Drawing Thin

Last night I played a cash hand rather poorly. I raised 6♠9♦ in early position to £4, and was re-raised by Devski from the Big Blind. I called in position.

Flop missed me totally: Q, Q, 3

I think Dev led out and I floated by flat calling (not entirely sure what was going through my head at this point, as Dev is a bit of a rock).

Turn brings another 3.

Check, Check.

4 on the river, Dev leads out, I lose my mind and move all in and Dev calls with flopped quad Queens. Well played Jimbo.

The holdem cash ended with me down £650, before I won back nearly £350 playing the lottery of three handed Omaha with Hass and the Baron.

The tournament showed marginal improvement, but I still busted in 5th, two spots out of the money. There were some semi interesting tournament hands:

Hand1
I’m down to about 4k from a 5k starting stack after a few ambitious raises. I now raise to 150 in the cutoff with Q♥J♦ and get called by the button and the big blind.

Flop arrives Q♦ J♠ 4♦

I bet 400 and the big blind calls.

Turn is another diamond. Big blind checks, so I bet 800 and now am check raised to 2200. It is going to be my whole stack to continue with the hand, so I give him credit for the flush and pass. I made a mistake here - I should have checked back the turn and called his river bet (I had the Jack of diamonds as well).

Hand2
Hairdresser limps UTG for 200 and I make it 1000 in middle position with QJ. Hairdresser is the only caller, and he checks the low flop. I shove my last 2400 and he passes KT.

Hand3
We are now 5 handed and there is a limper UTG for 400. I shove for 4k with AK and get a call from AQ and I hold, to take 9k to the final table.

Hand4

My stack has dwindled at the final table after making a couple of raises with trash, and folding once to a shove, and once to Deven’s stop and go in the big blind. I now find 3♠6♦ in mid position and raise to 2200 (blind 400-800). David calls, in the next seat along.

Flop K, Q, T

Check, Check

Turn is a blank, so I figure David either has a monster, or he has something like an underpair so I shove all in for 5k and David thankfully passes.

Hand5
Aggro hand. I don’t realise the blinds have gone up to 600-1200, so do my standard raise to 2200, and it has to go as a min raise UTG with 4♠5♠. Uncle Paulie calls his last 800 and the Big Blind has a big think and then calls, so from this I assume he has a marginal hand and is just calling because I messed up the original raise.

Main pot is 3000, Side pot is 3000.

Flop misses me totally, and BB checks so I bang it all in and he passes. When I show my hand (thus winning the side pot) he gets very upset, claiming I should have checked it down to eliminate Uncle Paulie. I don’t understand this point of view at all - we are still three from the bubble, and there is sizeable side pot to be won. I am playing to win - if he is trying to sneak into the money three out from the bubble, then that is a strategy that is not going to get him far in the long run.

Hand6
Guy from hand above shoves on the button for 4k. I call from SB with A8 which should be ahead of his range. Unfortunately he has AJ and it holds. Down to 5k.

Hand7
I shove on the button with 8♥3♦ and get called by AK in the big blind. I hit a 3 to double up to 10k.

Hand8
UTG shoves for 9.5k and I find AJ in the BB and make the call. He has A2 and hits a deuce on the river to effectively end my tournament.

I often struggle for motivation to play on a Saturday, but this weekend I am aiming to finally make an appearance at the International £100 event which is very well structured.

Hopefully I will make it down there, as I need to get a lot more tournament practice, and I definitely showed signs of improvement last night.

1 COMMENTS:

Devski said…
Jimbo,
I thought I’d post my recollection of the Quads as it’s slightly different I’m on the button and after a limp and a smaller than usual raise to £3 from Tom, I take a peek at one card: Qc - definitely good enough for a call, will worry about the other card later
You call in the BB and the limper calls. £12 pot
Pre-flop I look down at my other card, see Qs. Aaargh! I have Q’s and there are 4 players in the hand cheap. Marvellous. Oh well, at least my hand is disguised…. As it happens, door card is Qh…very nice too…
Dave also deals out 3d and Qd to complete the flop
Nice, but am actually a bit irritated by the quads. How the f*ck do I make anything here? Come on Baron, do something daft…!
It’s checked around…of course I’m not betting this time around and check too. Am hoping somebody has a couple of diamonds and it comes (or vice versa if nobody has one then it doesn’t come)
Turn card 3h so board is now Qd 3d Qh 3 h.
Really hope somebody has a 3, surely no-one else will bother trying too hard although with 2 flush draws you never know
Sure enough it’s checked around to me.
I have to bet now… I announce that if no-one wants it, I’m going to claim it and stick in £7
You’re not having any of it and rather pleasingly raise it up to £30…not a completely wasted hand then…
I have a little think:

• if you have a 3 then there’s a chance you’re not getting away from it. It’s not that likely though
• if you’re full of sh*t there’s no point over-raising. A call is maybe a bit too obvious too and I want to give you the opportunity to bang it if you think I’m mucking around (which of course I never am - after all I am a bit of a rock ;-). Unfortunately we aren’t that deep so I compromise by slightly more than min-raising to £70 total…I guess that’s what I’d also sometimes do if I wanted to make a move but was being cautious on a ridiculous board
  I try and act as strong as possible for a bit of reverse psychology - don’t think I’m fooling anyone tbh. Anyway, you Hollywood for a bit and push your chips all-in slowly for £200 total, thus producing one of the easier calls in my life…

General merriment ensues. ;-)