Friday, July 26, 2013

How to win $500+ without a bet

Thursday at the Chuck.  I've seen a gentleman go through $1.2k within the past two hours.  I've been in the habit of back raising him, since he's wont to raise limpers to $12 and call any 3bets (of reasonable size; my most recent one was $45).  At any rate, my session is effectively over - I just called down the LAG who flopped two pair turned boat (2 3 from UTG) and my stack sits at $120 or thereabout.  Prior to the hand I'm about to describe, I debated topping off, but opted to just run my orbit out & be done with the session.  Anyone who reads my blog and/or comments knows that I NEVER do this; I'm always at $180+ no matter.  On this particular night, though, I was into the game for 2 buy ins + and just wanted to end & be done without fishing out money from my pocket.

Anyway, I'm UTG now - this is literally my last hand.  I look down and see Ah8h and opt to limp.  This is a very loose aggro table - a whipsaw.  Last hand, modest hand.  Well, LAG (immediately on my left) that I paid off earlier raises to $15 with $~600 behind.  This starts a chain reaction and I see 5 callers before it winds its way around to me.  I call (pot odds if I ever heard of them...) with $~105 behind and we see a ~7 way flop (including me) of KhTh3h.  Yahtzee!

$~100 in the pot - I opt to check my nuts and the LAG leads for $50.  It calls 4 ways before coming around to the seat on my right, who pops it to $150.  I sigh & call (obviously), and 3 players call the $150 behind, creating a sidepot.  Turn is a 6s and dude to my right leads for $240 with $380 behind.  LAG shoves all in, 2 folds and dude to my right calls.

River is a brick and I take the main pot of $500+ - though the real winner of the hand was probably the dude to my right with a set of 3's - the side pot was over $1k.  The LAG apparently had QhJx, and another player hit a low flush and folded it (he was deep too).

From a poker standpoint, this was a somewhat boring, standard hand.  From a statistical standpoint, this was such a weird hand.  I did not bet a single round, yet made ~5x my money.  I was just astounded that a set of 3's was able to extract so much value out of the hand...

Anyway, that hand broke me even on the session and I would go on to show a decent profit for the night.

10 comments:

  1. Nice hit. Your suits don't match. I assume the flop was all hearts ;)

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    1. Oops! Nice catch. Post has been updated (otherwise it doesn't makes sense :-) )

      Thanks!

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  2. Replies
    1. Thank you for pointing that out tony. I updated the post to properly reflect the board.

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  3. Very nice hand Mr Meister. I love it when a plan comes together.

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  4. I hear how cash players are better poker players than tny players. But, I have not seen in a tny where 7 players call a 7-8 BB bet! QJ is betting 7.5 BB from UTG+1, getting called by two low hearts, and 33. I guess this is the way to have fun at a poker table.

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    Replies
    1. There are a couple of factors to consider here, though: 1. These guys are at least 200BB deep - around 300+ for the low hearts, around 500BB for the raiser and the 33 guy. I'm set up with pot odds having 60BB; I can make a profitable call with almost any two cards here. 2. Tourney players are generally working with around 40BB at any given level. Raising to 7-8BB is a committing bet.

      Overall, it becomes a different game when you get so deep. It becomes profitable to play a much wider range. On the other hand, it makes it really hard to stack off with anything but the stone nuts for 500BB. The deeper you are, the wider you can call, but the deeper you are, the more pot control you want to exert without the nuts.

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    2. OK, makes sense. Let me ask you this since I don't play cash games as much as you, is it better to sit at a 1/2 table or 2/5 with $1k stack? I understand that usually you are not allowed to buy-in for $1k at 1/2.

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    3. I'm not sure what the intent is of your question. Personally, I'd rather sit at a 2/5 table with $1k instead of a 1/2 table. It is much easier to double a $1k stack at 2/5 because of the nature of raise sizes, as opposed to 1/2. Example:
      2-3 limpers and a raise (normal size) - $40. 2 limpers call and see $120 flop pot.
      Pot sized bet gets both callers - $360 to turn.
      $250 turn bet with 1 caller sees $860 river with $1k - $410 = $590 behind.
      River bet is less than pot and stacks are in.

      Replay the above scenario with 1/2 and it's MUCH harder - near impossible - to get $1k in (that is, unless you're at a table with a bunch of aggro gamblers like the hand I describe in the post).

      To sum up, it's a rarity to see 500BB each in the center of the pot - amazing thing is that the original raiser didn't even have the nut flush draw! Anyway, I hope I answered your question.

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  5. Yes, thank you. The reason I asked was based on your second paragraph response from a post yesterday where you stated how game conditions change once the game gets so deep.

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