Daily Debacle – All-In Tennis Match

At the end of the following sequence of hands, another player at the table (not involved in any of these) chatted:  Wow, I feel like I’m watching an all-in tennis match!

So let’s set the stage.  I’m playing $0.10 / 0.25 NL online.  My stack is a little bit short as about 2 orbits earlier my AA got cracked with a villain with KQ hit a K on the flop and another K on the river.  Dang!

In this first hand, I am the small blind.  The hijack seat raises to $1.35 and the cutoff calls.  I squeeze to $5.15 and will be happy to take down the pot now rather than play the full hand out of position.  The original raiser folds, but the original caller calls again.  Over 80 hands, he is VPIP = 41 and PFR = 16, so his range is pretty wide.  I miss the flop, but have represented big pair (or so I think) and have less than a single pot-sized bet remaining.  I decide to go for maximum fold equity and shove right away.  He calls, and shows 5d 3d.  My overcards miss on both the turn and river.  My inner Phil Helmuth goes crazy:  “FIVE-THREE SUITED???  YOU CALLED A RAISE AND 3-BET PRE-FLOP WITH FIVE-THREE SUITED???  OH MY GAWD!!”

Now I sit out one hand while re-loading to a full stack of $25.  The very next hand, my good friend of the FIVE-THREE SUITED opens with a raise to $0.75 and I call from the cutoff seat with Qh Jc.  He continuation bets $1 on the flop and I call.  Then he bets $2.25 on the turn.  I’m going to raise here and decide to shove it all in, hoping to represent TILT more than anything else and perhaps induce a call from a weaker hand.  He calls and BA-DA-BING! I’m back in business.

Exactly 5 hands later at the same table, this happens.  Seats P7 and P8 are not in the hand, so I’m the small blind.  The button, a fairly tight player with VPIP = 13 and PFR = 8 over 39 hands at the table, open raises to $1.10.  According to the stats tracker, he has not had any “steal” opportunities so far, so there is no “steal percentage” to use as a guide to his play.  I call, then flop the stone cold nuts.  I check-raise all-in on the turn, and he fills up his boat with my chips on the river.  Sonofa…….!

On the VERY NEXT HAND, the same villain open raises to $1.35 from the hijack seat (P7 is not in the hand) and I call from the button.  Now twice in a row I flop the stone cold nuts.  Wowzer!  He bets $3.30 (pot-sized bet) on the flop, and again I represent TILT by immediately going all-in.  This time he has top pair, top kicker and quickly calls.  As Gene Autry sang, “I’m back in the saddle again!”

Year-to-date online results:  (- $1,717)

Month-to-date online results:  + $147