I terrorized my table last night... (Continued)

Continued from yesterday's post of "I terrorized my table last night..."

As we left off, our hero is sitting on a stack of around $600 and having a very good night.  He's having a very good night.  He kinda gets a lot of action rolling when he raises a $5 straddle to $25 on the BTN with 23o (yes, you read that right, folks!).  He claims he was collecting dead money, but the joke was on him when he got two callers.  The flop was nice enough to him, though, a prety 2 4 5 flop, giving him up & down plus the weak pair.  A $75+ pot calls for a cbet here at least - our hero has equity, of course!  I choose to bet $55 and the lone old nit at the table flats.... uh oh!  The last guy I want to see is a guy who I can't make fold.  I lost value on him with my turned straight hand earlier in the night, and I was determined not to a. lose value again or b. pay him off any more than I need to.  So we see a turn 8 and check it through.  The river was a bitter sweet 6.  He proceeds to bet $100.  I insta snap call (I don't think a raise is in order because I'm so often behind him when he shows up with an un-foldable 77.  I'm delighted when he shows a pair of 3's for the chop and the table is oooh'ing and ahhhh'ing.  They're talking about how that's the hand that's going to get me paid off later.

As with poetry in motion, I'm getting towards the end of the night I stuck this poor guy for ~$350 on two real head scratchers.  New guy, middle aged Asian dude, sits down and quickly builds up a $~400 stack when the table kinda goes bonkers between straddles, limp straddle / raises (I mean like 6 limps -> $25 straddle raise -> $100 3bet -> call call -type shit...  Crazy stuff and this guy happened to catch a piece and get paid $200.  I claim to be the guy that started all of the wild action based on the above hand, but I digress.

I'm in the BB with J4o and get a 6 way limp to check my option.  Flop comes J 4 4 rainbow.  Did I mention I have J 4 - the effective nuts?  I don't think betting accomplishes anything here, so I check and new Asian guy leads for $15.  It folds around and I c/r it up to $45!!!!  Booyah baby!  Call me crazy, but they've been doing some crazy shit at this table.  As he's contemplating action, I show him a Jack without actually flipping it; I flip the corner up for him to see and tell him to go away (I would later indicate that I have AJ).  Undeterred, he calls and shows me his Jack- tells me he KNOWS I HAVE AT LEAST A JACK.  Turn is a King.  This time, I lead for $60.  He snaps me off.  River is a blank 8 I think.  I lead $190 and he's tanking.  And tanking.  And I'm talking and talking and ask him to see his cards.  He flips up KJs and the table is looking quizzically at him for not snapping it off here - especially after I flip up my Jack as well.  I'm trying to do my best tap dance to keep the guy on the line - looking on in supposed horror as my AJ goes down in flames to a better two pair.  And I'm squirming in my seat.  And I'm staring at him.  And I'm looking away.  And squirming.  And the fish gets off the hook by folding :-( :-( :-( :-( :-(!!!!  PUKE!!!!

But I was to have my revenge... oh my sweet sweet revenge!  An orbit or two later, he's still talking about the hand - and he is absolutely 100% steaming here.  He's the quiet type, but he's talking about what I had - swearing I had JJ - or J4 - but utterly unconvinced, and utterly confused.  I grabbed $105 of his stack and I would have liked it all.  But my justice cometh early when I am dealt JJ in mid position and raise to $15 after a limper.  He calls, as does like the whole table (well, around 5 of 'em) and we see a 3 4 J flop rainbow.  YAHTZEE!!!!  No way I'm slow playing here - and I know the table wants to look me up light.  And I know the Asian guy wants to call me light!  I lead for $45 into the busting $75 pot.  One caller - same guy, poor Asian dude.  He's got about $190 behind.  Turn is a kinda ugly 2, completing the only draw out there.  I don't reckon he's on the draw, though.  I think he has two pair, mid pairs, or TP + backdoors.  Perhaps he even has an overpair.  I put out two stacks of red ($200).  He snaps me off so fast that I'm sure my JJ is toast - he has to show up with 67 or A3!  He doesn't show at all and the river is an oh-so-beautiful 2!  I show my Jacks over deuces and he storms off.

I really would have liked to have seen his hand, though I didn't get the opportunity.  I was curious whether I got lucky on the river or totally coolered him.  I am still questioning how he folded the KJ hand even after I SHOWED him my Jx; it was a good fold without a doubt, and he tanked for about 5 minutes...  I'm not saying I'm not capable of the same; I think I fold the c/r flop with his hand, but he was intent on peeling one off.  By the turn, I think I raise my supposed turned better top two to see what the weather's like - to see how my opponent reacts; raise the $60 to $120 (min raise) or something like that.  It's obviously a dangerous thing because you're way ahead way behind.  But once you call the $60, I think you're pretty committed to calling any bet on the river.  All of a sudden, your top two is bad on a blank river even though you think you're good on the turn?

Too bad the river wasn't another 4 - I would have gotten paid BIG TIME because of Zeebo theorem.  Oh well - I still cleaned hm out - and I probably wouldn't have gotten paid on my Jacks full if he had been cleaned out from the earlier hand.

And that, folks, was my 5 hour night at Maryland Live!  Stay tuned for new craziness next week!  Hope you enjoyed all the bogus cliches i.e. "poetry in motion."