October 25, 2008

Brack is Beautiful (Part 11)

Got back into the full ring action tonight which produced this hand....I'm still not completely sure about the way I played the hand....please comment with any suggestions. I give my reasoning for playing this way, but I am willing to be convinced that other lines are better. The main villain in the hand seemed fairly solid with TAGish stats. We had tangled twice before, once where he had 3b my open, I 4b and he folded, and another time where he cold 4b my 3b of another player and I folded.

Seat 3: bruechips (CO) ($208.70)
Seat 5: SB ($206.25)
Seat 6: BB ($239)
Seat 7: UTG ($74.70)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bruechips [8s 9s]
UTG calls $2
bruechips calls $2 (This seems kind of ghey. Maybe my donk-n-go experiences are starting to infect my cash game pray. But the reason I limped behind instead of raising was that UTG is short, and I had seem him limp-re-raise once before. If he were full-stacked, I'd definitely raise to isolate him, but with stacks this shallow and him limping UTG, I decided to just limp behind. The button was not a very aggressive player who would be raising a lot, and the blinds are full-stacked, so I'm happy to take a flop with them. In general, my range for limping right here is suited connectors, smaller pocket pairs, and the occasional suited ace.)
SB calls $1
BB checks

*** FLOP *** [Js 7s 4d]
SB checks
BB checks
UTG checks
bruechips bets $6 (This is pretty standard, everybody checks to me and I bet my straight flush draw.)
SB folds
BB calls $6 (I'm pretty sure this does not represent a monster hand, as big hands would probably raise on this drawy a flop. I'm thinking he has something like a weak jack, maybe an 8d7d for middle pair and some backdoor equity, A7 is possible, 56, and spade draws, although I think most of the time he'd be playing draws more aggressively.)
UTG folds

*** TURN *** [Js 7s 4d] [Ac]
BB checks
bruechips bets $14 (Some would argue for checking behind here to be sure you get to see the river with your monster draw. But I decided it was worth betting here to try and take him off a weak one-pair hand, or get him to just call with that hand and let me win a bigger pot on the river, either by firing a third barrel or making the best hand and getting value. Also my draw is not to the nuts (unless the Ts hits), and I want to maintain the betting lead against bigger draws, again either to fold them out now or fire again on the river. This is certainly what I would do with 77, 44, A7s, A4s, and AJs, which are all in my range, although AJs probably less so as I'd usually raise it pre-flop.)
BB raises to $28 (This is a very odd min raise. I almost think misclicks make up a significant portion of his range. What really strong hand would he slowplay on this flop and then give such great drawing odds on the turn? This feels more like a kind of informational raise to see if his J9 or whatever is good. Or maybe he's taking some very weird line with QsTs or 2s3s for a flush draw that picked up a straight draw. The only way I could see the ace improving his hand is if he has A7, or if he has an A-high spade draw. The A-high spade draw would be a particularly ugly scenario for me. But again, I think it's highly unlikely that he'd play a big draw like the nut flush draw so weakly on the flop when he's up against somebody who limped preflop and bet when checked to. I'm definitely not folding to this raise, the question is whether I should call or raise. I decided to raise for a few reasons. First, there are big hands that I can very easily represent here, mainly sets and aces up. If he flopped bottom two and decided to take a cautious line of waiting for a safe turn card before raising. Is he really excited about getting it in here? Second, he probably expects me to fire a second barrel at the ace with my entire range, so there's a good chance that he's trying to make a cheap rebluff with a pretty weak hand. Third, if I just call and miss, I can't represent much on the river. I think he's a pretty good player who is not going to just check/fold a blank river. He will probably be firing another barrel, and I can't represent much if I raise to try and rebluff. If I had a big hand already on the turn, I'd raise it there. If I had a mediocre hand like AhTh and decided I didn't want to fold, I'd just call the turn and river instead of raising. If I do hit a spade, it's pretty obvious what I have if I bet or raise. Getting value will be difficult unless he has a better flush, in which case he'll be the one getting value from me. The only really great card would be a T. That would give me a well disguised hand that I could get paid off with.)
bruechips raises to $96 (As far as the sizing, I want to raise an amount that appears to commit me to the pot, so he won't feel like he has any fold equity at all with KsQs or something like that. I want those hands to fold, or even better, call and check/fold the river. At the same time, I think shoving or raising too much looks kind of weak and he might just get really curious and decide QJ is gold. If I had a set, I'd raise to about this amount to charge the draws and force him to make a decision for his whole stack, so that's the amount I choose here.)
BB has requested TIME
BB folds

He tanked for a while. He could have been just Hollywooding, not wanting to let me and the rest of the table know that he just tried to pull one over on me with complete air. Or he could have made some huge laydown. It's such a weird line for him to take. I'm still kind of wondering what he had there. My best guess is still that he had a weak made hand, and he wanted to try and end the hand there rather than check/call or check/fold the river. Any other ideas?

-BRUECHIPS

P.S. - One other interesting tid-bit, just to show you how many draws there are on this board, EVERY unpaired suited connector or one-gapper has a straight draw by the turn.

1 comment:

Gnome said...

Donks love to bluff Aces. Villain could have a broad range that includes 65, KQ, A2-A6, random flush draws, weak Jacks, 76, 75, JT, whatever.
I think he had a weak draw and/or a weak pair, and he decided to semibluff the Ace on the turn. It's not a good line, but it's not uncommon.
The downside here is that some fish will go crazy and push all-in with the best hand, even though they think they're bluffing.