It was my second time playing 2/5 poker (I generally play 1/2 NLHE but was feeling cray cray.) I'd been playing at this table for about 5 hours or so. I was pretty much beating the shit out of everyone I was playing against, so I was pretty happy with how things were going for me. I was raising and squeezing a lot. It was funny because some of the players were talking about the ridiculous amount of raising I was doing...but nobody had any kind of solution. It's pretty funny when players are openly talking about your play at the table but are just completely baffled/annoyed by what's happening. I had a loose aggressive image with anybody who was paying any kind of attention to how I was playing. Anyways, the following hand came up:
I was in the Big Blind and it got folded around to the CO (he has about ~1k), who had a rock image. He played pretty straight forward, and generally only showed down strong hands. He limped in and the button raised it to $30. The button played A LOT of hands. He was running super hot and had about $2k in front of him, so this raise could be a pretty wide range of hands. It got folded to me and I decided to call with Td8d. The button played pretty aggressively in position, regardless of whether or not he had a hand, so I knew if the flop hit me that I would be getting paid regardless of if the BU made a hand or not. The CO called the raise as well.
Pot is ~$90 Kd 6d 3c.
I check, the CO bets ~$50, the BU folds and I decide to call. The CO range is generally going to be betting middle pocket pair, Kings,flush draws (unlikely because I have two diamonds in my hand) and sets.
Pot is ~$190 the turn is the 8 of h, making the board Kd 6d 3c 8h.
I've now turned a pair. The pair itself isn't that significant because I'm probably now only ahead of 77, and some kind of 6 he may have bet, although I feel it is unlikely he would have bet a 6 on the flop. I decided to check to the raiser. The thing about players like this is that their bet sizes are often very telling with regards to the strength of their hand. Larger bet=stronger hand. It sounds ridiculous, but yes, they play their hands that face up.
He bets ~$80. Ok, I'm pretty confident he has a King in his hand. Because he limped preflop that generally means KT,KJ, and MAYBE KQ or K9, but almost never AK. Those hands are both suited and unsuited. I'm pretty confident that he's got some kind of middle strength king that he's trying to get some value from here. I feel like if I call the turn bet then my hand looks like exactly what it is: a flush draw. There's no point in drawing to a hand that the villain knows you're drawing to. If you hit your hand, you're not getting paid. So I wonder: "Is there any way to disguise the strength of my hand here?" This is where all hell breaks loose. I'm pretty confident that because he has a middle strength king here, I can blow him off the hand.
I raise to ~$220. I really want him to fold here, but if he doesn't I have a ton of outs. My outs should be 8s,Ts and all diamonds. I don't think he'd ever call this raise with a set, so if he 3 bets me I'm going to fold. I'm pretty sure that if he calls and I miss the river AND the river isn't an Ace, I'm just going to check fold to a bet. He elects to call.
Pot is now ~$630. River is Th. Board now reads Kd6d3c 8h Th.
Ok, sick river for me. Of all the cards to help me, this one is probably the worst. I would have loved another 8 because he's never putting me in trip 8s, but ho hum, I'll take my 2 pair. My hand is also ridiculously disguised here. He's never putting me on 2 pair (8s and Ts) because it's just so random. I also decide that it's extremely unlikely HE has 2 pair because he's not the kind of player to limp with K6, K3 or K8. So I feel like right here I'm only losing to KT. My hand is looking pretty good! I think and decide to bet ~$350.
He thinks for about 20 seconds. As each second passes I get more and more excited. He's sort of groaning a bit, which is equally awesome! If he has a set he would have either Called already, or not be groaning because he'd be deciding how much to raise. I was trying to decide what I'd do if he raised and I wasn't really sure. Then he called! Boom goes the dynamite. I silent flipped over my two pair. He looks for a second...then says YESSS! Wait. WTF? I look at his hand. KT. The ten also gave him 2 pair...a higher 2 pair than me, and a ~$1200 pot. Oops!
I still can't decide if I liked how I played the hand. After I calmed down (just start guessing the words that insta flew out of my mouth when I saw his 2 pair) I asked him how on earth he called the turn! He said "I put you on a flush draw." Here's what I've learned about poker. A lot of times when people say "I THOUGHT you had xyz," what they are really saying is "I was HOPING you had xyz." Maybe he thought I had a flush draw, maybe he didn't.
What I loved about the hand is how I was thinking critically about my options. A lot of (super poor) players get stuck in this "can I hit my draw or not" rut. If they hit their draws, they win. If they don't hit, they don't. Probably is flushes and straights only hit about one third of the time. I feel like super standard ABC poker says I should fold on the turn, or maybe call because I have made a pair to go with my flush draw. I like thinking outside the box, but the problem is sometimes "Thinking outside the box" =super mega spew box. I haven't decided if this was genius or insanity. Only time will tell.
Now here's a video that makes me laugh =)
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