05-02-2002, 01:35 AM
$15-30 at the Horseshoe. I open-raise UTG. One blind calls. Headsup. The flop comes A-Q-x twotone. He checks, I bet, he check-raises, I reraise, he makes it four bets, and I believe. Turn comes a blank. He bets, I flash my AK-suited to the Babe on my left, and muck.
A few hands later I'm on the button. A middle player open-raises. I make it three bets. The small blind makes it four-bets (not the cap). The raiser calls and I call and we three take a flop. The flop comes J-x-x, all hearts. The small blind bets out.
Small blind profile: Young, trying to look cool with stiff wrists and pee in his sock. The way he raised preflop, and the way he bet the all-heart flop, I'da laid two-to-one that he had exactly AA with the ace of hearts. Only trouble there is, I had the ace of hearts. That left KK with a heart as his very much most likely hand.
My other card was a black jack. So I've got top pair with the nut flush draw. The SB bet the flop, the other player called. Your turn.
Typically I raise here IF I'm still unsure about the SB's hand. I'd rather get reraised on the flop, even if it blows out the third player, if the info will let me fold for one bet on the river. But I didn't need any more info, so I just called. I told Jim Brier about this hand and he reminded me that with 14 outs twice, I'm immune to error on the flop, or something like that. I mentioned that perhaps the deception value of NOT raising with the nut draw has merit. He said yes, but raising is still his play.
The turn came a blank. SB bet, middle player called, I called.
River, blank. SB bet. I had already made all my decisions on the flop. I was going to fold the river for one bet from the SB no matter what, and show my hand to the Babe, so that the flop decision could be discussed as a reality and not a fantasy-poker hypotheticality. So happens that the middle player called before I folded so we got to see the SB hand. He had KK with the heart king (and did he just take a napkin below the table?)
Tommy
A few hands later I'm on the button. A middle player open-raises. I make it three bets. The small blind makes it four-bets (not the cap). The raiser calls and I call and we three take a flop. The flop comes J-x-x, all hearts. The small blind bets out.
Small blind profile: Young, trying to look cool with stiff wrists and pee in his sock. The way he raised preflop, and the way he bet the all-heart flop, I'da laid two-to-one that he had exactly AA with the ace of hearts. Only trouble there is, I had the ace of hearts. That left KK with a heart as his very much most likely hand.
My other card was a black jack. So I've got top pair with the nut flush draw. The SB bet the flop, the other player called. Your turn.
Typically I raise here IF I'm still unsure about the SB's hand. I'd rather get reraised on the flop, even if it blows out the third player, if the info will let me fold for one bet on the river. But I didn't need any more info, so I just called. I told Jim Brier about this hand and he reminded me that with 14 outs twice, I'm immune to error on the flop, or something like that. I mentioned that perhaps the deception value of NOT raising with the nut draw has merit. He said yes, but raising is still his play.
The turn came a blank. SB bet, middle player called, I called.
River, blank. SB bet. I had already made all my decisions on the flop. I was going to fold the river for one bet from the SB no matter what, and show my hand to the Babe, so that the flop decision could be discussed as a reality and not a fantasy-poker hypotheticality. So happens that the middle player called before I folded so we got to see the SB hand. He had KK with the heart king (and did he just take a napkin below the table?)
Tommy