The Barber's Chair

I played another session of NLHE at the local casino and I am happy to say that my rungood is still running good as I was up $153 after a little over 3 hours. Most of my hands were against the same players who started the table with me.  Just to give you a little idea of the dynamic, I was in seat #1.

Seat #2 was a live one who barely knew how to play. He is a loose passive player who rarely bet, usually called and never raised preflop.

Seat #3 was a LAG who later in session told me that he played 3-4 times a week at the casino. He limped a lot, but was aggressive, especially post flop. He raised an OESD vs. a preflop raiser with AQs on a flop in one hand and wasn’t afraid to put on the pressure with large bets.

Seat #4 was a friend of Seat #2. He was a bit loose passive, but would raise strong hands preflop. He would just call a lot of strong TP hands post flop when faced with big bets and was later knocked out when he failed to raise his flopped trips vs. an agro talker who caught a 2 outer on the turn for a full house.

Seat #5 was a quiet, loose passive player as well who liked to limp with suited Aces and broad way hands. He didn’t make his presence felt all that much, but won a couple of medium sized pots.

Seat #6 was a very bad LAG short stacker who limped all kinds of junk and would always take a stab at a limped pot on the turn if the flop had been checked around. Sometimes he had something, but most of the time he didn’t. He must have bought in for 25 BBs 3 times before leaving the table.

Seat #7 was a TAG who lost a couple of large pots with large pocket pairs that were up against very wet board and heavy action from draws. When he raised preflop, he had premium starting hands.

Seat #8 was a LAG who wouldn’t stop betting post flop unless he was faced with a raise. He limped a lot of pots and got short stacked pretty quick, which then made him gamble quite a bit. Later on he switches to my immediate left when a seat opens up and starts putting on a straddle whenever I am in the BB.

Seat #9 was a TAGish player who won a few smaller pots and split another one with Seat #6 when they both tabled PPKKs on the river. Seat #9 only called a preflop raise and then showed a little aggression post flop.

Live NLHE---

Hand #1

Hero $180

UTG+1 has over $200

Hero is in BB with AKo. UTG folds, Seat #3 limps, 2 folds, MP2 limps, CO limps, BTN folds, SB completes, HERO raises to $20, UTG+1 calls, all fold.

I’ve seen Seat#3 play a few hands and I know he is not going to just go away post flop without some sort of a fight, unless he completely misses or should I say, the flop slaps my range in the face. I am putting him on some mid to low pocket pair, perhaps some middle high suited connectors up to QJs or some weak KXs, possibly A8s type of hand. I really don’t want to see a wet flop or one that's middle heavy. I plan on c-betting nearly any flop even though I am OOP, with the exception of a 456 type of a board which will obviously not have improved whatever my hand is.  I am looking at a bet in the range of $25-30.

2 players (pot-$46)

FLOP—K 8 2 rainbow

Hero bets $30, UTG+1 raises to $65…

I should be very happy with TPTK on a dry ragged board and I should be happy to see him raising as I probably way ahead of his range. He could have something like pocket 7s that are hoping to fold out pocket 10s through Queens, or he could have TPMK and be raising for value (in his opinion).  I have right around $130 left in my stack and the villain has me covered. 2 options flashed in my mind. The first one was to 3-bet this flop and hope he will call with a KJ type of hand so that I get paid off. There aren’t any draws, so if he is ahead of me, it’s probably a set of 8s, but that’s only a small part of the range I put him on. The second option was to call the $35 raise and plan on CRing the turn. The pot would be $176 (- rake) he would need to put in at least a ½ pot sized bet, for me to reraise all-in.  The problem is, that if I call this flop, even TPMK is going to be worried about being outkicked and might possibly check behind. I don’t want to give him a free card, so I elect for option #1. The only question is how much? He raises to $65 which means I’ll be doubling that to $130 which is what I have, so I go all in and make a big live poker mistake. After I say that I am all-in, I mutter, “I think you have me beat, but…”

This completely tells him that I have a TPTK or better type of hand and that he is going to be behind if he’s not holding a set. 2-pair is highly unlikely at this point. He thinks for about 10 seconds and folds. He then tells me that he was trying to get Queens or Jacks to fold, but you can never trust a poker player. More hands from this session to come later. Any thoughts are welcome.