Getting whipped... playing weak?

[Guy McSucker]

So I'm tearing up a $3/6 5-max table on pokerroom, when this dude sits down who wants to bet and raise at every opportunity. I keep getting dealt shiznit, so I keep folding. Then I catch KK, get a load of bets in preflop, see a flop of K99, pump it to the max with Mr Raisy, only to be shown four nines. Couple hands later, I get AK, again have a bit of a betting war with my little friend, flop the nut straight. A backdoor flush possibility comes in, amid much raising, and the other dude has AK of the flush suit to freeroll the crap out of me. A few hands later, this one comes up:

"Hero" (me) is in the BB with Ks7c. Three limp, SB (nemesis) completes, I check.

Flop: As7s5s giving me a pair and the nut flush draw. Good!

Now. The first limper is pretty tight and the chances of him holding an ace are high. So when nemesis bets out, I just call rather than going to war with the pair-and-flush-draw, since I think the first limper is hanging around for sure.

Limper calls, others fold.

Turn: Js, giving me the nut flush. Good!

SB checks, I bet, limper raises (good!), SB calls, I three-bet, they both call. All is well so far.

River: 9s. Quick scan of the board: no, I no longer have the nuts. Oh well.

Nemesis checks. I bet. Limper calls. Nemesis check-raises.

I just call.

Am I weak?

Guy.

[naphand]

When you flop your draw and paired hand, you should be getting as many bets in as you can, esp. if limper is definitely hanging around. You have a great hand.

On the River I think I would raise again, although it is understandable you are gun-shy. The problem is, with the A and J of suit on the board, and you have the K, you can only expect someone to raise a flush with the Q, unless limper is a bit deranged and raises the Ts, I put him on the Qs. He must have this, with the board 4-suited. If your read of SB is that he is drunk or lobotomised, his bet then check/cold-call means he has to have some flush hand that has a chance. The bet-the-flop and call-2-cold on the Turn, smacks of something worthwhile to play for, but cannot be a slow play, as you have the nuts and have told everyone on the Turn. This makes the CR all the more scary. It would be nice to say "going for overcalls" with less than the nuts is good, but I think limper is staying in with his Q regardless of whether you raise and it gets capped.

Given that I probably do not think all this out at the time, I go ahead and cap it, if SB wants to hang around for a 2-outer on a 4-suited board amid raising and re-raising, with just the 8 /images/graemlins/spade.gif (plus the 6) then you should encourage him to do so in future as well. With so many spades out, he must know the flush 8 is no good and he is drawing to a miracle 22:1 shot (4/images/graemlins/spade.gif or 9 /images/graemlins/spade.gif). People will do this, just because it is nice to have made a straight flush, but it can only be -EV with this action. The pot is not 44BB on the Turn coming back to him for 2 BB, although there are reasonable implied odds, not enough IMO.

[Scotch78]

If someone has Ts8s or 8s6s, so be it. I'm raising this river every time.

Scott

[naphand]

Ah yes, T8s is possible as well although in that case it is far more likely (given the action) that the K and Q are out and it is just a 1-outer.

[stripsqueez]

i'll assume nemesis is a sane player - would a sane player play the Qs this way ? - i guess its possible - ie he decided to sit back and let you and the crazy guy go berserk on the turn but then decided it was just too much value getting 2/1 with a very good hand not to raise the river - hmmm - not the greatest plan but i'm guessing its possible (sorry if its not nemesis)

yep nemesis is plainly a chook so i 3 bet

on the other hand the 1 table tourney forum think i'm soooo very weak tight that i must be running bad so i guess i just call too

stripsqueez - chickenhawk

[James282]

Oh man if you are asking this then you must really be running bad and you should take a break /images/graemlins/frown.gif

A call is just like terrible against a lag here /images/graemlins/frown.gif
-James

[Guy McSucker]

Thanks everyone.

Deep down I knew I had to reraise the check-raise there.

Deeper still, I knew he had the straight flush 8s6s, which he did.

Result-confirmed paranoia can ruin my game from time to time, so I posted the hand to get myself kicked back into shape. Flop and river gunshyness here was unforgiveable.

Thanks!

Guy.

[etizzle]

if you actually analyze the hand, anyone with a brain in their head MUST have the 68s to raise this river (or he has a total bluff). I mean, what do they put you on when you 3 bet the turn. Just go for the overcall. You say this guy is 'Mr. Raisy', but the 2 other times you actually got raised by him he had the stone cold nuts. Maybe he is just running hot, and not quite the lunatic that you say he is.

But despite all that, this is online poker, and I probably would've 3 bet.