Slow Dance

[Tommy Angelo]

AJ's NLHE. Full game. Blinds: $5-5-10. Minimum opening bet: $20. Minimum buyin: $2000. No max.

An exceptionally consistently conservative opener opened UTG for the minimum $20. I put him on AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, 88, 77, 66, 55, 44, 33, 22, AK, AQ, or maybe AJs or ATs, if he was feeling like gambling.

Ten years ago when I first started playing NL against him and the handful of others in this pool who can play like he does, I won many, many pots, but I lost and lost and lost. Nowadays it's a little different. We still dance. But we’re more in step. We keep it slow, no matter what the band is playing.

Everyone folded to me on the button. I called with AK. The small blind folded and the big blind called. Pot: $65. Stacks: everyone had $4,000.

The flop was A-9-4 rainbow. The big blind checked. UTG bet $40.

I believed his range of hands had narrowed to AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, 44, AK, AQ, or maybe AJs or ATs, if he was feeling like gambling.

I made it $80. The big blind folded. UTG made it $160.

Suddenly his range of hands got much, much narrower.

Would he make that reraise with one pair? I didn't think so. I mean, I really, really didn't think so. For him to open up the betting like that, first to act, with a board like that, after betting out, which is no small sign of commitment from him, and then getting raised, raised by ME, one of his beloved slow dance partners, well, when he raised it another $80 back to me headsup now on the flop, in that way he does it like, dude, you are so [censored], be careful now, don’t hurt yourself, it was a loud bet, really loud, and the other slow dancers who were listening, they heard it too. We love to listen to each other dance.

So according to the unspoken unwritten rules of engagement laid down by the secret-elders-of-a-gentle-race-this-world-has-seldom-seen, he was not allowed to reraise unless he could beat AK, which meant that according to the choreographer I was supposed to fold AK, so I did.

Fortunately for the story, I was the only one of us who abided by the teaching: “Show me yours and I won’t show you mine.” He flashed pocket aces and he said, “You couldn’t have pocket fours this time?” referencing an earlier pot I had won with pocket fours.

His question got me thinking. At the point when he reraised $80 on the flop, had I had bottom set, I wonder, should I, could I, would I have folded?


Tommy