For those of you who don't know what i am talking about, here's the summary...
Hellmuth raises from late position with big slick... (a little over 3 times the big blind, his standard raise...)
everyone else folds, big blind re-raises to 10 times the big blind....
Hellmuth gives him the stare for a bit and decides to call...
flop come K-x-x rainbow....
big blind checks...
Hellmuth thinks for a little bit.... and makes a minimal bet, about 25-30% of the pot...
big blind immediately re-raises to almost 100% of pot...
Hellmuth turns over to him, and says something like, "i have a feeling you have me beat... I almost folded before the flop..."
and he mucks top-pair, top-kicker with absolutely nothing else on the board....
lo and behold!, the big blind flips over pocket aces...
Hellmuth gets up, looks at the camera, points towards his wife.... and goes, "I can dodge bullets baby... !" (I was ready to cry...)
so anyway, from that day... my biggest dream has been to be able to make such outlandish lay downs with minimal fuss...
and i have made some good ones....
i am on the 2-5 table at the taj,
this guy just sits down... it's his first hand... he raises from middle position to $17...
everyone folds to me on the button... i look down at pocket queens... (beautiful sight)...
i re-raise to $55...
before i have put my bet in, he moves all in with his $300....
i give him a look... "all-in on your first hand...!?"
he says something like... "you must have had something since you re-raised me...."
right then and there, i knew...
i mucked em... face up...
and he turns over bullets...
i looked around for the camera as well as a wife looking person... didn't find either... so just sat down....
but now, i come to the hand that i actually wanted to discuss here.... (i wanted to give you context first... mostly so that i look less retarded...)
again at the taj, 1-2 table this time
guy sits down and raises from middle position to $15... his first hand...
one other person calls...
i look at my cards in the big blind, and look down at cowboys... raise it to $50
he immediately calls... the other caller folds...
i check in the dark, hoping to see his reaction and then trap him...
flop comes 9-6-4 off suit...
he looks at me, and immediately goes all in with his $300 or so...
i think... and think... and think... and i Fold... announcing to the world that i had kings...
he looks at me... "you had KINGS ?!?!"
and he announces that he had queens...
i refused to believe that (for the next couple of months...)
needless to say, the rest of the night was miserable... i couldn't win a hand to save my life... everyone wanted to play against me... not a good feeling to have...
for the longest time, i couldn't believe it that he did not have aces, but after playing and replaying the hand in my head and the eventual conversations, i realize that he indeed had queens...
lessons for the future...
1- be willing to submit to the poker god's will if you get cowboys against aces... unless it's a tournament and you just don't wanna gamble with the big stack at the moment, always call with cowboys... 9 times out of 10, you'll win... the one time you do lose, the table will know that you are willing to go all the way... so they won't prey on you...
2- even if you are gonna fold a strong hand, never announce it... nothing good can ever come out of it... you might get momentary satisfaction if you are right, but it can only go against you... your opponents know that you have the ability to fold the second best hand, so if you are in... you must have the nuts... (of course you can use that to bluff, but the downside risk of being preyed upon is much more dangerous...)
No comments:
Post a Comment