Opening lines of Jimi Hendrix / Stevie Ray Vaughn song:
Manic depression is touching my soul
I know what I want, but I just don’t know how to go about gettin’ it.
I keep trying to move up to $2/4 NL. Last night I found a full ring table, bought the max of $400 and promptly pissed away $200+ on the very first hand. About 90 minutes of grinding later, I’m up to about $560 and get AA in UTG+2 position. I raise to $12 and everybody folds to the BB, who 3-bets to $60. He has the big stack at the table at $1,069 and has been very aggressive when getting involved and winning several big pots.
Whew! Thought I might only win the blinds here. While playing, I’ve also been watching part of a poker strategy video on DeucesCracked.com. This particular series is on making non-standard plays as a way to extract more value. This seems like a perfect spot, against an aggressive big-stacked opponent, to just flat call and let him fire more chips on the flop.
I call.
Flop ($123) – As Kd Js. How sweet this is, flopping a set of Aces. The only thing that could be ahead of me is QT, and that seems highly unlikely to make such a large pre-flop raise. Hopefully, he has KK or JJ and I can double up here.
Villain bets $126 and I raise to $280. He calls. I have about $220 left, so it will be easy to get it in on the turn. His calls suggests to me that he has a really big hand, and may think he’s ahead. AK, KK and JJ seem most likely. I don’t see how he could call this much with anything weaker, and still discount QT as it is just too weak for his pre-flop action.
Turn ($683) = 4s. Spade flush draws? The Ace of spades came out on the flop, so he doesn’t have any AsXs hands, with the most likely for his preflop action being AsKs. What other suited combination could have re-popped pre-flop so hard? Maaaaaybe KsQs, but that’s all. No reason to change my plan.
He bets first and puts me all-in. No reason to change my plan here. I suppose he could have AxKs or KsKx, for a nut flush re-draw on top of what he might consider to be an already made hand. From his vantage point, KsKx would look like a complete monster hand and also would be consistent with the storyline since this hand started. Otherwise, I have him crushed. I quickly call.
The pot is now $1,121. He turns over 8s2s. OMFG.
(We pause for silent meditation.)
After a 10 minute break, I buy back in for another $400 and after an hour I’m up to $508. Then I’m dealt KK while UTG. In addition to the blinds, a new player has posted $4, so I raise to $18. One player in middle position calls, then the next guy 3-bets to $52, then the button calls. This is what I call “action.”
No more fancy non-standard plays for me. This time, I 4-bet to $175. That’ll show ’em. The original caller quickly folds, the 3-bettor calls, then the dealer folds. The villain has $205 remaining and I have him covered.
Flop ($427) – 2d Kd 5d. All diamonds, but top set for me. I like it! No need to pussyfoot around here, so I ship it all in. If he has a big diamond, he’ll have to pay to chase a flush. He could have Ad Ax, and decided to call my 4-bet using the same non-standard play logic that I used in the hand above. Or Qd Qx…
He calls and turns over Ad Qd. WTF?
There’s another $837 pot, going, going, gone.
(More silence.)
Year-to-date online results: + $8,718
Month-to-date online results: – $201
