One For Sucker
Probably not quite what he had in mind, but a Commerce story nonetheless.
There's an older fellow who plays the 40-80 game. He's basically a redneck. I should probably qualify "older," since I'm old myself. He's older than I. Probably in his early 60s.
Another 2+2er has seen me and him yukking it up a few times and asked me what I could possibly have in common with that "old redneck." Well I suppose not much. But he's always polite, he's very funny, he never comments negatively on anyone's play, and we get along great. I imagine if we discussed politics we'd not have much in common, but so what . . .
This guy plays a lot of hands. His style is 180 degrees opposite of mine. If we both end up winning (or losing) a rack on a given day, he'll likely have won and lost three times as much as I. He plays too many hands preflop but he's a terrific postflop player.
Anyway, in the hand in question, there are a bunch of limpers and I raise on the button with As-Js. All call. This fellow, who I'll call Clem, is, unusually, not involved in the hand.
Flop comes Ah-Th-9s and all check to me. I bet. Fold, call, fold, call, check-raise. I 3-bet. Both callers now fold and the check-raiser calls. With an audible and visible sigh.
I feel a check-raise coming on the turn. This guy is pretty wild, often with draws, so I'm not necessarily in trouble, or at least not as much as I think I would be had a tamer player given me the check-raise-is-coming tell.
Turn is a non-heart jack, so now I have top two. Check, bet, check-raise. I decide to call and probably raise a non-uh-oh river card.
River is a non-heart King. So the board is A-T-8-J-K. He bets. I look at him. Nothing. Q-J for a belly buster on the flop? Maybe Qh-Jh? There's $1240 in the pot. I nod and call. He says, "Good call," shows 9h-8h, AMHIG.
As I'm stacking, Clem catches my eye and, in the dry manner that only he can affect, and biting his lips so as not to smile/laugh, he slowly says:
"Yeah . . . good call . . . Andy."
And that's why I like the guy. I giggled all the way home.
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