3 hands against a fish

[all_aces]

And the best kind of fish. Not a weak kind of passive fish who you can knock of a hand. Not a calling station either. The type of fish who loves to bluff, all the time.

25-50 5 max. I just sat down, but I know this guy's tendencies, having played with him before.

#1:
I'm on the button with A9d. Folded to me and I raise. SB folds, fish in BB calls.

Flop is QQ5. He checks, I bet, he calls.
Turn is 9 [QQ5]. He checks, I bet, he raises, I call.
River is 2 [9QQ5]. He bets, I raise, he folds.

#2:
I'm BB with K4c. Fish raises from SB, I call, it's heads-up.

Flop J46, suits of no consequence. Fish bets, I call.
Turn 8 [J46]. He bets, I call.
River 3 [8J46]. He checks, I bet, he folds.

#3:
Folded to me on the button, I raise with K9o. SB folds, fish calls in BB.

Flop is T42. He checks, I bet, he calls.
Turn is Q [T42]. He checks, I check.
River is 6 [QT42]. He bets. I think if he had an ace I would have heard about it by now. I put him on a stone cold bluff (again) and call. He shows K7o and my K9o is good.

These 3 hands happened within 1 or 2 orbits, and he left immediately after the 3rd. I don't know if the table had been letting him get away with this stuff before I arrived. I posted these hands I guess partly because I like the way I played them, but also because I think it's interesting that he would try to play this way against people who will likely know better.

Regards, and I hope he shows up at your tables too,
all_aces

ps: These hands are not indicative of my normal style of play. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[stripsqueez]

raising the river looks strange on the first one - perhaps he was capable of 3 betting with A high ?

the second one looks dodgy to me too - why not raise the flop ? - its playing with fire to not want this hand to end as soon as possible - sometimes in this posistion i simply call because i know my super aggressive opponent will likely 3 bet AKo as he would QQ - but thats very rare

stripsqueez - chickenhawk

[lefty rosen]

By the way do you play at the pokerroom? Because the play their is awful shorthanded even at 25/50. It plays like low limit short.

[all_aces]

Hey stripsqueeze,

I figured this would all seem a little peculiar. I guess my point is that you have to know this player to play in this fashion against him. Trust me, ace high never looked so good.

1st hand: I was going to just call the river bet, but I decided right there and then that he didn't have anything better than ace high. I guess I was right. If he had ace high, he would have called and I would get an extra bet out of it. If he 3 bet the riv I would have called him down. (Dude is a maniac, let me emphasize that his bets mean absolutely nothing to me.) So sometimes I pay him off in these spots when his Q2o actually makes a hand, but I am way way up vs. him by playing this way against him.

2nd hand, if I raise the flop he may fold. He is capable of doing that. But if nobody raises the board, he just keeps betting. More often than not he has no pair in these spots, not even ace high. So calling him down, while risky, gets me the most money. There is a greater chance that he will have nothing than make something in these spots, so I play the percentages.

He may be one of those players you have to see to believe. But he exists, and this is the way to win against him in the long run.

Regards,
all_aces

[doggin]

Those hands are interesting. I wish I had your talent.
It blows me away the fact there is players at that level
playing those hands. I wish I could play shorthanded half
as good as you do.
Thanks for posting.

[all_aces]

Thanks for the kind words doggin, and you're right, he didn't last long. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've seen him since.

Against players like this, the worst play in many cases is to fold. Cold-calling and/or raising tends to get you the chips. As I mentioned in an earlier post, occasionally he may make some strange hand out of his holding, and you will have to pay him off. But this happens much less frequently than the number of times he just keeps betting with a missed draw, ace high, or nothing.

And of course against a typical or strong player the best play is usually to fold these hands (A9s, K9o and K4s) against any resistance, and depending on the table it may be best not to play them at all.

Unless there's a maniac you think you can isolate.

Regards,
all_aces

[Inthacup]

Was his name Eugeneel?


hand 1: Seems pretty standard against this kind of opponent. I like the way you played it, but I would also think about 3-betting the turn.

hands 2 & 3 are hands that can only be seen "in the zone". I can't really critique on hands like this. You just have to be there. I know what it's like though, sometimes at the table, calling with K-high is clearly the right thing to do.

In hand 3, can you explain why you checked the turn? I find it much easier to bet out here(especially with the extra 4 outs) and check behind on the river if unimproved. Were you worried about him check-raising the turn to put a move on you?


Interesting hands. Thanks for posting.


Cup

[all_aces]

Hey Inthacup,

I didn't bet the turn on hand #3 because, as you suggested, I wouldn't be able to justify calling a checkraise and a river bet with K high, even against a maniac.

The check on the turn also encourages him to bluff at the river with many hands that are worse than mine, which he did, and it was. If I don't catch on the river, I call him down, and if I do catch I get to raise him.

And no, his name was not eugeneel lol. Eugeneel seems to attract a lot of attention here on the twoplustwo forums, but I'm not sure why. I know he used to play at pokerroom, but he doesn't much anymore, and when he was there I wasn't playing at his limits.

As for the identity of our superstar in this thread, I can't remember, but I know I'd know the name immediately if I saw it, and of course I wouldn't post it here for a few reasons... /images/graemlins/wink.gif

Regards and gl,
all_aces