Some unfortunate poker

I begin my first poker blog entry with some exposition. Bugsy's Club, the website I traditionally played on due to its Mac-friendly interface, went out of business, and PokerStars ran a promotion for members of BC to go over and play in freerolls with prize pools of $300 all week. I don't play much, but I don't stink, so off I went. I had assured myself of cashing (42 big cents!) when this hand came up; we're not talking big money here, but it's the principle, and if this adds a poker dimension to my blog, then so be it. I'll go stage by stage here, and we'll see how it goes.

Dealt to horsefan3277 [4h Ah]: Not a horrible hand. I usually tend to stay away from Ace-rag hands, but when they're suited in an eight-handed game like this where the action has been loose, I'll limp in and see if I get lucky. So four players folded, and I called the $500 minimum (I had about $6,300 in chips before this hand).

However, golias1, who had me outnumbered in chips by about a 2:1 ratio, raised another $500 to $1,000. Another player folded, blomber, who had about $20,000, called, and after some deliberation, I called as well to send us to the flop.

FLOP *** [Jh 5h Kh]

In the words of WPT commentator Mike Sexton, bingo, bango, bongo! I had flopped the nut flush, and now the question was, "How do I play the hand?" blomber checked, and I decided to limp in. After all, I was raised pre-flop, and if another raise came my way, I'd move over the top, going all-in and giving myself a chance to double or triple up. However, golias1 decided to just call, and blomber folded. Rats.

*** TURN *** [Jh 5h Kh] [Jd]

No card could have scared me on this turn except MAYBE a 5. Anyone who had pocket jacks or pocket kings would have raised much more pre-flop, and I figured someone with KJ or 55 would have seen the top two pair or trips and probably raised me on the flop. I bet $1,000, and lo and behold, golias1 goes all-in for a total of just over $9,600, thereby putting me all-in. Needless to say, I called, and turned over the nut flush.

*** RIVER *** [Jh 5h Kh Jd] [Js]*** SHOW DOWN ***horsefan3277: shows [4h Ah] (a flush, Ace high)golias1: shows [Jc Qs] (four of a kind, Jacks)

...yeah, I'm still hurting from that one.

Let's do some math. golias1, who did not play this hand too badly (more on that later), had ten outs. There were three queens, three kings, and three fives for a possible full boat, and, of course, the lone jack for quads. Yeah, he was dominated on the turn, but he still had $5,000 to play with if he lost and he had a not-insignificant number of outs. This wasn't aces getting cracked by 7-2 or anything.

If I was him, I probably play the hand in pretty similar fashion up until the turn. I don't necessarily love the pre-flop raise, but if it was a power play designed to get shorter stacks out of the hand and steal blinds, then I can understand it. Me limping in on the flop gave him a chance to see a pretty-much-free card on the turn, where he went all-in thinking I had squat. The all-in move was another aggressive play, but it makes sense. He's not crippled if he loses the hand, and given my betting patterns, he probably put me on something like K-10.

In general, that's poker. Ultimately, I got all my money in with the best hand, only to see it cracked by a miracle jack. Still, I made some cash, and in a freeroll tournament, that's not bad. If any more hands of note come up, I'll be sure to post them here, so keep an eye out.