All Poker Addicts - Poker tips, poker players and poker news

Strange hand from Last Night

by Blake on November 2nd, 2007

Played in a 2/5 no limit game last night. Ended up at a table with a very aggressive and slightly drunk player who was trying to run over every pot, raising every hand or calling any bet and then betting the other players out or sucking out on them. He wanted to own the table and was pretty much doing so. In this situation the best idea is to usually play even tighter, to get in a situation where they hang themselves. But I took a slightly different approach on a certain hand.

I was in the big blind. Of course I’d gotten stuck in the seat to the immediate right of the loose player and so was having my big straddled every pot, and was getting raised almost every time I tried to limp. I’d seen this player calling down huge bets with second pair and trying hard to run the table. In the big blind I saw KQ. I knew this hand was great comparable to whatever the straddle probably had randomly. I decided to call the straddle and reraise the most certainly forthcoming raise from him no matter how much it was. I committed myself to this decision regardless of what happened.

Of course, the straddler raises. He makes it $20 straight, which isn’t that big of a raise. I put him on a steal, obviously, and go with my original decision to reraise. I make it $60 to go. I know doing this with him his a gamble, because he’s shown willingness to call large bets and try to hit it, but I had picked my line and was going with it. I had about another $120 behind and he has me covered.

He pretty much immediately goes all-in. I’d also expected he would do this, though now I know he’s not on a total steal. Instantly I put him on a middle pair, a hand that wants me gone. Now, though even though yes I am technically behind to a pair, with the money already in the pot I am getting more than 2-1 on my money to call if I believe I have a coin flip, which I am certain I do. If he’d have a pair that dominated me, he would have played a bit more tricky and not tried to knock me off. I feel very certain that I am a coin flip in this situation and that I’ve committed myself already. Several players would wonder why I wouldn’t fold for the rest of my chips here but with my thought now at the reraise that I’m almost 50/50 it is mathematically correct to call for the rest of it and hope to get lucky. I don’t always believe in pot odds calls when you know you are behind, but I’d committed myself here and my odds were too good to fold, especially against this erratic player who might not even have the pair I’m giving him credit for.

So I call pretty quickly. He turns over JJ, a much bigger hand than I expected, but still the coinflip that I’d accepted in my mind when I called. He’s of course way surprised that I made the play.

The flop comes A 10 5 with two spades (I have the K of spades). The turn is another spade. I can now win with any spade or any paint. I hit my K on the river and take down the pot.

The player spent a while complaining about the “suck out,” (a big coin flip suck out), but I still felt that even though I’d ended up in a less than ideal situation, I drew my line and used it.

Now, not only did I win the hand, but I bought with my money in this erratic player the want to try to bust me even harder, which ended up no more than 30 minutes later, him giving me the rest of his chips in a situation where I had him dominated. I took a gamble of this pot, but was willing to do so, and got paid not once but twice for it.

Sometimes to win you have to take a read and use it and sometimes get lucky.

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