MasonMalmuth@TwoPlusTwo.com

Here's a hand I played this evening in a $20-$40 game at The Mirage.


I was dealt 9h9s under the gun. An Ad had been accidentaly exposed and was now out of play. I raised. Everyone passed to the player on the button who called, and both blinds folded.


The flop was Qc 8d 3d. I bet and my opponent called.


The turn was the 6s. I bet and my opponent called.


The river was the Qd (which paired the top card on baord and put a third diamond out). I checked, my opponent bet, and I called. He turned over AhKd and my pair bet his ace high.


All comments are welcome.

The above post was actually written by Ray Zee, but let's not make fun of him for being so stupid as not being able to get the subject and my email address on the right lines. However, the hand should prove interesting to discuss.

I have a hard time believing this, since Ray never uses capital letters. Why would Ray use Mason's e-mail address?

I don't much care for the way button played this hand. The only way his play makes much sense is if he thinks Ray will think he was slowplaying a decent hand, and he further thinks Ray will lay down a pocket pair based on this read. However, the exposed Ad combined with the Qd on board make his holding a flush unlikely, while the second Q on the river makes him less likely to have a Q -- both factors which should make Ray more, rather than less, likely to call with a pocket pair.


Preflop, button should know the exposed ace has slightly increased the chance Ray is raising with a pair, while also decreasing the chances of his AK to beat a pocket pair by the river (from about 49% to 43%). However, button can overcome this disadvantage somewhat by reraising preflop anyway, since now Ray will also take into account that he is less likely to be reraising with AK. Thus Ray might misread the reraise for a big pair just a little more often, allowing button to use his position more effectively after the flop.


As it is, button misses almost every opportunity to make Ray fold by misreading him for a bigger hand. When he finally does make a move on the river, the exposed Ad and extra Q on board devalue his bluff greatly, since he can't hold any reasonable flush after cold calling two bets preflop without the Ad or Qd, and is now less likely to be read for a queen. Ray might have thought the button was slowplaying a decent hand, but these possibilities have diminished greatly by the river.


As for Ray's play, he can't be too afraid of a bigger pair with no reraise preflop. The Q on the flop is a little disturbing -- with an ace gone it seems marginally more likely the button might hold a Q. However, once the button fails to make a move by the turn, Ray seems to be in the clear. On the river, inducing a bluff is all the better since button could have been slowplaying something, is unlikely to have made a flush with the Ad and Qd out, and is also now less likely to be holding a Q with two of them on the board.

Your play seems pretty straightforward and clearly correct to me.

I don't have a hard time believing that Ray wrote the post, beacuse, well, I believe everyone. :-)


I suspect that Ray discovered the "shift key" (and the "enter" key for paragraphing) out of respect to Mason's email address.


Tommy

You and Ray played it well and the guy on the button played it poorly, but it would have been less poor (but still not well played) if he checked behind you as you were not about to fold with anything he couldn't beat or call with anything he could.


He also has a clue that you don't have an ace in your hand which I think went over his head.

Button obviously erred in betting the river. For the same reason, your river no-bet and subsequent call was correct.


The only interesting thing I see about this hand is a hypothetical: what if you were raised on the turn? I believe that given the proclivity of Malmuthians to bet out middle pairs until facing heat (then folding), raising on the turn against them seems like a good play in situations such as this. How would you have reacted to a turn raise? I'm guessing you would have folded the best hand here.

When Tommy caught me saying something stupid, he made a joke about it and I owned up to it. Now the boss man puts his email address and the subject in the wrong place and blames another person, when the evidence is plain for all to see that he is a prevaricator. Shame on you, Mason.


I'll leave it for others to elaborate.

"Malmuthians," wasnt that one of the groups in Gullivers Travels?? :-)


Pat