09-04-2002, 12:09 AM
Most of you don't know this but for years I always dressed in black and was called "The Phantom" :-) Many of my poker friends still call me by that name today.
The Semipro prefers to keep his identity confidential, so I will honor his request.
For those of you that do not know Semipro; he is an unusual guy, takes awhile to get to know him. He seems to always be the table captain and enforces the rules and sometimes that is a good thing. He is a good guy once you really get to know him.
(He bought my breakfast so I had to say that) :-)
He is a winning player but could win much more if he bluffed more often or made a few moves like coming over the top of someone that raised him. He is very predictable 95% of the time.
However, he has a few traits that I admire.
(1) He almost never gets himself in a trap by taking his hand too far.
(2) He is a good sport when he loses. He never throws cards or blames the dealer when he loses.
(3) He's quick to figure out who the tough players are and avoid them.
Earlier he was often asking me what I had on previous hands to get a line on my play. I don't like giving out free information so I told him o.k., I'll tell you this time but that is the last time in my life - so don't ever ask again!
Then this hand come up and he thinks I outplayed him and made him lay down the winner. He offered me a dollar to see my hand and I said no, but I will for $10 but he was too tight to pay. He then asked if I would please post it on 2+2 and I said o.k.
So Semipro here it is but NEVER ask me again what I had - because I won't tell you!
I'll give you guys and babes a chance to figure out what my likely hand was first....then you can scroll down below for the answer and see if you were right or wrong. Now here's the hand.
Semipro open raises 2 off button and it's folded to the SB (Mr. any two will do) He mumbles I'm tired of being raised and three bets. I look down at my hand and it would normally be playable under most conditions, but calling here was far from automatic.
I went into my Roy Cooke huddle for about half a second and called.
My thoughts were Semipro probably has AK or AQ or medium pair.
SB is subject to have ANYTHING (He had called my UTG raise (AA) with T4s and beat me with two pair earlier) Now Semipro just calls (that rules out a big pocket pair)
Flop came 9d 5h 5c and SB checks (strange, after he 3-bet preflop)
I checked and the Semipro checked (now I know he doesn't have an overpair and probably not AK. At this point I think he has AQ and God only knows what the SB has.
Turn is Ac and now the SB bets and I immediately raised. The Semipro had this disgusted look on his face and was shaking his head and called TIME! Now I knew for sure he had AQ. He knows I'm very capable of moving him off the best hand here. But he also has to worry about the unpredictable SB having 55 99 or nothing. He is in a tough spot and knows it could be raised and reraised behind him, plus he will be faced with a river bet.
(I also knew he had taken a beating the day before and had recovered with a nice win of about $2,000 today and was going to sit on those chips like a mother hen; there was no way he would put those chips in jeopardy with out a monster and I knew he didn't have a monster at this point in the hand.
He mucks and the SB calls.
River is a blank and the SB mucked before my chips landed in the pot.
Try to figure out what my hand was then scroll down for answer :-)
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AJ suited (AJd)
The Semipro prefers to keep his identity confidential, so I will honor his request.
For those of you that do not know Semipro; he is an unusual guy, takes awhile to get to know him. He seems to always be the table captain and enforces the rules and sometimes that is a good thing. He is a good guy once you really get to know him.
(He bought my breakfast so I had to say that) :-)
He is a winning player but could win much more if he bluffed more often or made a few moves like coming over the top of someone that raised him. He is very predictable 95% of the time.
However, he has a few traits that I admire.
(1) He almost never gets himself in a trap by taking his hand too far.
(2) He is a good sport when he loses. He never throws cards or blames the dealer when he loses.
(3) He's quick to figure out who the tough players are and avoid them.
Earlier he was often asking me what I had on previous hands to get a line on my play. I don't like giving out free information so I told him o.k., I'll tell you this time but that is the last time in my life - so don't ever ask again!
Then this hand come up and he thinks I outplayed him and made him lay down the winner. He offered me a dollar to see my hand and I said no, but I will for $10 but he was too tight to pay. He then asked if I would please post it on 2+2 and I said o.k.
So Semipro here it is but NEVER ask me again what I had - because I won't tell you!
I'll give you guys and babes a chance to figure out what my likely hand was first....then you can scroll down below for the answer and see if you were right or wrong. Now here's the hand.
Semipro open raises 2 off button and it's folded to the SB (Mr. any two will do) He mumbles I'm tired of being raised and three bets. I look down at my hand and it would normally be playable under most conditions, but calling here was far from automatic.
I went into my Roy Cooke huddle for about half a second and called.
My thoughts were Semipro probably has AK or AQ or medium pair.
SB is subject to have ANYTHING (He had called my UTG raise (AA) with T4s and beat me with two pair earlier) Now Semipro just calls (that rules out a big pocket pair)
Flop came 9d 5h 5c and SB checks (strange, after he 3-bet preflop)
I checked and the Semipro checked (now I know he doesn't have an overpair and probably not AK. At this point I think he has AQ and God only knows what the SB has.
Turn is Ac and now the SB bets and I immediately raised. The Semipro had this disgusted look on his face and was shaking his head and called TIME! Now I knew for sure he had AQ. He knows I'm very capable of moving him off the best hand here. But he also has to worry about the unpredictable SB having 55 99 or nothing. He is in a tough spot and knows it could be raised and reraised behind him, plus he will be faced with a river bet.
(I also knew he had taken a beating the day before and had recovered with a nice win of about $2,000 today and was going to sit on those chips like a mother hen; there was no way he would put those chips in jeopardy with out a monster and I knew he didn't have a monster at this point in the hand.
He mucks and the SB calls.
River is a blank and the SB mucked before my chips landed in the pot.
Try to figure out what my hand was then scroll down for answer :-)
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AJ suited (AJd)