Poker News

Russ Fox

Aaron was sitting at the breakfast table, enjoying his hotcakes, when his wife Anne asked him how the poker game went at the casino yesterday.

“It went very well, honey. There’s one hand in particular that I thoroughly enjoyed playing. I was up against Mick-you remember, the maniac I told you about?”

“Oh, sure, dear.”

“Anyway, I was in the small blind in the $1 - $2 no-limit game with [7c]-[7s]. Mick was in middle position, and he raised to all of $4. Three players called, so I did but the big blind folded. The flop came [7h][5h][3s]. I looked at Mick, and I just knew he had [Ah][Kh].”

“How much did you have in your stack?” Anne asked.

“It was a new game, and we all had $200 in our stacks. Let’s see, I decided to bet out so I made it $20. Mick said raise, and then he moved all-in! The next player quietly said call, the next two players folded, so I had to decide what to do.”

“You folded, right?”

“Well, I worked it out at the table. It would cost me $176, and I could win about $440 more. I knew where Mick was assuming I made the right read, but I had to figure out the other player. I was thinking for several minutes when I realized it didn’t matter.

“The only hand that was ahead of me would be if the other guy had 6-4, and if that’s the case I had seven outs on the turn and ten outs on the river. If he had an underset, then I just had to sweat Mick’s draw. So I called.”

“You did WHAT? Didn’t you realize you gave Mick the right price?”

“No honey, I didn’t; the other guy did. Once that guy called, there’s nothing I can do assuming I’ve read Mick right. Mick would always be getting the right price. He has about a 1-in-3 chance of hitting his draw, assuming I call. And how can I not call? I had the best hand, and I was a big favorite. The other guy flopped a set of threes, and Mick had the [Ah]-[Kh]. Yes, Mick was getting just under 1-in-3 odds, but I was going to win the pot two-thirds of the time. And assume that the other guy had the 6-4; I would be getting the right price. In that case I’d be getting 1.8-to-1 on my money, about a 36 percent chance of winning. I’ll take those odds. Not to mention the chance of putting Mick on tilt.” “Did he go on tilt?”

“No, and I was surprised. An orbit later, after he rebought, he got in a hand with that same guy. Mick raised with some piece of cheese, say [8c]-[5s], against the other guy’s A-A. Mick got lucky, though, and flopped two pair and stacked the guy off. That guy went on tilt, though; he changed his game from tight to very loose, but he didn’t know what to do. He never followed up his bad hands with continuation bets when he missed the flop. Even Mrs.

Goldman cleaned up against him. He must have dropped a thousand.”

“Wow, that’s a lot in a $1-$2 game.”

“Yeah, but I did really well. Justplayed a patient game and took the few opportunities that came my way.”

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