A hand from start to finish

Chris Daddy Cool · #1 05-08-2007, 08:09 PM

The first villain (P1) is somewhat of a nutjob. He plays bad and he is borderline insane at moments when the mood strikes him right and he saves a lot of his insanity for me. A couple days ago we played a hand where it was a 3 way capped pot before the flop. The flop was AK3. The other player checked and I bet my AQ and the villain raised and the other player got out of the way. I 3-bet. He 4-bet. I 5-bet. He 6-bet. I 7-bet. He 8-bet. I 9-bet. He 10-bets and I finally slow down and call him down. He had A4 and my hand was good. As of now, he hasn't really done anything extraordinary this session.

The second villain (P2) is an average mid-stakes holdem player who plays reasonably and probably views me as a reasonable player as well. I get the impression from his play he is probably a winner vs the right line-ups. I am not sure if he, or anybody else on the table for that matter, is truly aware of the nature of P1's erratic play. P2 most likely views him as a a bad player, but maybe not insane.

Anyways, here is the hand.

P1 open limps in LMP. P2 raises from the CO. A new player who posted in between the blinds calls. The small blind folds and I call in the BB with J [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] and P1 calls.

The flop comes out 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

Poster checks. I could certainly bet out here but I opt for the checkraise and check. P1 bets and P2 now raises. Poster folds and I opt to coldcall 2 here. P2 doesn't strike me as a player who would raise overcards but it certainly is possible and anyways I'm certainly not folding. P1 now 3-bets. At this point, narrowing his range down is probably going to be fruitless. He could have top, second, or third pair, he could have a straight draw like 87, he could have a flush draw, he could also have a set or two pair, who really knows. I am more interested in seeing what P2 does instead. He just calls and it is either because he is going to wait till the turn to pop his overpair or he has just overcards and will call. By this point the pot is something like 8.5 big bets or so.

The turn is the A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] and the way I see it is there are only two ways to play this card, which is to either bet outright or checkraise if P1 bets and P2 only calls.

I chose the first option of betting for a couple reasons. P1 might go crazy and raise P2 off a better hand than mine. I doubt P2 would ever fold an Ace here, but it might be possible since my hand could look a lot like two pair, A9 or A6, especially if P1 raises my bet and even if P1 doesn't raise, P2 would probably have a hard time raising with just AK since a lot of mediocre B&M players don't and even if he does I have outs. But I am not worried about that scenario. I'm instead more interested in getting P2 to fold KK-TT which I think is very likely, ESPECIALLY if P1 raises. Like I said, my hand looks a lot like two pair or the nut flush draw that just spiked the Ace. In a pot this size, it is certainly worth the risk of trying and I'm not giving up that much if raised by him also I would hate to have to face two bets cold on this turn when there was some semblance of a chance I could see the next card for one bet and/or I could get somebody to fold something.

The other option which I think may be better is to check and if P1 continues his aggression and P2 just calls, checkraise. In P2's eyes, this can almost never be a bluff. There is this guy who has done nothing but bet and raise postflop and now all the sudden this kid who has done nothing but call-call-call now decides to raise this Ace? This does actually have a legitimate shot of getting P2 to fold an Ace if he has one but if he doesn't raise he probably doesn't have one and he would be very very hard pressed to call down with KK-TT in this spot. And if P1 bets and now P2 raises, I could let go of my hand, which would be cheaper than potentially having to pay two bets on the turn in my other line. However, this line requires the possibility of folding a hand that has some showdown value with outs and some bluffing equity, which I did not want to give up in this pot so I opted to bet out instead.

So I bet. P1 just calls. P2 hems and haws and shakes his head and finally folds.

The river is a 2 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] and I bet out for value and P1 now throws down the surprising raise which I shrug and quickly call.

Thoughts?

rafiki · #2 05-08-2007, 08:12 PM

he show you 45 ?

private joker · #3 05-08-2007, 08:20 PM

Standard.

The DaveR · #4 05-08-2007, 08:21 PM

I like CR'ing more with a bluff-catching hand and betting a lot more with a pair so I like your turn play.

private joker · #5 05-08-2007, 08:25 PM

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Standard.

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This is obviously a tongue-in cheek response, since the hand is by no means standard, but my point is I like it all (even though I would have chickened out once it was HU and check-called the river, although I understand CDC wanting to bet and induce a bluffraise) and the thought process on the turn is great.

People should learn a lot from this post.

rafiki · #6 05-08-2007, 08:33 PM

I decided I wouldn't even suggest a line after I read the part about correctly 10 betting AQ. Damn that's juicy !

brettbrettr · #7 05-08-2007, 08:48 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I decided I wouldn't even suggest a line after I read the part about correctly 10 betting AQ. Damn that's juicy !

[/ QUOTE ]

He called the 10 bet. Had he correctly eleven bet, we could talk. But this is just a ho-hum 9 bet.

n.s. · #8 05-08-2007, 08:50 PM

Thanks for this post. So often the best players on here don't elaborate much when they post - it's great to read your entire thought process through the hand.

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He 10-bets and I finally slow down and call him down. He had A4 and my hand was good.

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Holy [censored] - nice read!

mike l. · #9 05-08-2007, 09:10 PM

this hand was well played esp. the thinking on the turn but i think the flop is debatable. i think it might be better to check-3 bet.

Chris Daddy Cool · #10 05-08-2007, 11:54 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I decided I wouldn't even suggest a line after I read the part about correctly 10 betting AQ. Damn that's juicy !

[/ QUOTE ]

He called the 10 bet. Had he correctly eleven bet, we could talk. But this is just a ho-hum 9 bet.

[/ QUOTE ]

it was sort of funny because everybody at the table was staring in awe as we effortlessly and casually kept throwing 8 chips into the pot. by the time i got 8-bet though i was legitimately worried i might be beat because even a blind squirrel can find a nut, but i said to myself "hell, why not. either way i am going to look insane." but when he 10-bet me i chickened out and said out loud "sh*t, i better slow down." and just called him down and when he flipped over A4, i bemoaned about how weak i was and everybody looked at us like we were crazy.