By Pauly
I've been playing a slew of 8/16 and 10/20 Limit on Full Tilt during the last couple of days. Those games have been juicy with tremendous swings. That 10/20 full ring is difficult to find during the times I've been lurking online. At those limits there are a few solid players, but the rest of them are weak-tight or outright horrendous. In the end, I don't make money beating good players. I make the majority of my money by exploiting weaknesses and mistakes from a core group that consists of marginal players, newbies, and bad players. Conversely, I lose most of my money on bad reads, simply getting outplayed, and making rookie mistakes.
Here are eight interesting hands that I encountered in the last few days.
Ah-Jc at 10/20 Limit on Full Tilt: The subtitle of this hand is "Why I'm Glad You Overplay K-J." I found Ah-Jc at an eight-handed table in MP and raised. The button and both blinds called. Four way pot and the flop was Jh-8h-4h. I flopped top pair with the nut flush draw. The blinds checked, I bet, the button raised, and the small blind check-raised. Bastard. The big blind folded and I capped it. The button folded and the SB called. Heads-up. The turn was 10s. The SB bet and I raised. The SB went into the tank and called at the last second. The river was the Kh and I picked up my nut flush. He checked-called my river bet. He showed Ks-Js and I scooped a pot over $300.
6c-6s at 8/16 Limit on Full Tilt: It's an unexciting table and I'm in the big blind at a table with eight players. MP raised and the cutoff called. The small blind re-raised. I called three bets with 6-6 hoping that I flop the Anti-Christ in a four-way pot. The other two players called. Flop was Ks-6h-4s and on cue I flopped a set on a board with two flush cards. I dug in deep to my chair because I knew that was going to be a big pot. Either I was gonna lose big or win big. The small blind bet out and I raised. MP called and the cutoff re-raised. The small blind mucked and by then I put him on Queens or Jacks since he three bet pre-flop. I re-raised to cap it. The other two players called. I put one of my opponents on a flush draw and the other on Big Slick. The turn was Kd as I picked up a boat. I bet out and MP called. The cutoff raised all in for $25 total. I re-raised to $41 and the MP called. The river was 5d. I bet out with a boat and MP called with only $14 left. I won the side pot and the main pot. MP had Ad-Kc and the cutoff had 4h-4d. Too bad they were both short-stacked and all in. The $333 pot would have been bigger if they had more chips. Ugly cooler hand on that flop of K-6-4. Top pair and set over set. Online poker is rigged.
6d-6s at 8/16 Limit on Full Tilt: More wacky adventures with pocket sixes. I subtitle this one... "Cracking Zeem's Over Pair." I'm in the small blind with 6d-6s and Zeem raised UTG. He got one player in MP to call along with myself and the big blind. The flop was 3s-2h-2d. Both of us in the blinds checked-called Zeem's bet. Turn was 5d. The blinds checked and Zeem bet. I check-raised from the SB with a gutshot hoping to find out where Zeem was at... did he have Big Slick or a big pair? The BB folded and Zeem called. I found myself heads-up with Zeem. The river was a lucky 6c. I rivered a six outer. Sweet Jesus. Zeem had 10s-10h. Sorry for the suckout Zeem. It's not my fault. Online poker is rigged.
7h-7c at 8/16 Limit on Full Tilt: I'm in the small blind with a middle pair 7h-7c. I called a raise in a four player pot. I'd been on a "flopping a set" rush and decided to press my good fortune. The flop was a blood-curling As-7s-5s. Although I flopped a set, it was on an all spades board. Obviously not too thrilled about that. Even though I considered check-raising, I pussed out and check-called a bet from the original pre-flop raiser. The other two players folded. Heads-up. Turn was 4d and I check-called again. The river was 7d. I wish poker were that simple. I asked the poker gods to pair the board and they did. Rivering quads after flopping a set is like getting a hummer after you just got laid. Or for you female readers, it's like getting the kitten kissed after a tender love making session. I was ahead all the way. My opponent had Ac-Qd. More proof that online poker is rigged.
Ac-10c at 8/16 Limit on Full Tilt: Seven-handed table and I had been catching a blitz of big cards that held up. I was on a mini-rush when I found Ac-10c UTG and raised it up. There was one caller and the button re-raised. I called along with the second player. Flop was Jc-10s-3c. I flopped second pair and a nut flush draw. Time to jam. I bet out knowing that I'd get raised. The second player called and the button re-raised. I three-bet it and the second player mucked. The button capped it and I called. The turn was Jd. I bet out and the button only called. The river was the Qs. I missed my draw big time. I checked and so did the button. He turned over As-Ah for two pair... Aces and Jacks. That beat my paltry Jacks and Tens.
Js-Jc at 8/16 Limit on Full Tilt: Only four hands after I lost a big pot against A-A, I found myself heads-up with the same player. And guess what? He got Aces twice inside of four hands. Both times they held up as he raided a couple hundred bucks from my stack. Unreal. I found Jc-Js on the button. UTG + 1 raised and I re-raised. Everyone else folded and he smooth called. The flop was 10c-3d-2h. He bet out and I popped him for a quick raise. When he three-bet the flop, I knew I was in trouble but called anyway because I'm the fucker who can't fold a big pair in Limit Hold'em. I called bets on the turn and river when the 10h, then the 8d fell. He turned over As-Ad. Ouch. Aces twice in four hands? So rigged.
8c-7c at NL MTT on Full Tilt: I ended up taking 13th out of 339 players in a MTT early one morning last weekend. I was shocked because not only did I actually play a non-blogger MTT but I actually cashed in it! I played super loose and ended up amassing a stack early when I cracked pocket Aces. My opponent was a maniac at the table. Based on his erratic play and weird bet amounts, I suspected that he was some sort of whacked out druggie who was a habitual shoe-polish huffer or someone addicted to over the counter cough medicine who had been up all night with the cold sweats running around gnawing on dog biscuits and playing fourteen tables at once. Regardless, I had no respect for his raises. The blinds were 50/100 and I found 8c-7c. Maniac huffer raised to 300, which was an actual normal sized bet. He had been betting 4x or 5x or 6x the BB every hand pre-flop. I called the raise and the flop was 7s-6c-3c. Top pair and a flush draw against the maniac huffer looked promising for me. He underbet the pot about and I raised. He called. The turn was 5h. I picked up more outs an open-ended straight draw. He checked and I moved all in for about 2K. I had him covered by 400 and he called. He showed Ah-Ad. Two red aces. Yikes. He trapped me for all my chips but I still had outs. The river was 8s. I missed my flush draw but I rivered two pair which was good enough to crack pocket aces. Rigged. So fuckin' rigged. That hand put my stack over 7K in chips. In the second level, I was among the chipleaders.
8s-5h-5c-3d at a PLO MTT on Full Tilt: I had 8s-5h-5c-3d in the small blind at a six-handed table. Blinds were 60/120 and I was the big stack at my table. Three players limped and I called from the SB as the BB checked. Five out of the six players saw the flop of 10h-9c-5d. I flopped bottom set which means I'm gonna go broke or double up. I was first to act and checked. The BB bet the minimum and the button called. I check-raised to 1K. The BB folded and the button called. The turn was the 2h. I bet close to 3K. The button had 1550 remaining and was all in. The river was 6h. I had a set of 5s while he showed As-Jh-Tc-9s for just two pair. He busted out and I ended up making the final table of that PLO tournament. Of course, I bubbled out of the money in 8th place.
The leading candidate for Bad Beat of 2007 has to be a hand that happened on Wednesday night. I suffered one brutal river suckout where my soul was shattered into a billion fragments, but I'll spare the specific details. Let's just say it was tough enough to stomach what I thought was a two-outer on the river, but the testicle-numbing pain intensified as I hurdled into the upper stratum of Mega-tilt when one of the players piped up in the chat, "I folded the other King pre-flop."
I finally finished my Amsterdam II photo gallery over at Flickr which features 90 pics that I took last week during my 60 hour getaway. You can also check out the Amsterdam II slide show, if you like those sorts of things.
Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
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