Steve’s Terrible Table

We all have moments in poker where we look back and say, “Man it was so obvious he had a big hand there, why couldn’t I just let it go?” Early on in our careers we usually don’t suffer from this too much. We rationalize getting our stack all in on a 4-bet flop with TP2K and losing to a set as a “cooler” or “standard” etc. Somewhere along the lines we are taught that we need to look over our plays and try to objectively determine if we played correctly or not. It’s hard sometimes to think we played a hand right when we lost sometimes, or wrong when we won. It is a skill just as important as learning to read your opponents at the table or calculate odds quickly in your head. I had a spot play at Foxwoods recently where I’m not sureexactly if I played the hand right or wrong so I’ll leave it up to you to decide.

I was sitting in a 1/2NL game a few weeks ago and was having a shitty time. I was just bleeding cash. I was not playing well initially, bluffing at bad times, overvaluing the good hands I got, playing draws with terrible odds and no real implieds, just playing with a lot of leaks in my game. I found myself stuck $400 in the game with $200 left infront of me when I started to turn things around a bit. I made a few more timely bluffs (small ones), stopped chasing, and made some laydowns that I wasn’t making earlier in the session (folded JJ in a 4 handed pot on a 4×6h8h board to a bet and raise for example). After some eb and flow to the game I found myself with $220ish behind when I shipped a huge pot with AA 3 handed to balloon up to $570. Nearly breaking even for the session I was pretty pumped and then the following hand took place.

I raised from MP with 77 to $15 with one limper in the pot. One caller before the button raised to $35, the SB called and then it folded back to me. The raiser is one of the guys I just busted up with the AA hand 10 minutes earlier but he doesn’t really seem prone to steaming. I figure he has a big hand here and if I spike the 7 I could ship a big pot here (he reloaded the full $300). I elect to call and the other villain cold calls behind so we have 4 players to the flop.

As7c2d

My immediate reaction was something along the lines of FUCK YEAH, BIG POT COMING. Checked to me and on such a dry board I decided to check behind and let my other opponents do the bidding. No one took it and we checked around to the turn.

2c

Fairly safe card for me and I decided to bet this time. After the SB checked I bet $65 and only the original raiser made the call. He looked like he had roughly $220 or so behind so I was running through my head what would be the best way to get his stack. The river came:

Ts

I figure if I just ship he likely gets away from it with a hand like AK, KK, or QQ (assuming he was stubborn enough to play those hands after the flop was checked around). I decided to bet $125 to get some value out of the hand. After about 10 seconds he shoved and I snapped him off without even blinking. I declair that I have a full boat and turn over my 7s. He looks down at me, looks at my hand, and rolls over his AA to ship the pot, costing me about $350 in the process.

Now looking back on this hand I’ve had some thoughts:

1) Even from the button, with 2 players already in for $15 his raise to $35 must mean he has a strong hand. I right away figured him for TT+, AQs+. I had no other reads leading up to this hand.

2) When the A spikes on the flop that kills the action from most of the hands he’s likely to have. Now it’s perfect if he has AK or AQ because now he’ll bet out on the flop. With 4 players in the pot he has to try and protect a hand like that. Once he checks I figure it’s hard to get too much value out of him.

3) The turn seems pretty standard, I have to bet something at this point to try and get some kind of value out of my own hand. I could check again but I have no reason to think either of my opponents will bet out. $65 was less than 1/2 the pot and I figured would get calls from most of the original raiser’s preflop range.

4) The river is pretty much a blank, unless he has TT. With him having $220 behind and about $270 in the middle I want to bet enough to get him to call off with an Ax hand. I figure $125 was just about the right number. Once he pushes I think I have a problem. Initially I didn’t think this, but looking back when he shoves he takes JJ, QQ, KK out of his range. We’re now left with TT, AA, AK, AQ. Two of which I beat two of which beat me. It was only about $100 more with now over $600 in the middle so I feel still like I have to call. When he shows the AA, I’m not really that surprised I am beaten though.

Overall I’m not sure I played the hand that well. Part of me thinks this is just a damn cooler and set over set is just destined to make people go broke. The thought has creeped into my head though that once he shoves I’m dead to rights. Even knowing that though I don’t think I can make the fold on the end ever so the question becomes do I check the river and let him bet? Again that seems like a bad plan because now I let him off the hook with AK and AQ, but I do think he might be more likely to bet out one of those hands and turn JJ-KK into a bluff here than he would be to call off with those hands.

I leave it to you to judge whether or not my line works here. The only thing I’m certain of is that the doomswitch wasn’t turned on since this was live poker. Other than that I don’t know what to think. You tell me.