It Never Hurts to Bet!

Very loose, somewhat aggressive $3-6 HE game last night. Player two to my right is burning off chips like there's no tomorrow, seeing every flop, and raising often with a variety of junk. Player on my immediate right seems to be trying to play solidly, and has ammassed a nice wall of chips. I've been in the game about a half hour, and am up a few bucks.


On the button with Td9d. Several limpers to my RHO, who raises. The chip burner had just limped in for a change. I can see this is going to be contested multi-way, and I don't mind my hand that much, even with a big field. I call.


Both blinds call, and 8 of us take the flop of Tc-8c-7d. All the sheep check to the pre-flop raiser on my right, who bets out. Your play.


I raised. One, I MAY have the best hand at this point, at the very worst I have top pair with an open-ender, and I want to get someone with say, a Jack or a 6 in his hand out if another 9 should hit the deck on the turn. Wishful thinking, maybe but for better or for worse, I raised. Flame away if you so choose.


Blinds both fold, UTG player cold calls. Everyone else folds to the raiser, who smoothcalls.


Turn card is the lovely 6h. UTG checks, and now RHO bets again! Well, at this point, I have put UTG perhaps on some sort of club draw, and as my hand it not getting any better, and in that I can't put RHO on J9, I raise to protect my hand. I doubt anyone would quibble with that choice.


UTG coldcalls again, and now RHO 3-bets. Hmmmmmm, now I adjust the thinking cap. Ac9c?? Pocket 9's? Maybe something like Kc9c?? Well, folding is out of the question, but I have no further outs, so I just call, as does UTG.


River is an ugly 3c. Yuck, I'm thinking, UTG got there. But he checks! Check on my right, too! I now re-re-adjust the thoughts, and right in tempo, I bet out again. I don't think anyone at this point has clubs. MAYBE UTG is a weak player who limped in up front with baby soooooted's and now he's afraid one of US has bigger clubs or something, but if he's picked up 2-pair on the turn, or even a set of 6's , perhaps, I want to get paid off! I'm not exactly sure what the raiser has at this point, but I think I have the best hand, therefore I bet. They both call.


I am off to my Thursday night curling game (Canadians will understand) and will post the results below. Feel free to comment on my play and thoughts on all streets to this point.

WHOA!!!! Major correction here, my apologies!


The UTG player called my river bet, and the pre-flop raiser folded, face up into the muck, pocket 9's!!! I thought for a second he HAD called, but he said out loud that he was positive one of us had clubs, and he mucked!


I turned over my hand, and the UTG player table 92o!!! I said the game was loose!


Now , I know that no one in their right minds would or should fold pocket 9's at this point with a huge pot and they would close the action. The point I was trying to make here, I guess, is that my river bet at least gave him the chance to go wrong. Sure, I got fantastically lucky to split this pot up two ways instead of three, but was my river bet worthwhile, or just a fluke of nature?

My feeling is that anyone who would play 92o UTG doesn't understand the concept of checkraise. Weak is weak, so can count him out. With that in mind, I highly doubt you can put the guy to your right on the flush. As you probably then have the best hand, betting is good.

Yes, you got lucky. I still like your bet.

1) Don't quite understand the point of mentioning the chip burner, as you seem to say he limps in and then folds on the flop.


2) Preflop call seems fine. I don't understand the comment "I don't mind my hand that much, even with a big field", which implies to me you'd prefer it if there wasn't a big field. A big field is the required condition for me to play this hand.


2) Flop raise more than acceptable (almost mandatory, I'd say). In terms of the hand, its a good play. In terms of getting the YH sheep to start playing multi-bet poker, its crucial. If you aren't the best right now, you have every chance to be the best soon enough. Another critical point is that when drawing to 1-card straight is the higher likelihood of splitting the pot. So make the pot LARGE.


3) When I see the 3-bet on the turn, I think: he has a 9. These players don't follow the concept of the freeroll. I cap the turn for sure. As long as someone else is in the hand, I want to punish him for his draw.


4) River bet...not sure. I kind of like to bet here, but if I get checkraised, I'm going to be upset with myself for doing so. What I'm really hoping for is that me and RHO have a 9, and RHO decides I was on clubs and mucks, while UTG calls with his two pair or set or whatever, and I win the whole pot. But its hard to believe that UTG doesn't have clubs.

My comments to your comments, Dave.


1) Comment about the chip burner was to help provide some level of description about the game and its' texture. I had also seen this guy limp re-raise a couple times while saying, "let's build a pot!", which leads to.......


2) Certainly you want a big field for a speculative hand such a T9 sooooooted. But I would much rather play this puppy for one bet only, and not get caught coldcalling the raise, and then have Burner light me up for a 3-bet and face the return cap. Variance, my boy, variance.


2)** You miss a number here? I agree with you on the flop raise.


3) Yes, it appears that UTG might be on a draw here, but as much as I would like to "punish the limpers", I have to give some measure of respect to RHO's 3-bet. If he does indeed have the dreaded Ac9c type of hand, he's freerolling me, and I am not going to build the pot any further at this point. Show me that river!


4) When I don't cap the turn, RHO should be able to infer from his hand that I don't have a str8 made with a club re-draw, nor should I have a pure club draw for all this action. Why would I reduce my price by jacking up the action at this point with something like AcQc, with only two opponents? Of course, me thinking that he's thinking what I'm thinking is mostly a waste of time with this crew, but still. IMO, he HAS to call the $6 on the river, but I'm glad he didn't. He was capable of giving SOME thought to the hand, but lucky for me his reasoning was faulty.

What about the curling results?

We cracked a 4-end'er on them in the first, and then their skip had to draw the 4-foot in the 2nd looking at FIVE! He made it , but we drilled 'em 9-4


Sort of like A8 going heads up with AA. They might win once in a blue moon, but not very often! LOL