A couple of days ago I got a chance to talk about a hand that may have been one of the best hands that I played in awhile. It was something that also gave me a great education and I’m hoping that everyone who reads this gets something meaningful out of it as well. I was playing in a 2/2 NL game and I had increased my chip stack from my initial buy in of $200 to just over $500 dollars. I was already on my second buy in for the day after getting stacked earlier. I picked up K♦ 8♦ on the button. When I’m in a later position I like to widen my range of hands a bit every now and then, especially if I have suited cards. Since I had a King that was suited I decided to raise and see if I could just take all of the dead money down or isolate someone, c-bet and just pick up the pot. Instead, I got 4 hitchhikers so I had to go to plan B; flop two pair, a flush draw, or fold. With an 8 kicker I wasn’t planning on playing a King that hits the flop with any aggression.
So, there’s $60 in the pot with 6 of us seeing the flop. The flop comes J♦ 6♥ 5♦. The flop gets checked all the way around to me. I bet $30 in hopes of taking the pot down. I start seeing people fold, which makes me happy. A player in middle position calls cold and everyone else folds. When the middle position player calls, the range of hands I put him on is a diamond draw. The way he was playing told me he wouldn’t draw to a straight with only 6 outs since two of his outs could still make a flush, so that’s where I had him at. The turn card comes a 9♥. At this point, the only hand I know that would still be ahead of me would be 7♦ 8♦. A lot of times I could just check here. I also feel that betting would be a good idea if my opponent is still drawing to a flush. If that’s the case, my best chance to win is to bet and take the pot down right there. That may not seem like the smartest move considering that my opponent may have a straight, but I decided that if he does make a move on me, that I could then decide if I wanted to fold or not. So I bet $50. My opponent starts thinking about what he wants to do and starts calculating the math for what is the right decision. He finally decides to call. This bet ends up being perhaps the most critical point of the hand which will become clear after the I explain how the hand plays out. On the river comes a 2♦. My plan if the diamond hit on the river was to check raise. I checked. I expected a value bet of about $50 to $70. Instead he surprised me with a bet of $150. It surprised me a bit but it gave me a reason to just get the rest of my chips in the middle of the pot, so I just decided to raise him all in. My opponent seemed a bit stunned for a second and then called. I turned over my hand just as he revealed that he had A♦Q♦ for the nuts. To say I was shocked was an understatement. It took me a minute to regain my focus and push the chips over my opponent’s way. I knew his hand range was in the area of a flush but it never even crossed my mind that he had AQ. Unlike most players, he didn’t raise before the flop so that wasn’t a hand I would suspect him having.
I talked to him after the hand was over and he was surprised that I was actually so willing, and gracious in defeat, to want to talk to him about the strategy that we both were utilizing in the hand. The turn bet I made of $50 was the key to him getting to the river. The only reason he called was because he was still drawing to the nuts with 3 to 1 pot odds. He said that he only stayed with the hand because he was drawing to the nuts. If he had a smaller flush draw of any sort he would have folded. Had I made a pot sized bet of $100, he said he calling would have been much tougher. A bet of that size tells him that I have a set and with only 9 outs to make his hand, is too much money. Because of the Jack on the flop, he felt that I only had a pair of Jacks and believed that he could still improve his hand with any diamond and the other 6 Aces or Queens left in the deck. So in his mind, those six extra outs made him only about a 3 to 1 underdog with the river to come.
This is where the $50 bet on the turn kept him in the pot and may have ultimately played a role in upending my hand. Bet sizing is extremely critical when you start playing for pots that are valued at over 50 blinds. Equally important is having knowledge of the range of hands that your opponent could have and that can beat you if the river hits. This is probably where I screwed up. My range of hands for him was dead on. But it never occurred to me that he could have been drawing to the nuts. If you put someone on a range of hands to have to make it as wide as possible to the best possible hand, especially if it’s a hand in that range that can beat you. This loss was a hard one, but it was a very valuable lesson. One that cost me a lot of money. It is one that I am not bound to make again.
So, there’s $60 in the pot with 6 of us seeing the flop. The flop comes J♦ 6♥ 5♦. The flop gets checked all the way around to me. I bet $30 in hopes of taking the pot down. I start seeing people fold, which makes me happy. A player in middle position calls cold and everyone else folds. When the middle position player calls, the range of hands I put him on is a diamond draw. The way he was playing told me he wouldn’t draw to a straight with only 6 outs since two of his outs could still make a flush, so that’s where I had him at. The turn card comes a 9♥. At this point, the only hand I know that would still be ahead of me would be 7♦ 8♦. A lot of times I could just check here. I also feel that betting would be a good idea if my opponent is still drawing to a flush. If that’s the case, my best chance to win is to bet and take the pot down right there. That may not seem like the smartest move considering that my opponent may have a straight, but I decided that if he does make a move on me, that I could then decide if I wanted to fold or not. So I bet $50. My opponent starts thinking about what he wants to do and starts calculating the math for what is the right decision. He finally decides to call. This bet ends up being perhaps the most critical point of the hand which will become clear after the I explain how the hand plays out. On the river comes a 2♦. My plan if the diamond hit on the river was to check raise. I checked. I expected a value bet of about $50 to $70. Instead he surprised me with a bet of $150. It surprised me a bit but it gave me a reason to just get the rest of my chips in the middle of the pot, so I just decided to raise him all in. My opponent seemed a bit stunned for a second and then called. I turned over my hand just as he revealed that he had A♦Q♦ for the nuts. To say I was shocked was an understatement. It took me a minute to regain my focus and push the chips over my opponent’s way. I knew his hand range was in the area of a flush but it never even crossed my mind that he had AQ. Unlike most players, he didn’t raise before the flop so that wasn’t a hand I would suspect him having.
I talked to him after the hand was over and he was surprised that I was actually so willing, and gracious in defeat, to want to talk to him about the strategy that we both were utilizing in the hand. The turn bet I made of $50 was the key to him getting to the river. The only reason he called was because he was still drawing to the nuts with 3 to 1 pot odds. He said that he only stayed with the hand because he was drawing to the nuts. If he had a smaller flush draw of any sort he would have folded. Had I made a pot sized bet of $100, he said he calling would have been much tougher. A bet of that size tells him that I have a set and with only 9 outs to make his hand, is too much money. Because of the Jack on the flop, he felt that I only had a pair of Jacks and believed that he could still improve his hand with any diamond and the other 6 Aces or Queens left in the deck. So in his mind, those six extra outs made him only about a 3 to 1 underdog with the river to come.
This is where the $50 bet on the turn kept him in the pot and may have ultimately played a role in upending my hand. Bet sizing is extremely critical when you start playing for pots that are valued at over 50 blinds. Equally important is having knowledge of the range of hands that your opponent could have and that can beat you if the river hits. This is probably where I screwed up. My range of hands for him was dead on. But it never occurred to me that he could have been drawing to the nuts. If you put someone on a range of hands to have to make it as wide as possible to the best possible hand, especially if it’s a hand in that range that can beat you. This loss was a hard one, but it was a very valuable lesson. One that cost me a lot of money. It is one that I am not bound to make again.
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