This occurred about 2 minutes after the hand in the previous post. I had opened up a new table and this was my first hand played there, also at $0.25 – 0.50 6-max NL.
I am the Big Blind with 9s 6s.
Everybody folds to the Small Blind, who raises to $1.50. Since this is the first hand, I have no reads or data on his tendencies. I should assume that he is being straightforward and has something with reasonable strength. There is no reason to make assumptions otherwise based on non-existent data.
I should fold.
I should know better. Maybe it is OK to call and then play a fit-or-fold approach on the flop, although that is clearly a -EV play. At least it is lower variance than…
I call.
Flop ($3.00) Js Kc 9c. I caught the bottom end of it. Surely I can outplay this unknown.
SB bets $3, playing right into my strategy. (Who am I kidding? I don’t have a strategy here, other than bullying my way through this hand.)
I raise to $7.50. That should end it. Not so big of a raise that it looks like I’m trying to push him off the pot, not so small that I look too timid. SB calls.
Turn ($18.00) Ks. A perfect card for a second barrel. I’m representing a K and this certainly helps.
SB checks and I bet $11, feeling a little bit of guilty pleasure over the anticipated pickup in just one hand here. THEY… WILL… FEAR… ME… AT… THIS… TABLE!!!
SB calls again. WTF? Maybe he actually has a hand.
River ($40.00) 7s. This changes nothing, other than my only option here is to continue the ruse which probably means I have to shove, or giving up.
SB checks. I meekly check back. He is acting like he’s not going anywhere. Now this only smells like a trap.
He shows Kd Jc, for a flopped top 2 pair and turned full house. Once again, getting involved in a blind vs. blind leveling war only backfires.
Who said: “When you look around the table and can’t figure who is the biggest fish, you’re probably it”?
Year-to-date and month-to-date online results: (- $851). Running bad. Running so so so bad.
They Always Have It 