No more online poker? Good thing I have a job lined up...

[34TheTruth34]

Foxwoods 20/40, folded to me in the CO, I raise with K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]T [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] and only Tommy calls in the BB.

Pretty much everyone who plays at Foxwoods knows Tommy, even if they don't play 20/40. I've seen him called "Machine Gun" Tommy here before and some people at Foxwoods have taken to calling him "Pizza" Tommy. He's a middle-aged greek man who owns his own pizza restaurant.

For those that don't know about him, he plays very, very loose before the flop and can play insanely if in tilt mode. When he manages to amass a large amount of chips, his play regualtes to that which we'd call normal. However, when stuck, he'll play any two and make any play with any hand postflop.

So, he's down to maybe $200 left and calls my PF raise.

Flop 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 3 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

He bets, I call. I can't give up on this hand yet, not given the way he can play when stuck. I decide that there's a decent chance I'm ahead of whatever he'd bet here factoring in all the draws and pure bluffs he'd bet. If I'm behind, I figure to be drawing pretty live. I felt it was a pretty easy call.

Turn 4 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

He bets again. I figure that card probably didn't help him or change much. I still think he'd bet almost any turn card here. I call again, not sure of what I'll do on any river card (except that I'll call if a ten comes and he bets). I'm going to "feel" when the river comes and see how he acts and what he does. Is it just me, or is this post kinda Tommy Angelo-ish?

River 9 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

He bets. I'm not going to get into too much detail here, but I picked up a tell that he was bluffing. I felt there was a good chance I was ahead. I pondered raise vs. call and decided that he would never fold a pair here. I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't three-bet the river as a bluff, but not totally sure. I figure that even though it would suck to get pwned by something like A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]5 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], just calling was my best option.

"King high", he says. I just stare at him.

"King high", he repeats. I continue to just stare at him.

Finally he gets the point and flips over his hand, K2o. Ship it!

As I'm stacking the chips, he says, "I got a job for you in my restaurant when you go broke. $7 an hour".

[Justin A]

Will he fold ace high to a raise?

[34TheTruth34]

[ QUOTE ]
Will he fold ace high to a raise?

[/ QUOTE ]

In the OP, I had mentioned that I wasn't sure that he would fold ace high to a raise, but edited it out b/c I felt the post was already getting too long. I think so, but I can't say for sure. Maybe a regular could say. He's not really a total nutcase, he just plays any two and is capable of making a move. This is when he's losing. When he's not, he'll still play any two suited, but won't get out of line much. Needless to say, he drags a bunch of huge pots with Q6s type hands and can rack up huge wins. He also gets very good value when he flops a middle pair type of hand, which of course he does often.

He seems a tad hard-headed whereby he might just continue to go with the bluff and 3-bet resteal, which is what I really wanted to avoid. Besides, I really didn't think he had ace high. I felt that if I called and won, I would be way ahead to some kind of eight- or ten-high straight or flush draw or something.

[thirddan]

good story...as for the hand if you have a read then go with it...if you felt your hand was good on the turn then you def need to call the river...

the only real problem is if he has an A like you said...do you think he would have 3bet preflop if he had held an A?

[34TheTruth34]

[ QUOTE ]
if you felt your hand was good on the turn then you def need to call the river...


[/ QUOTE ]

Of course it helped that I got a great river card that could not have beat me. Had something like the 6 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] come off, I might have given away a pretty big pot.

Pretty sure he wouldn't just 3-bet any ace there. Probably would AK-AJ. As the hand played out, I was almost certain he didn't have ace high.

[Justin A]

Btw I tend to raise the turn in spots like this where I feel like i might be ahead but i have king high.

[Scary_Tiger]

Why don't people just show their hands when the river action is over? I'm talking about you, not him.

[mr pink]

b/c he doesn't wanna show that he just called the guy down with king high unless he has to?

do you really want the entire table value betting any pair into you for the rest of the session b/c they think you'll call with nothing?

[34TheTruth34]

[ QUOTE ]
Why don't people just show their hands when the river action is over? I'm talking about you, not him.

[/ QUOTE ]

I figured I might get this question.

First of all, I wasn't sure I was ahead. He could still be ahead with KQ. Had he said "queen high", I would have immediately flipped my hand over. This is how I usually handle the river in situations like this. If they announce a hand I am ahead of, I show first.

If they announce their hand and there is still some confusion on my part, I just sit there and wait for them to flip it over or muck it. This has to be done IMO b/c there's so many nits in that game (he's not one of them) who bet the river and shadily announce their hand by saying things like "small pair", "good call", or "do you have an ace?" As an aside, it has to be amusing to see someone talking to me and me just sitting there like a stone-faced statue. But that's what I do when they start doing weird stuff like that.

Secondly, I really wanted to see his hand to see if he had any piece of the board at all. It's much more valuable to find out that he had K2o with no heart as opposed to wondering if he had a flush draw or straight draw or something.

Regardless of how badly I want to see an opponents hand in a spot like this, I never violate the first rule to do it. If you announce a hand worse than mine, I show immediately. I think it's wrong (though not necessarily unethical) to not do so.

[mr pink]

I see nothing wrong with asking him what his kicker is.