Rangers Clinch First World Series Appearance + Money Made = Perfect Weekend

A trip to the boats in Shreveport/Bossier City last weekend netted me about $450 in profits, but it was not all made at the poker table. Thanks to a little lady luck in the car on the drive to Nacogdoches, at the hotel in Nacogdoches, and on the drive to Shreveport, I made about an extra hundo from a carnival game called Between the Sheets.

My time at the poker table, which included three different sessions, ended with profits of $95, $245, and $25. Between the three separate games I really only have one hand worth talking about, but it is a controversial one because I have gone back and forth on whether or not I made the right play at the end.

After starting at the table with Danny three seats to my right, he eventually left to go play at Slope’s table and I was alone against seven opponents. These opponents included a female two to my left who was a solid player, showed good hands down and even folded on the river with a set she had flopped and bet throughout the hand against a flush when the third spade came on the end. Basically I am trying to say that she was good and I didn’t want to get mixed up with her as I felt she was better than me.

The particular hand we are discussing came when I was in the big blind. The female two to my left called the $3 pre-flop bet (I was playing $1-3 no limit at the Horseshoe Casino) as did a gentleman later in the rotation. The small blind completed his bet and I looked down at two off-colored kings.

By this time during the night I was dead tired and practically falling asleep at the table. I hadn’t raised a hand all night (at this point in the evening I had been playing for about three hours) and I hadn’t made it to many showdowns. The few hands I had won were unchallenged after the flop or turn and I was sitting with $275 in front of me. My original buy-in was for $180.

I am one of those people who will disguise good hands in my blinds by simply calling unless the hand is too good, like aces, kings or queens. Jacks and tens I will split raising to calling by about a two to one ratio and every other pair and non-pairing hand combination I simply call with to see what comes on the flop. So with my kings I pumped up the bet to $18 total. That is a little high of a raise (6x), but I was too tired to make good decisions post flop and didn’t want to have to figure out what my opponents had should I be put to the test later.

One might argue that I should not have been playing cards if I was this tired and nearly falling asleep at the table, but between Slope, Danny, and myself we only had the one car and the hotel was not within walking distance. I was simply trying to kill another hour or so before we would go home for the night.

After raising the bet, I received two callers, the woman and gentleman to my left. The small blind folded his cards. The pot now had $57 in it. The flop came 3-5-7 rainbow. This is a great flop for my cards. I felt confident I had the best hand and there wasn’t a real draw I had to worry about except for possibly a pair with an ace like A-7, A-5, or A-3 or a double-belly-buster draw with A-4 creating an open-ended straight draw. Being first to act I made a half-the-pot-sized bet of $30. A little surprised by what happened next, the woman two to my left raised $45, making it $75 to go. The guy in last position folded and it was back to me.

I don’t really know what I was thinking when I did my next two actions because it was possibly the two worst things to do in this position since it helped my situation none. I called the $45 and then checked when an eight hit on the turn. With only a bit of hesitation the woman bet $75. Sitting in front of me was $175 and by calling I would be left with only $100. I had no clue where I was at in the hand and I was just too scared to risk my entire stack on what might turn out to be a dominated hand. I have been working on folding overpairs lately because it has led to some bankruptcies the last couple of times I played in casinos. I felt it was better to fold and keep the stack I had than risk my chips on something I clearly had no feel for one way or the other. I folded, flipping my cards up to show the big lay down I had made and saw her give an unclear look that could have meant, “He’s folding that monster! What a fish!” or it could have meant, “What a fold. This guy read me like a children’s pop-up book.”

You might think I was way too timid on that hand and have no place at a poker table or you might think I made a very decent fold that saved me $175 in chips. I have gone back and forth on what I should have done and come to different conclusions every time. Sometimes I think she overplayed A-7 or pocket nines and other times I think she knew I had a big pair because I was so tight throughout the game and thought I would come along with her when she was holding top set on the flop. I really am not sure. What do you think?