Three hands where the main villain is Ryan Spain. Ryan's the originator of our lunch game and is a very solid player. He's generally TAGgish, with an emphasis on the AG. That said, he's still known to play a wide range of hands. He's capable of pushing draws to the felt, but also able to make big laydowns when he feels he is beat.
1. Straddle into Trips
Effective stacks of about 100. I'm UTG and elect to straddle for two chips before the cards are dealt. I look down at AJo, which is a bitching hand to get in this position. Three players call the straddle, Ryan in the SB completes, and Dave in the BB calls as well. I bump it up to 10, and everyone folds to the blinds, who call.
Flop comes AA7 rainbow. Ryan bets out 20 into the ~36ish pot. I immediately push all in over the top. Ryan tanks for a while and finally calls. I turn my hand over, the turn and river are dealt, and he mucks face down.
I have to imagine he had a weaker Ace here since that's about the only hand he'd be willing to bet out at this board with. He would have raised preflop with any premium pocket pair, and he certainly wouldn't have called my all-in with a medium pair or two unpaired cards.
I've never done the insta-all-in before, and that might have helped me get paid off here.
2. QQ UTG+1
I'm big stackin' it up after winning that last hand against Ryan, who rebought about 5 hands before this one. He's gone into aggro mode, raising a lot of pots preflop and betting most flops that he sees. He's brought his stack up to about 120 from the 100 chip rebuy, and I'm sitting pretty at somewhere near 210.
Dave made some comment about always straddling into queens, so he decides to straddle immediately to my right. I look down at QQ and say "That's too bad, I have two of your outs" and raise it to 7. Jim, a loose player to my left calls, and Ryan re-raises it to 20 from the SB.
It's very possible I'm crushed here, but I'm ahead here way more often than not, so I decide to try milking him for a little more. I make a minraise to 40, he thinks for a little while, and just
calls. Everyone else gets out of the way.
The flop comes K73. Ryan looks at the board and checks after some thought. I do the same.
The turn brings another K. I'm almost certain I have a lock on this hand now (all I'm afraid of is AK, and his range is way wider than that) and just want to get the rest of Ryan's stack. Ryan thinks for even longer than on the flop and just checks. What should I be betting here to get him to put more money in? I think about the all-in, but figure that's only going to get called by a set or trips. I looked over at his stack and he had about 70 chips left after the preflop battle. I think for a long time, and bet 30 chips, a little less than half his stack.
My thinking here is that it looks weak. I've been caught bluffing with bets like this in the past, and I've left him with just enough room to give him two possible options. One is the "fuck it, I'm all in" thinking that can happen when you're steaming and involved in a big pot. The other is "I don't think he has shit, and I have just enough to raise him off his hand." I was completely committed to calling any raise he made here. If he turned up a king then oh well.
Anyway, he tanks for a long time and eventually folds. He says "are you just pushing me around now?" I show him my queens, and he shows 99.
3. Fucked.
I'm still sitting at around 200 chips. Ryan's rebought and is somewhere around 100, a little over. Matt, my boss and a loose player raises to 3 from UTG+1. Ryan re-raises to 10 from middle position. I look down at AcKc in the cutoff and smoothcall. Action goes around to Matt who also calls the reraise.
Matt's range is pretty wide here, he's been known to raise it up with weak aces, any pocket pair, etc. But the small bet and smoothcall of a reraise has me a little worried. He's done this sort of thing with aces and kings in the past, so it's something I have to consider here.
Ryan's still steaming a little, he could be anywhere, but it's most likely some sort of decent pocket pair, from 8s on up. Also possible are AK, and AQ suited. Maaaybe AJ if he's really pissed.
The flop brings AKTc. Sweet, top two and a backdoor flush draw! The pots at about 30, and Matt leads out with 20. This does not scare me too much. Matt bets much smaller when he's got a monster, so I'm usually ahead of whatever he's doing this with. Ryan thinks for a while and just calls. This scares me a lot. Two possibilities here, either he's afraid of what I'm about to do, or he's trapping with a huge hand. I decide to just call and see what happens on the turn.
The turn's a 9c, giving me top two with a nut flush draw. Matt pushes all-in for 87 chips, Ryan yet again thinks and calls off his last 86. I'm so sure I'm fucked here but I cannot lay this down, right? I'm getting like 3 to 1 odds, and sure, someone probably has me beat but I have too many redraws to ever consider folding, so I call.
Matt turns up A9o, and Ryan shows TT for a flopped set versus my flopped two pair. Ugh.
I miss my flush and ship half my stack back to Ryan.
After all that, I end up down about 10 bucks. Brutal day.
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2 comments:
1. Do whatever gets more money in the pot when he has Ax and pocket pairs higher than jacks.
I would have thought it'd be best to go all in on the turn after he bets half the pot or more with whatever hand he has. If calling the flop shuts down your action or he calls the all-in with a similar hand range, it's probably better to move in.
2. I hate the min-raise preflop. You get a min-raise in when you're ahead and you don't get to see a flop when you're behind. It seems like you should be giving away a ton of information too (do you minraise here with KQs or AA ever?).
Your bet on the turn is the exact right amount regardless of what you have. You should be betting that amount no matter what you have in this spot.
3. You have about 13 outs. I think you probably have to discount an out since it's really likely someone is stealing some outs from you and there is the small probability of AA and KK.
I suck at this math, but off the top of my head, you're about neutral between calling and folding. I think you probably get a 3% or less equity advantage by calling (i.e. you win 28% of the time or less).
1. I like the flop push. Just calling is going to get him to shut down with a lot of Ax hands that might call this all-in. Looks like something an overly aggressive QQ might do.
2. I agree I don't like the min-raise preflop. He's got the odds to call the 20 more and got away from the hand without putting any more in after that.
3. I say easy call. You're outs with the non-zero chance they surprise you with crappy hands == $$$.
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