Saved by Cero

[Matt Flynn]

$5-10 at the Shoe in Tunica. Cero Z's ensconsed in the 9 seat, sitting behind a lot of benjis and green clay as I take the 1 seat. Over the next hour, I play maybe three hands. He and the 6 seat, a man of maybe 52 named Ed, have been going at it almost hand for hand. They clearly have some history, at least two paragraphs if not a whole chapter. During the hour, Ed the 6th Seat bets a lot of hands hard and accumulates stacks of red and green. He is talkative and annoying. Condescending. He is running over the game. It takes me the full hour to realize that he is simply on fire, that he never bets big without the goods, and that he is weak. All the time Cero played what seemed to be far too many hands, but then I realized the steal equity just wasn't being realized. I reconsider the laydowns Cero made vs. the reads I had. Cero got game. Cero just don't got a flop.

Finally, I pick up AKs. Two limpers to me, make that $50 sir. Ed calls on the button. All else stand down. We take a flop of AT6 rainbow. I have about $930. Ed has that in red.

Check, check.

Turn is an offsuit rag.

I check. Ed looks me over, asks "Set of aces?," hesitates. Damn, that is a big hand. He bets $200. I muck.

He tables 66. Saved by Cero.

Matt

[mat]

id like to pit your brain and im currious why you never bet

[mat]

i meant PICK your brain

[theBruiser500]

Very nice. Great plays like this always inspire me to play better.

[kagame]

im sure most of us, if not all of us, could gain quite a bit by simply being more observant than we usually are, i always try to pay attention to everything but during a long session i just start to lose it at some point...

very well done sir.

[snowbank]

I'm very interested as to why you never bet. I'll be honest, I probably would have lost quite a few chips on that hand in that situation with a player I might have viewed as trying to run over the game.

[trevor]

I am also interested in why you didn't bet the flop i.e. $75 or so? If he calls and you check the turn rag to him and he again says, "set of aces?" then I agree it's a safe muck. Did you think he'll call your flop bet no matter what? With a large range of hands so you only have to face two rounds of betting instead of three? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[Matt Flynn]

i often do not bet AK on an uncoordinated A-high flop. it only pays to do so if my opponent holds AJ or AQ, whereas on a later street he may call with much less or even try to blow me off the hand. there are ancillary pot control benefits too. if my opponent is a nutcase who will call me down all the way with AT then i bet every time.

however, here i knew the flop hit Ed. he liked his hand. i was pretty sure i was behind and very sure once he started jawing and overbet the pot.

matt

[coltrane]

Matt,

obviously checking the flop serves the purpose of keeping that pot nice and small and is great in that way.....only thing against a flop check is you might let him pick off a free gutshot if he's in there with KQs or 87s....but I suppose the times that happens is outweighed by the priorities of your read, the times he has you in bad shape, the times checking makes him frisky, the times he's in there with AQ or AJ and gives you some good action on later streets.....although, I'm sure even if you bet the flop you would've gotten away from it all the same as you ended up doing if he has a set.....and, even if you bet, what's to say he won't call and still pick off a gutshot....in all cases, you're not going broke with TPTK without a great read so it's probably all the same (and keeping the pot small in one way or another is still first priority)....

nice hand....

[felson]

Yikes.