Almost Unstuck

I am almost out of the red for the month of July. I've had some pretty good sessions last night and this morning. I won another $100 last night in a short session, and am up another $200 from this morning. I'm now only down $50 for the month. Yahoo!! I played again at one $200 NL table, and made a few bucks, so I think my confidence is coming back.

Here are a few interesting hands from this morning.

I get pocket Queens in Early position. I raise it to $4, my standard raise amount at $100. Only the BB calls. I'm glad he calls, because I just had added him to my buddy list. A few hands earlier he pushed all-in for $75 pre-flop against the guy to his right who had just bet. Other guy made an easy call with his aces. What did muppet push Pre-flop? AJ offsuit.

So he rebought, and won another hand and is up to $130. I just barely have him covered.

So the pot is sitting at $8.50 and we see a flop of [Ah], [Th], [Ad]. Yuck. Not a flop I want to see with pocket Queens. He definitely could be holding Ace-rag. He checks and I throw out a feeler bet of $5. He calls. Turn is the [8s]. Again he checks, and I decide to check behind. The river is the [Qd]. I have a full house, but it is not the nuts. AA, AQ, AT, and A8 all beat me. Pot is at $18.50 and he leads out for $15. I'm thinking that more than likely he has Ace-something where that something isn't a Q, T, or 8 . I'm pretty sure I am ahead here so I raise to $50. He pushes the rest of his stack in and I call.

What does he have? AT you say for the flopped full house? Got lucky with A8 you say? Nope. None of the above. He had KJo and hit his inside straight draw on the river, which happened to give me a full house. So that means he called on the flop chasing an inside straight draw on a paired board. That Queen on the river was the perfect card for me.

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A little while later at the same table, this one happens.

Villain has gotten pretty lucky and has a double stack (about $190). I have him covered and I am sitting directly to his left (I have position on him).

UTG limps in, Villain raises it to $9! I just call with Pocket Jacks. Blinds and UTG fold.

Pot is at $19. Flop is [2h] [2c] [Ad]. He checks. I decide to bet here, representing an Ace to see what he does, so I bet $14. He takes a little while and calls.

Pot is now at $47. Turn is the [7h]. He checks again. His flat call confuses me, so I check, planning on trying to get to a cheap showdown.

Pot still at $47. River is the [Js]

He checks again. I have the 3rd nuts. Do I check behind? His flat call on the flop has bells ringing off in my head. But then I think about his big raise PF. No one bets $9 PF with Aces.

Or do I bet? How much? I decide to bet $30. He takes a little while and raises a little over minimum to $70. It's $40 for me to call into a pot that has $147 so it is an easy call. Sure he could have Aces or pocket ducks, but he also could easily have Queens or Kings and think that I am trying to steal it.

I call and he flips over his pocket ducks for the flopped quads. My god! Can you play quads any worse? If he would have bet on that river, it is very likely he could have gotten my whole stack. I can't believe he would check to me on the river, especially after I checked behind on the turn. If I would have checked behind on the river, that would mean he would have NEVER raised with flopped quads!! He got lucky on the flop, and then got even more lucky when I bet on the river.

Lots of things can be learned from a hand like this. For one, when someone bets big pre-flop, and then that person checks after the flop (especially if that person is aggressive), warning bells should start go off in your head, especially on a paired board. Second, when that pre-flop raiser flat calls a bet on the flop, those bells should be getting louder and louder. And third, for pete's sake, if you flop a monster, you want to build a pot! You need to bet or raise to do that!! Especially if you are out of position.

I think I made a few mistakes on that hand, but he obviously played it much worse. I probably should have re-raised pre-flop to see where I was at. If I would have tripled his bet, it is very unlikely that he would have called that with pocket ducks. Flat calling with Kings or Aces might have been ok, but with Jacks, I should have raised Pre-flop. Other than that, I think I played it ok. My bet on the river was fine, because I have the 3rd nuts. And it wasn't that much more to call his almost min-raise. If he would have pushed all-in, I would have probably folded it.

Argg, if it wasn't for that hand, which happened right before I was going to end my session, I would have won $300 this morning and been in the black for July. Oh well, I'll be unstuck soon I think :)

Cheers!