Belated Thursday Poker Blog! The Streak Continues…

Good morning everyone!  We will have two posts for you today, including this late Thursday poker blog update!

Last week, we chronicled the ridiculous run of fortune (and some good play too ;-D) that has produced about $1300 in profit in a low-stakes home game in just over two months.  Our normal Wednesday game was shifted to Thursday last night and yes, the streak continued!

We had only seven players this week, meaning only 2 would make the money.  After a steady but under-the-radar effort in Game 1, I missed the money after getting crippled in an AQ v. A9 pre-flop all-in hand where a dirty 9 spiked the river to steal away all my winnings.  If the hand held up,  I would have had the 2nd largest stack and with 3 players left, a heavy favorite to at least make the money.  All you can do is get your money in at the right moment and hope the math works in your favor.  Not meant to be that time…

Game 2 featured a similar start, as I slowly chipped my stack up above average with some small pots early.  The key moment for me came on a large semi-bluff.  With the blinds still reasonably small (75/150 I believe), I decided to limp into a multi-way pot with 3-4 of hearts, some classic suited connectors as depicted above.  Now, most pros will say that 3-4 suited is too low when it comes to playing suited connectors.  I tend to disagree not just because a 4 high flush is just as valuable as a 7 high flush in my book, but also my table image really helps disguise my hand when something goofy like a flop of A-4-4 happens. 

To me the only mandate with baby suited connectors is having the discipline to disregard making one pair, realizing that you’re not playing the hand to make a pair of 4’s. 

So anyway, in a pot of about 4 players, the flop comes Q-6-2 with 2 hearts.  I have 12 cards that will either make a flush or straight for me (9 hearts and 3 non-heart 5’s).  My friend in the big blind bets out about 300, I raise, not call, to 800.  As we discussed early in the blog, the raise is a more effective play here for several reasons.  One, we’re disguising that we are on a draw, and are more likely to get paid off when we hit our hand than if we just call until the 3rd heart comes.  Second, why not try to win the pot here?  Betting is the too-often-forgotten second way of winning a pot aside from having the best cards. 

My friend does go ahead and call my raise.  The turn brings another 2, and not the heart I need.  My friend bets out AGAIN, this time approximately 800 chips.  This is an unorthodox move, somewhat thwarting yet a 3rd usual benefit of semi-bluffing in position, the free river card.  Normally when you raise in position on the flop, your calling opponent will check to you on the turn, giving you the option of checking the turn if you indeed miss your draw. 

My friend has denied me that opportunity by betting out.   At this point, I have about 2500 chips.  I can fold, declining to exhaust my entire stack on 3-4.  I still have the odds to call, but I hate dwindling my stack down to 1700 if my draw doesn’t hit.  Or, option 3, I raise him again ALL IN!   After a few moments, he shows a Queen (top pair) and mucks his hand. 

In poker, you can’t live unless you’re willing to die sometimes 🙂   

The cards were pretty friendly to me after that, and a sweet victory came about 40 minutes later!

We will be back with a Florida Law Update later today…

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