10 or heart I was moving in for my last $420 on the river. The river brough the horrific Ah. He bets out $100 into the $560 pot. I know my two pair is no good and he has the 2nd nuts. Would he really believe me if i pushed and fold the Qh. i asked him if he beats two pair and he said yes and showed me the Qh before I even folded. I folded and he showed the QdQh and surprisingly said "If you go all in on the river I would have had to fold." I was taken aback a bit by the this but again I credited myself with making a good read and taking the initative on it. But he got bailed out from having to call a huge bet on a flushed over card board by the river Heart.

2 comments:

rick said...

Just thought I'd test out this commenting thing. I like the website -- keep it goin'! By the way, regarding today's post, I hope you're not gonna become one of those guys who's always going "I *knew* you had [blank]."

Danyul said...

I like to think I already am. I once told a guy about 2 weeks ago in response to his surprise that i called his flop bet with second pair that "I saw into your soul".

That got an ooh and an aah from the table.