Tao of Poker

Jacks du Jour

Last night on Party Poker, I was having a not-so-hot session until Studio Glyphic sat down at my NL table. Things started to pick up and I won my first pot in a very long time. A few minutes later, Stinkypants joined the mix.... which was good because I had two poker blogger witness my quads Jacks!

I raised to $2 in EP. One caller... kinda loose. I put him on a middle pair, A-suited-small, or face cards. The flop: J-10-K. I hit my set. I was worried if he had KK or AQ. I would be beat for sure. I had to be concerned if he had an Ace and I let him catch his Broadway staright for free... so I didn't want to check-raise or slow play. Maybe he had KQ... with top pair and an open-ended straight draw? It's Party Poker... anything is possible... so the guy could be sitting on Q9o. I bet $7 to see if he had a better hand than me. He called... which concerned me. No raise or fold. Hmmmm. On a draw? Sandbagging a set of Kings or the straight? The turn: J. I spiked my quads. How do I play that? Slow play or bet out? Once at Foxwoods, I flopped quad Jacks and slow played... only to lose to quad Queens when the idiot caught runner runner to beat me. I didn't want him to catch a case King... just in case he was holding one of them in his hand. I bet $5 and he raised to $10! I moved all-in ($11+ rest of my stack... he had me covered by $10) and he called. A rag hit the river and everyone saw my four of a kind.

What did he have? AQ. He flopped a straight and made the mistake not moving all-in. I probably would have called after flopping a set... but who knows?

Bad Beat of the Day: AKs cracked by 10-9o. I raised 6x BB preflop and got one caller. I bet out on the flop when I had top pair and the nut flush draw. Never improved my hand on the turn, moved all-in and was called. He hit his two pair on the river.