Sunday, November 02, 2008

Running Good?

Poker has taken a (slight) turn for the better lately. While predictable, penny stakes Razz on FT is a consistent money maker. It's simple really. Raise when your highest card is an 8. Reraise if you have a 7 or better. Lead out when you are ahead (almost) every time. Fold if you catch two cards that are 9 or worse. A pair is the same as x-King.

And let the money roll in.

I played a little 3/5 spread limit last night while waiting for my 8/16 LHE seat. I won three quick pots, all with huge hands. KK, AJ and 55. All connected on the flop. The 6th hand of my night was the interesting one. I have Ad-10h in the cut-off. UTG - the table captain and a regular at 3/5 - limps UTG. There was a lot of limping at this table so it wasn't unusual. It gets to me and I pop it to $20. The button calls. Back to UTG, and he limp-raises to $45. Uh oh. I call and so does the button.

We see a flop of 9c-4c-3c. I've been much better about checking the suits of my cards pre-flop, so I know I don't have a club. I see the button check his cards. UTG doesn't flinch. Everybody checks the flop.

The turn is the 10 of spades. This is a potentially bad card for me. UTG fires $50 into the $150 pot. I hate that bet for two reasons. I get little information from it and I have to act without knowing what the button is going to do. We all have about $200 behind. I elect to call. What do you put UTG on? Would you have raised here?

Button folds (whew). The river is a horrible (and potentially expensive) card - the 10 of clubs. I now have trips, but there are 4 clubs on the board.

UTG hesistates and goes, "All-In!"

What do you do?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd probably put him on a hand like black Aces or black Kings.

You don't say how tricky of a player the villain is. Would it be out of character for him to limp-reraise with a weaker hand like 77, rather than the typical big pair?

I'm not sure I like the call on the turn. My gut tells me you're behind his range, and there are only two cards left in the deck (the two non-club Ts) that you want to see. You aren't too invested in the pot, and it seems like you could get away from top pair.

His hesitation on the river I suspect is not because he doesn't have a club and is making a move, but rather sucking it up and betting his flush even though the board paired. The way you played your hand, a set is definitely in your range.

Anonymous said...

Oops. My mistake. There's only ONE non-club T left in the deck.

DrChako said...

So far, so good. I agree that since I didn't fold to the limp re-raise (which is a viable option with A-10), I could have gotten away from a turned top pair.

But why does he go all-in on the river? So far I haven't seen him be tricky, but I've seen him be aggressive. The only other info I have is that he plays pretty regularly.

-DrC

BWoP said...

I've noticed that a lot of *regulars* like the all-in move with a big hand. Perhaps it's because they see so few monsters in the course of grinding that they want to get the big double-up from them. Given the pot size here, his river shove was less than a pot-sized bet, giving you a shade more than 2-1 to call. I would be more suspicious if he shoved for, say, $900 on the river, but I think you are behind too many possible holdings of his. I agree with the view that he had a big PP with one of those cards being a club. Especially given the limp re-raise.

DrChako said...

In the end, it was the $50 bet that clinched my decision. It didn't make sense. I think if he has AA with the Ace of clubs, he's got top pair with the nut flush draw and he goes hard on the turn.

I announced, "You've got two red Jacks," and I called. When I flipped over my A-10, his eyes got wide and he berated me, "How do you make that call?!" He mucked face down, but later told me he had two red Aces.

If I had put him on Jacks on the turn, I would have folded right there. Since I couldn't put him on a hand, it cost him. Perhaps I got lucky. If so, it's about time.

-DrC

BWoP said...

Wow. Nice call.