Unfortunately playing my longest session in 2011 of seven-and-a-half hours did not equate to large winnings at WinStar World Casino Thursday night. The taxing, late-night game resulted in a $100 loss for the evening with a few moments of noteworth discussion.
About five hands into the night I was in late position and held A-Q suited on a straddled hand, which means the player to the immediate left of the big blind made a blind raise to $4 and would have last action. I raised it pre-flop to $16 after having two other people call the $4 bet prior to my action. The blinds and straddler folded and both of the limpers already in for a quarter of the amount completed the raise and we went to the flop with $50 in the pot.
The flop came out A-Q-7 with two hearts. I did not hold any hearts. Both players checked to me. I now hold top two pair and love my situation, but since I didn’t want to give anyone looking for a flush or inside straight draw the chance to complete their hand I elected to bet a smallish amount. I bet $20. The first player who checked took little time, but didn’t rush it, to raise the bet by $30, making it $50 to go. The next player called the $50. It was now to me and it is $30 to call with $170 in the pot.
Obviously I am going to play the hand out since it is such a small amount to call compared to what I could win should I have the best at the end. However, the problem lies in figuring out whether I should make a move now to protect my hand against any draw and win what is available or play it out and risk more to win more. I contemplated the idea that somebody was holding a set of sevens, as anyone with pocket aces or queens likely would have raised before it ever got to me pre-flop so therefore I can rule those hands out, but a quick glance at both men’s stacks showed about $80 for each of them and so even if someone is holding trip sevens it is likely going to all go in the middle by the end anyway.
I mistakenly, in my opinion, decided to push all-in instead of waiting until the turn to see what happened. I consider it a mistake to have pushed then because by raising the bet again I am forcing anyone with a made hand worse than mine to fold and those with better hands or draws are likely going to call for the rest of their stack with two cards to come in order to see if they hit the flush or straight. With $170 in the pot already, my $30 call and another $80 raise put the pot at $280 and it is $80 to call. This means the other two players are looking at 3.5-1 odds on their call (4.5-1 for the second guy if the first player calls) with no more action to go and two cards to come. With a bet, check-raise, and call, these guys are either gamblers willing to risk their money without regret, they have made hands that are worth all this money flying around the table, or one characteristic goes with each player.
Had I simply called the $30, seen whether a third heart came on the turn to complete the flush that I had put one of the players on drawing for, and then decided my necessary action with the advantage of acting last I might have saved myself a little money, but in all likelihood I would have called an all-in bet on the turn as the check-raiser did have pocket sevens for bottom set and eventually won the hand. The other guy also called my all-in raise with something he never showed but it couldn’t beat either of our hands. The turn and river were both twos, giving the first guy a full house of sevens over twos, besting my two pair.
Again, the reason I feel it was a mistake to move all-in on the flop was had I waited to the turn I would have cut the number of chances for drawing hands to hit for the amount of money that was bet in half. Let us pretend the guy with sevens wasn’t in the hand and I was really up against a guy who held two hearts. If I bet everything on the flop he will justify a call by saying it is really only $40 for each card to come. But by waiting until after the turn card comes out and seeing that I am still safe with no heart being shown, that $80 bet is the full price with only one card to come now. Sure, you could make an argument that by not re-raising on the flop I am giving my opponent a free chance to make his flush, but if the heart does come and I truly believe he has the flush then I can get away from it for $80 less than I would have or gamble for boating up with an ace or queen on the river depending on his action. Every poker hand is a different scenario, even if some are similar to ones in the past, as each hand will have something different from the previous situation like a different opponent, various chip counts, opposite positions at the table than earlier. All of these characteristics have to be considered when in the middle of a hand and you can’t play each hand the same as the last one. That is what makes the game of poker such a complex game to master, along with the fact that luck is a component.
After losing about $140 of my initial $180 buy-in I added an additional $140 to my stack, putting me in for a total of $320. You already know since I lost $100 for the trip I was only able to get back to $220, but my low point after the re-buy was $45 and I was able to double that up and then keep increasing my stack until I decided after more than seven hours of playing a hundred lost was okay.
The biggest contributing hand after my re-buy that put me down to under $100 was when I held pocket tens and called down a guy who had pocket jacks. In my defense, there was never a card above an eight on the board. Had I raised my opponent at some point I might have been able to push him off his overpair, but I was still reeling a bit from the A-Q loss early in the night and didn’t want to go out after only an hour or so of playing.
I was able to win some large pots with a flush when holding A-6 suited, twice hitting a pair of aces while holding A-K, and having trip threes when my hole cards were 3-4 suited.
The most disappointing hand for the night was a fold I made that in 99 out of 100 situations would be the correct one, but I had a read on a guy and didn’t follow through with it. The player to my immediate right had his girlfriend sitting behind him, so after a hand was over he would either show a card to the entire table in order for us to see how great of a player he was or he would show enough of his cards at the end of the hand for the girlfriend to see, resulting in my own observation of his hands. What I gathered from him was if he was betting, he was behind. It was that simple. He always bet draws, always bet complete bluffs, always bet bottom pair and second pair. It was only when he had top pair or higher that he would check it in hopes somebody would bet for him. If his flop bet was met with resistance he would slow down on the turn and then again resume betting the river if he didn’t have the best hand. There were several times he checked the winning hand only to be checked back to and miss out on a bet that surely would have been called, and likewise he had numerous moments of being called and not even showing his hand as he knew it was not any good.
With this information I had already made some smart decisions against him in calling hands I knew were winners and folding ones I knew were second best. I was feeling good about myself when it came to playing this guy. However, on a hand that had me holding middle pair on the flop and now fourth-highest pair after the river, I folded to a bet of $15, with about $40 in the pot prior to that bet, thinking I was no good. I rushed the decision and had I thought about his prior actions, which were betting on the flop, checking the turn when I called, and betting on the river, I would have come to the conclusion that my pair of eights was good. After the fold he flipped up pocket sevens, confirming my better hand was indeed the winner. I didn’t show any emotion that I was hurt by my incorrect play because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction, but in reality that hand, despite the pot being relatively small to others I lost throughout the night, was the most disheartening because I didn’t take my time to evaluate the situation and my opponent to the fullest.
For the year I have won $295 and played for 24.25 hours, resulting in an unacceptable $12.16 hourly rate. My wife made it abundantly clear that the WinStar trips are going to be put on hold for a while with baby Jackson’s birth coming upon us quickly. That dream of winning $5,000 playing poker is probably not going to be reached, but I’m not giving up complete hope just yet.
Friday, February 25, 2011
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