WinStar (January 10)

A last-minute trip to WinStar was made yesterday evening that netted me an additional $265 for my poker bankroll. Although I am not the biggest fan of special promotions that casinos offer like Aces Cracked, it was because of the 10 p.m. Splash Pot that was the key reason for my financial gain.

At the time of the promo where $100 was placed in the pot prior to the players receiving their cards, I had lost $200, re-bought for $150 more, and currently had $290 in front of me. Fully expecting to fold the hand as splash pots become a game of pre-flop chicken in order to see who is willing to risk the most money to win the $100 offered by the casino, I was surprised to find pocket eights as my hole cards. Knowing a raise would do absolutely nothing to thin the field and with $100 already at stake, I simply called from early position and decided to see what happened after me. I was astounded even more when no one raised it, but what did not surprise me at all was no one folded either. We went to a flop with nine players in the hand and $115 at stake.

The flop was 8-6-4 rainbow and I was third to act. It checked to me and I led out with a $7 bet. Immediately after making the bet I played it off as that I forgot the extra $100 was in the pot, since it a plaque that says “Splash Pot” on it and not actual chips. The bet was simply to disguise the strength of my hand as nobody is going to expect a player who is holding top set to bet such a little amount. If a person is holding a set they are either going to check it or bet a large amount in order to not let someone draw out on them. I elected to fly in the face of danger and make a tiny bet that only built up the pot a little more. I got four callers and we went to a turn with $150 in the pot.

The turn was a four, giving me a full house and the second nuts. Since I am not worried about being drawn out on and only fearing pocket fours, which is unlikely, I checked it as did everyone else.

The river was a nine, now giving me the third best hand, but I am still confident it is the best hand among the five of us. I elect to bet another small amount hoping they think I am just trying to buy the pot without risking too much of my money but large enough to be scary. I lead out with a $40 bet. After two folds a pleasant fellow calls my bet and it gets to the player on the button. He makes a minimum raise and it is now $80 to play. A small fraction of shock goes through me that I am looking at the guy who is holding four fours, but I push that aside and decide to re-raise him another $40. A minimum raise was made in the hope I could get the middle guy to call both bets instead of bumping it up another $60-100 and isolating it to the guy on the button only. Alas, the middle guy didn’t call the $80 and it was back to the button man, who called my raise and showed 10-7 for a straight.

So in hindsight I probably should have bumped it up another $60 or $80 and I would have made a little more than raising the minimum, but I ended up going from down $65 at the start of the hand to up $235.

The hand that crippled me with my first buy-in of $200 was when I held A-10 and went up against A-Q. My opponent, who was the pleasant fellow I tried to get a call from with the minimum re-raise on my splash pot hand later in the evening, flopped two pair and I rivered a smaller two pair. He got about $80 off me from that hand.

Overall I was happy with my play for the night, minus the previously mentioned two pair vs. two pair hand and the way I went out with my first buy-in when I made a disgusted “I don’t care at this point; let’s start over” move. I have three hands worth discussing, two of which are for strategy purposes and dissection.

We will begin with a hand I was happy with what took place as a read I made early in the night prevented me from losing a great deal of money. I had not been at the table for more than 20 minutes and was still feeling everyone out. I was dealt A-Q offsuit in early-to-middle position and decided to not raise with it. Under normal circumstances I might, but I wanted to see how things were progressing at this table before I dove in completely. About three calls after me brought it back around to the big blind, who raised it to $15 total. It was back on me. Although I hadn’t been there for long and didn’t have much of a read on anyone quite yet I didn’t have a good feeling about this particular hand. I opted to fold as I had an odd hunch I was way behind against the big blind. I can’t put my finger on exactly what he did or said or any special way he was acting, but it just wasn’t a good spot to call.

It turns out I was right in my feeling and the big blind had pocket aces. To make matters worse, I would have flopped a queen for top pair and likely lost some good money on that hand.

The first hand we will break down bit by bit was when I was in the big blind. Following a single caller from middle position the small blind raised it to $18 total. I looked down and saw a pair of queens. Usually I would be overjoyed to be in this situation with a pair of queens and I would normally put in a re-raise. I had the chips in my hand to do so and was merely deciding on an amount, but something was nagging at me about the player who was on my right and had made the raise. He was a nice guy, but didn’t play a ton of hands and I couldn’t recall him making a raise at all prior to this hand, which we had been playing for about three hours together by this point.

To call the small blind a tight player wasn’t entirely accurate, but he certainly did play it safe when it came to hand selection. Deciding it might be safer to only call the bet, see if it gets heads-up between us, and gauge where I would be after the flop came out I put out my $18 and was a little let down when the other gentleman also called. We went to the flop with $54 in the pot.

The flop was 10-10-9, all black. The small blind didn’t take much time to put out a bet of $20. I determined that I could find out how strong his hand was or whether somebody was holding a ten by making a raise now. I put out $40, only raising the minimum of $20. Mr. Pleasant again let me down by calling the $40 and the small blind called the extra $20. What this all meant for me was that unless a jack or queen came on the turn I was shutting things down. I am obviously beat and would not be putting any more money in the middle without a better hand than what I currently was holding.

The turn was a black ace, creating two clubs and two spades on a board of 10-10-9-A. The small blind, with $174 in the pot, bet $20. The pot odds were not there to make a profitable call since I now needed a queen and a queen alone to win, so I folded.

The guy behind me ended up calling and when the queen did not come on the river and the small blind showed pocket kings after the hand was over I was proud of myself that I made the best decisions to lose as little as possible. Had I re-raised pre-flop I would have most likely faced a raise myself from the small blind and it could have gotten really bad after that flop of all unders. By simply calling pre-flop and raising the minimum on the flop I kept the pot small and was able to get away from it once I knew where I stood.

The final hand to chat about was a pretty straight-forward hand, but it got several of us talking about it afterward. I limped in for $2 from middle position with pocket fours. A player two to my left went all in for $28 total. It folded around to me. I eventually made the call, but made it clear I was not happy doing so. It ended up the guy had A-10 of hearts and made a flush, while I did not improve.

Following the hand two players at the table said how with pocket fours that was an automatic call. I disagreed with them and explained that you are risking nearly $30 to be a slight favorite. While that isn’t a lot of money at risk, it isn’t a lot to win either. Unless you get extremely lucky to be up against pocket twos or threes, you aren’t going to be more than a 51% favorite to win the hand. I stated how with nothing behind the guy to win should you hit a set the risk did not outweigh the reward.

Now understand me, if this were a tournament then things would be different. I had about $250 in front of me at the time of this hand and if it were $28 to call in a tournament and knock the player out, getting us one step closer to the money or higher up in the money, then I would be willing to call with my fours more quickly. Yet, since it is a cash game and the only thing I am gaining from a call that has me as a slight favorite or a huge underdog is $28, I don’t think it is an automatic call. I’m curious to know what you think.

I played for four hours last night and won $265, netting me $66.25 an hour. For the year thus far I have profited $595, am making $52.89 an hour after a little more than 11 hours of play, and have nearly $900 in my poker bankroll. Poker in 2011 is going pretty well as of now. Hopefully it continues to do so.