In the trenches

The cash games over the past few days have been pretty intense, with eleven players total playing in last night's Friday game. Fortunately for me, that just makes the tight/aggressive style that much more profitable in that game.

I had not done well two days before Friday's game, probably because I built big pots in situations where I really shouldn't have, and by the time my opponents stuck the chips in I was forced to call because of pot odds, knowing my hand was probably second-best. However, I came back and then some last night. About two hours into the game, I hit a pretty incredible rush. At this point, we weren't eleven-handed yet, more like seven or eight at the most. People were doing a lot of limping and many pots were multi-way, so after Andrew limped in under the gun, I limped my king-jack (a questionable move - I probably should fold here. Again, though, I thought there was a good chance of me seeing a flop for $0.50, with many many times that in the pot. Also I trusted my ability to fold here.). It folded over to Eric, who made it $2.50 straight. Two players called, Andrew called, and getting five to one pot odds, I called the extra $2.

Miracle flop: King, Deuce, Jack. Andrew led out for $10, and I raised him to $25. Eric then went into the tank for a little bit, and shipped his stack in the middle - he had everyone covered. As the other players were thinking, then folding around to me, I thought: "Can he have trips here?" I figured that with the KJ on board and the KJ I had in the hole, it was next to impossible for him to have KK or JJ, so if he had trips, deuces were the most (mathematically) likely hand he could hold. But would he raise the deuces like that preflop with so many players yet to act? I didn't think so.

I looked at him, and asked him, "Do you have three kings?" but of course I got no answer. Deciding my hand had to be best, I shrugged, and said "I call."
Eric looked at me and said "I don't have three kings."
"Three deuces?" I asked him,
"No," he replied. "I don't have trips."
This relieved me, since it meant that either we had the same hand (unlikely) or that I had him beat. He flipped over two red aces.
"Hold'em, dealer!" I shouted.

Jesse, the dealer and also a player in the game, burned and turned the last two and my kings and jacks held up as I scooped in a large pot.

Initially, I had bought in for fifty dollars: twenty in $1 blue chips, $5 in 25-cent white chips, and twenty-five in one dollar bills, all bundled together, folded in half and rubber banded. Unfortunately I had lost about $25 of it to Marc in a pot where he called a bet and raise with second pair, no kicker and got there on the turn (I misplayed the hand somewhat, and can't blame him totally for my loss of it. Still, it did depend on him getting lucky on fourth street.). I added $40 in chips, so by the time that big pot with Eric came down I was in for almost $100, about the amount I had lost Wednesday playing a cash game out there. Therefore, I was really glad to win that pot, which put my chip total near $200. That hand was only the beginning of a three-hand rush for me. A few hands later, I held pocket treys one off the button. There was a live one dollar straddle in play, and several players had limped. I called with my 33 and the straddler checked his option. In all, there were seven players taking the flop.

Miracle flop #2: trey of diamonds, deuce of hearts, deuce of diamonds.

With all of the limping and my opponents' reckless hand selection, I felt this flop should have given at least someone a draw (to a second-best hand, of course). Therefore, when it checked around to me, I decided to bet my full house. I went for a near half pot-sized bet of four dollars. Lee, the small blind in the hand, called, and the other players went out. There was now $15 in the pot.

The turn was the king of spades. Lee checked, and I quickly checked behind him. I knew that the king couldn't have completed any of the possible draws he might be on, and I wanted to get more money in the pot. I felt like a bet here would make him fold, so we went to the river. It was the ace of diamonds. Bingo for Lee, apparently, as he led out for $15 (the full size of the pot). If I just called the pot would've been $45, but since there's no way I thought I was beat I raised it up thirty more.

Lee said, "if you have a full house, I'm paying you off," and threw it in there, after some internal debate.
I turned over my two treys, showing him my full house. He showed five-four, for a rivered straight.

On the third big hand, I limped in late position with AJ of hearts, and the flop came A8J (miracle flop #3). Andrew shipped $16.25 in there (an all-in bet) and I called. He showed J6, which, of course, was no good.

These hands pretty much defined the evening for me. It's interesting how long you can sit at a poker table during a session, and you never know when a big decision is coming up. Last night, I played very few hands, but these key pots happened all inside of a 30 minute time frame. The rest of the time I was mostly folding, taking an occasional stab at a small pot. A couple of times I tried to mix it up, raising in position with hands like 97 suited, etc. but I mostly got shut down my reraises or by not catching any sort of draw on the flop, etc.

The point is, it's important to pay attention despite the fact that you might've been folding for an hour and a half, because any hand could be a good one, and any hand is a potential mine of information on your opponents.