Weatherford Game (July 31)

My monthly poker game in Weatherford was played a week early this time because of a vacation the hosts of the game were going on later this month, and although there is no sure way to know, the move in weekends might have caused the amount of players who showed to dwindle significantly. While we usually run two full tables for most of the night, the most we saw at any one time was two tables of seven each. This lowered the expectation level of money to be won radically.

Things got off to a great start when I won a $130 pot flopping a full house with ace-four. One player went all in and another called that bet. I tried to get the other guy to come along for a little longer once the turn came, but he wanted nothing to do with it any more.

I won some small- and medium-sized pots that helped me build my stack to more than $300. For most of the night I hung around between $300-360. I would win a pot to get to $350 and then lose another pot a few hands later to get me back down to $300. This went on for several hours.

Two significant hands that took place during this time were ones I lost by folding on the river. I know for a fact I made the right fold in one case because I was shown the better hand. In the other hand, I’m not 100 percent positive, but I am pretty sure I was losing to three-of-a-kind.

The first hand was the one I’m not entirely sure about. I held pocket aces and it was a straddled hand. I was the small blind and it was folded around to me. I had two options, which were to raise it up to $12-16 or be sneaky and smooth call for $4. Since there were only two other players in the hand and not much risk of playing sneaky, I decided to simply call. I also did this in hopes that the straddler would think we were weak and raise with anything he held. He was a loose-aggressive player and this play was not out of the question.

I called, as did the big blind, and the straddler checked his option. The flop was K-K-5. I led out for $10 into a $12 pot. This bet was to find out who held a king. If I was called, then I would most likely shut down unless it was the straddler, who would try to be tricky in certain spots like this. I was called, but it wasn’t by the guy who straddled. Instead, the caller was the big blind, who was a pretty straight-forward player. I felt, and still feel, he had a king. The turn was a 9 and we both checked. The turn was a 2 and I immediately checked. As the big blind reached for chips I threw my cards face up and said, “Don’t worry about it.”

The big blind was shocked at my folding aces. He said something along the lines of, “Are you sure?” I told him it didn’t matter what he bet, I knew I was beat. The straddler asked if I was curious what the guy had and I told him it was most likely a king and even if I had laid down the best hand I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over it because everyone is going to make a mistake when playing poker. However, I still don’t think I made a mistake. I am even surer of my fold because the big blind made a point to not show his hand, which leads me to believe I made the right decision. Most people like to show others when they have made a mistake because they think it will get under their skin and send them on tilt.

The second time I folded a big hand was when I held trip sevens. The way the hand played out is unclear at this time, but what happened was I bet the flop that had a seven, a lower card and a higher card, two of which were hearts. The turn was another seven, giving me my three of a kind. I bet again, getting one caller. The river was a third heart. I bet $15, which was about half or maybe a third of the pot, and was raised $30 more. I thought for about a minute of whether my opponent was trying to pull a fast one on me, making me believe he had hit the flush when in reality he hadn’t. I finally decided to fold the hand, showing my seven. My opponent flipped up his cards, showing two hearts for the flush. I was correct in my assessment.

The only other hands of consequence for the night were when I held a pocket pair that hit a third one on the flop. The first hand was pocket nines and I busted the player on my left. That pot put me up to $560. The second time I held a pocket pair that tripped up was with jacks. I doubled up the only other player in the hand when he had a set of queens on the flop. That hand sent me back down to $380.

We quit about five minutes after the trip jacks hand and I logged in a $280 profit after seven-and-a-half hours of play, giving me $37.33 an hour for the night. My grand total since playing poker seriously again in November is a profit of $3,175.