What's My Play?

[Howard Treesong]

10-20 NLH at the Commerce last night. I'm in the BB when UTG limps, two others limp, SB calls. I check holding the 4c7c, five to the flop. Pot is 100. Flop comes Tc9c7h. SB bets 70. I call. UTG raises 130 more, limpers vanish, SB calls. I call. 700 in the pot when the 4d hits the turn. SB checks, I check, UTG moves in for 950 more. SB calls instantly.

UTG is a bit of a novice but not a total fish: in this spot, he's very likely to have two pair. The SB is much less predictable but generally solid. The SB has another $4K behind the $950 he called on the turn; I have him covered by a shade.

What's my play? And should I have bet the turn card?

The same night, I related the Hellmuth prop bet to the table, where Philly-boy bet Matusow that AK off beat AKs in a heads-up race. A guy offered me a prop: he gets two black nines, I get AhKs and we run it 101 times. First one to fifty-one gets the money, but he's willing to lay me 9:5. I offered to take it for $100K, but the guy would only take it for what he had on him, which was $3600 against my $2K. I had people coming out of the woodwork for a piece of my action. I laid off $1000 to ensure that I wasn't gonna get taken off in some stranger's hotel room and we ran it. Our side lost, 51-48.

More freakishness: at the adjacent 20-40 table, a local pro laid a guy $15K to $14K on a blind race, winner take all. Unhappy, apparently, that he lost that, the local pro did it again with someone else a while later -- this time at even money for $19K. He lost that, too. Niiiice.