"I just KNEW it"

A 10-20 hand


I've sat thru a couple orbits, not getting any starting cards, so any observant opponent would notice I'm not from A2CT when this hand comes up.


I'm in the BB. UTG limps (he is weak tight), to his left a LOL raises all-in. All fold to cutoff who 3 bets.Button and SB fold


I look down to find AKs. and here is what I decide.


The cutoff is a good player and I think is quite possibly 3 betting to isolate the LOL who will raise allin with any Ax suited or 2 connected cards. We had both seen her do it twice already this game. Then if she busted out she would make a short rebuy. But I also know these stakes are not play money for him either and I have to give him credit for a premium 3 bet hand as well as he really doesn't splash the chips around too much. Well since I'm 99% sure mr. UTG will fold and mrs. all-in is well, all-in, I call.


UTG folds and here comes the flop 3 players pot 95 and one all-in Flop 4 Q 4 no suits for me


I check and the cutoff bets. Now the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I just KNOW the cutoff has QQ. I'm all set to muck when remember my original "isolate the allin" theory and all, so I call.


Turn is a K but I'm not about to bet. check-bet-call


The river is an ACE! adding insult to injury. I briefly, very briefly, concider a bet but quickly come to my sences. check-check


What! the cut-off checks? Have I won this hand? Is it a chop? (Something I concidered when I called the flop bet)


Nope, it's not to be as the cutoff shows QQ! I say nice hand and muck, as does the all-in LOL. He is chastized for not betting the river and he sheepishly mumbles something about being worried about AA and my estimation of his skills goes down a notch as I start to ponder my own play.


I had really concidered not getting involved preflop for 2 more bets out of position and all but I put the cutoff on a THOUGHT, that quite possibly he was not thinking, or of course didn't need to think as he had a legitimate 3 betting hand.


On the flop, I just knew, he had QQ. And had flopped a monster. But how, you might ask. Heck I don't know, I just did. Once again, I concidered folding, as well as raising, but decided maybe I'd done enough thinking for this hand. All in all I don't think I played it too bad and was glad to only lose 1.5 bets after the flop.(Had he checked the flop I might have gotten so creative that I would have lost 3-4 Big bets)


OK, fine, may I bore you with one more hand?


A few orbits later, after getting no more starters, and playing no hands, I find myself in mid-position, looking at two bets, facing a UTG raiser and one coldcaller in between. I look down to find KTs.


Now, (UH-oh, I start thinking again) I just KNEW, the UTG has AA, 100% sure. How you might ask? Well, let me esplain it to you. He was a young asian yute (youth) who was taking a shot from his usual 3-6 game and was NOT playing stereotypically agressive at all. He played very timidly. Twice, I had seen him catch top two pair or better on the flop or turn and just check call all the way thru against preflop raisers. I mean he missed alot of bets he could have collected.


So, I know he has AA. Why would I call? Well, the coldcaller inbetween us is a tricky player who I believe is thinking what I'm thinking and I might be able to use his agression to my end. That right, I'm going to try and push this kid off his AA. (shame on me!)


I decide I better not raise as I think the kid will cap it and really get tied to it and since I doubt anyone else will coldcall the two bets I just call.


Well just the BB comes in, no problem and here comes the flop The pot 85 dollars 4 players


The flop K Q 9 (2 suited, but not my suit)


OK! not bad, but remember, I'm prepared to make this play with any 2 cards


UTG bets, tricky agressive inbetweener (TAI) calls, I call BB folds. So far so good.


The turn 8 (making flush possible)Yea, baby!


UTG (kid with the aces) predictably checks, and the TAI predictably bets out like I knew he would. I have absolutely no fear he has the flush.


So I go for it and raise and the pocket aces has to call 2 big bets here with a str8t and a flush possible on the board. He thinks and thinks and dangit he calls. Then, the TAI thinks and he thinks and then he calls, double dang!


OK don't panic, keep yourself together, let's see what the river brings


River an offsuit four- check-check to me and of course I bet, hoping the AA called the turn with a draw to the nut flush and would fold to the blank. But alas it was not to be he calls and wins the pot with (surprise)AA.


Of course since I had been called I had to show first and as rolled over my top pair weak kicker I said "nice call, I'm beat", as eyebrows raised and mouths started to water around the table.


I really thought I had a good chance of pulling it off or I never would have wasted 5 big bets, trust me on that as 100 dollars goes pretty far in these parts.


It was great play for the image though as an orbit later I floped an open ender and turned the nut str8t. I bet and raised all the way and was payed off bigtime bv a couple tough customers and I left the table some time later with bankroll and confidence intact and then some.

"why didn't you just raise him there to find out for sure he had a monster."


Because I knew he had QQ! :)


"I will some times bet monsters on the flop when playing with very good players in order to confuse them but a play like this is wasted on a poor player"


I guess he thought he was against a good player then, huh? :)


"As far as the play against the AA - wow what a huge mistake"


I took a calculated risk and failed, thems the breaks. :)


"This is ok against one weak player but you had 2 in there..."


I needed the agressive player inbetween to make it work (even though it didn't)and the BB folded on the flop


" really pal there is no future in calling raises with hands like KT."


I already said I was prepared to try this move with any two cards. This was the only bluff I tried to run that night (a month ago) or since, and I'm still getting paid off on my good hands.


Sheesh, what was I thinking!

"OK you KNEW he had QQ - if you knew it why did'nt you just muck slick - or did you fall in love with it and were unable to muck the no pair hand after the flop HUH???"


Have you forgotten already about the possibility of the "isolate the all-in theory" maybe working? :)

On the second hand, I would wait for better chances for tricky plays.


Your best chances of pushing aces off his hand is when there's help from a scary board. The trouble with this is the cold-caller between. While he protects your bluff, but there's a large chance he has a hand or at least a draw when the board is scary like this. If cold-caller knows UTG is likely to have a big pair, then he's not going to call preflop with any 2 cards. He should play something that has a chance of making a big hand, so that he has chances to win when UTG calls him. In other words, I would expect the cold-caller to be hard to push around when you need to.


In this case, you had the best setup you could hope for - a scary board, UTG facing 2 bets and 2 opponents, and yet UTG still couldn't fold his aces. It looks like this play was doomed from the start.

Hillbilly,


Awesome post and thoughts, truly. Most every widely praised thing in our culture was born by a non-conformist.


"I just knew he had QQ. ... But how, you might ask."


Don't worry. I won't.


Tommy

"I just knew he had QQ. ... But how, you might ask."


You are a gambler... you're supposed to know.

I don't understand. If you KNEW he had QQ, then why are you putting any more money in the pot? Cut your losses.

I really enjoyed the post, especially since it illustrates what separates average players from good players--the ability to do all that thinking and reading, yet not let anyone know you're doing it.


So much of hold em is the ability to visualize, act on the vision, but not give that vision away. In that sense, it is totally contrary to how we communicate and act in the every day world. People of vision have to communicate that vision to others, and must do so in a positve, convincing way. A hold em player with vision has to secrete that vision completely, while at the same time acting under extreme pressure and scrutiny.


I'm not sure what the point is here....maybe that you have to be a bit off-center to be effective at this game. I just saw a lot of myself in that post...making an accurate read and then doing everything you can to take advantage of it, and still losing because, like dancing, it takes two to make a move..the movant and the movee.