MotorCity Mafia

I will be back in tournament action today and cash games later this week … I think.

Here is a story of how I outplayed a young gun in a cash game several weeks ago:

I am in seat 9. Seats 8 and 10 were open.

This young gun sits down in seat 10, presumably so he can raise me.

I am in the big blind with K-K. He raises under the gun with a hand like A-Q or A-J.

The flop comes K-Q-7 rainbow.

I check call my set all the way to the river.

His chips are gone, and I take it down.

The young gun reloads and moves to seat 8.

“You moved to check raise me now?” I ask him.

He grins.

He bets his first hand hard. I put him on nothing, but call with K-Q off.

The flop comes A-J-9 off.

He bets the flop hard, trying to represent an Ace.

“I can beat an Ace,” I say. And I call.

The turn is a deuce.

He bets hard again.

Once again, I tell him I can beat an Ace. And I call.

The river is another blank.

The young gun pauses. Then checks.

My gut says he has rags.

“I have the winning hand,” I tell him. “But, if you show me A-K or A-Q, I will fold.”

Nothing. So, I wait.

He turns over 8 high.

I turn over King high and take the pot down.

“I thought you could beat an Ace?” He asks.

“I could. The part I left out was I needed a 10 first.”

The young gun was just about felted. Again.

Instead of another seat change, he opted for a table change.

I play 80% of  my hands from late position. I prefer to act last.

However, there is value in acting first against certain players in certain situations.

People talk about playing the player. There is more to it than playing the betting tendencies of your opponent.

To me, playing the player is a combination of reading their hand blind along with their betting tendencies.

Against a fairly solid player, position matters.

Against a calling station, super donkey, or drunk fuck, nothing matters.

Here is an example: I am in the big blind with A-J off. Not a great hand, but playable.

The button raises pre-flop. It is either a position raise with nothing or he has what he thinks is a monster hand: A-K.

I feel he is trying to steal the blinds. Heads-up, I know I can outplay this guy, so I call.

When I make the call, I give him the benefit of doubt and put him on A-K. This means if an Ace or King comes, I am done with the hand.

The flop comes J-6-2 rainbow.

I know my opponent wants to bet, but I bet first hoping to represent J-J. I don’t want him to catch a King.

He raises me.

Ok. Maybe he also has A-J for a chop.

I call.

The turn is a 2.

I bet hard.

He insta-calls.

I was not looking for a call. I was hoping for a fold.

If a King comes, I am beat.

If my opponent has Q-Q, I am beat.

No way he has K-K or A-A, or he would have ended it on the flop.

I do not want a showdown.

The only way I can win is to bet.

I also know from listening to this player talk to his neighbor that he has been losing all night. He just changed seats and does not want to lose much more money.

I take all this information and make a decision.

I push $100 into the pot dark.

As I do this, my eyes never leave my opponent.

He reacts to the bet like, “Fuck, I am way behind here.”

Then the river card comes.

I keep my eyes on my opponent, never looking at what fell on the board.

In fact, I never watch the cards fall. I only look at the board when it is my time to act.

The river is a dreaded King.

Judging by his reaction to the King, the King helped his hand.

He has two pair, probably with an Ace kicker.

I have second best pair with an Ace kicker.

He stares at the King for about 30 seconds.

My opponent then looks at me.

I am just staring him down.

I never moved my head during the hand. Just stared him down from the time the cards came out until now. Fucking statue.

“That …. that was a pretty strong bet there, Sir,” he says.

I stare.

Moments later, he folds.

I muck.

“You must have had a full house to bet like that,” he says.

“Pocket Jacks,” I reply.

“Yep. That is what I thought. That is the only hand you could of had to bet like that in the dark,” he says.

No. I outplayed you with what turned out to be the second best hand.

This is one of the rare times that acting first can work to your advantage.

Keep in mind, I know my player here. He is losing, so he is careful while aggressive.

He is also NOT a calling station.

A play like this will NOT work against a calling station or a drunk.

Position matters with an average to strong player.

Nothing matters with a calling station or drunk fuck.

I have what some people call “a trick” that never fails to produce the results I want. I prefer to think of it as a way of helping those that need help. Let me explain:

A young gun at the table last night took a couple of bad beats and is visibly upset. He gets “tilty” and starts to drink shots.

He raises pre-flop to $25 and the action folds around to me. I am on the button with J-10 off.

The previous session, my reads were 100% on. This particular session, I am tired from no sleep and my game is off a bit. Frankly, I am not sure what he had, but I put him on Q-Q.

I call the bet knowing I can outplay him after the flop. He will be less likely to call a big bet if an ace or king hit. He already lost most of his stack and I am betting on him folding queens in frustration as opposed to calling off all his chips in frustration.

The flop comes 8h - 10h - 10c.

The young gun bets out $50.

I insta-raise him all-in.

The player is visibly confused and not sure what to do.

I show him the Jack of hearts, and I can see the wheels turning. He puts me either on a straight draw or a heart draw worst case and pocket jacks best case.

What he does not know is, unlike a majority of players, I usually do not put my money in on a draw after the flop. If I am drawing, I keep it cheap.

He calls the bet and I show trip 10s.

Fourth street and fifth street are blanks and he folds in frustration.

Instead of me getting a speech that usually comes with the pot in this situation, two other young guns gave him a speech on what I did and how he should have known my other card was a 10.

When I show one card during the action, the opposing player always makes the wrong decision. It never fails.

I was involved in the largest pot of the night in my last session. Unfortunately.

There was a tight, experienced player at the table that stayed out of my pots for several hours. We played together before, and I think there was mutual respect. Besides, I had position on him.

All of a sudden, he moves to an open seat that gave him position on me. I figured he was changing gears since I was the chip leader at the table. He was second in chips, which was half of my deep stack.

The first hand in his new seat, I get dealt K-K. I make it $25 to go. He calls and we are heads up.

Flop is 4-4-3. I make it $75 to go in a feeble attempt to take down the pot right there.

He raises me another $200, and instantly pulls his jacket over his face to completely cover up. This guy turned into an instant statue.

I tell him I think he has a strong ace or maybe pocket queens.

I start my process of elimination on hands he does not have.

I tell him he does not have A-A.

I tell him he does not have pocket fours.

I also say that I have pocket kings.

I ask the rhetorical question of having pocket threes. I rule this out because I did not think he would call $25 pre-flop with 3-3. Then again, I have not seen him risk half his chips in any pot since he sat down three hours ago.

I ponder the situation for another minute, then I act against my gut. My gut says K-K is not worth another $125 or more.

Thinking he is trying to make a move, I put him all in.

He insta-calls, but does not show.

Knowing I probably need either a king or a four, the turn and river are blanks.

The player slow rolls pocket threes for a full house: threes full of fours.

In retrospect, he got a miracle flop and was trying to protect a marginal boat.

While I don’t like the slow roll, I do respect the move.

Now, if I could have folded my brokeback cowboys on the flop …

At table 2, seat 5 is a bully player that is sitting on about $375. I am in seat 9 with $300.

Earlier in the night, he bet all-in preflop and showed 5-7 off after everyone folded.

From early position, he makes it $100 to go. I put him on 2-2 or 3-3. I call with 8-6 hearts knowing the rest of the table would fold around because they were playing tight.

Seat 5 then pushes $275 all in dark.

Flop comes 9h-7-h-4s. I call with my open ended straight flush draw. He shows A-A and starts celebrating. Bad read on my part.

The hoopla was short-lived when the turn was a 5 for a straight. I not only turned a straight, I turned a bad read into a great call.