Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Crazy boards

A pretty uneventful evening - didn't have all my chips in the middle once, but missed some opportunities to capitalise, but also lost the minimum on some other reverses.

The two most interesting hands of the night were...

Raised from the BB, with A-Q, and saw a Ad-Kd-Jc flop - seriously scary. It went check-check and another Ace (Ah) pops up on the turn. I'm pretty sure I'm ahead, but I'm still losing to Q-10, or A-J, so I check with the intention to call. It's checked-back. The river is the case Ace (As) and I decided now is the time to see if my opponent has a King or a Jack and might think their full-house is good. No action, quick fold. Didn't make a penny.

I was on the receiving end of an almost identical board, later in the evening. I've got Kd-10d under the gun and manage to see a flop with a limp. Ah-Jd-Qs - I've flopped Broadway on a rainbow board and now I am praying my one opponent has some sort of Ace. I am desperate to maximize and check; he checks back. The turn is another Ace (Ad), and now I am starting to get a little worried that I am up against A-Q or A-J. But, I now have a straight-flush draw on board, so I lead out for half-the-pot and get quickly called. Unbelievably, for the second time this evening, it's another Ace on the river (As). Now even a naked Ace is beating me, so I have to check - fully expecting to see a decent bet. It would have been an impossible call - I'm losing to any Ace, and Queen, any Jack or any other pocket pair - but thankfully he checks back, flipping up Pocket 9's for a full-house.


I actually chortled at losing the minimum, and cursed at not betting out on the flop. But I got out of Dodge losing the absolute minimum - but if I had even had the balls to bet on the river I probably would have taken it down - how many times have I had an underpair to that kind of board and folded immediately, on the flop, to a lead-out bet?

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