Doing the funky chicken
And other sorts of moves ...
A hand came up a few days ago that I simply can't get out of my head -- it's not a huge pot, nothing terribly exciting about it, but there's just something about it that worries me. So, in a carthatic spirit, here it is:
$25 pot limit hold'em.
I'm in the cutoff with a full stack and get T♦T♥. A mid position player who has yet to make an impression on me limps. The next player, on a short stack of $1.50, also limps. Now this player has certainly made an impression. He plays any two cards and calls raises with any two cards. I've been looking for the chance to isolate him for some time, and though it's hardly worth while at this point given the size of his remaining stack I follow through with a pot-sized raise to $1.35.
This gets folded around to the BB who, holding 8♣9♣ elects to call. I can just about see this -- he can be sure that our any two cards friend will call (or more likely commit his last $0.15 to the pot), and if the previous limper does so as well, his suited connectors are getting nice odds. Even if the first of the limpers folds it's not too bad, and because of the small amount of cash remaining in the short stack it's impossible that he'll be facing a true reraise when it comes back to him.
And that's pretty much how things turned out, the first limper folded, any two cards put the rest of his money in, I called (not being allowed to raise) and we all saw the flop:
K♣Q♦4♣
Enter the funky chicken. With his flush draw and undercards, the BB bet $3 into a $5 pot. I folded of course, a club came on the turn, but another came on the river, so mister any two cards picked up the pot with A♣5♥.
Postscript What I simply can't understand is what the bet on the flop was meant to accomplish. In order to win the pot, even if I fold, he must believe that he as to improve a bit (even against mister any two cards, 9 high is not a great hand). With an all in and a dry side pot, my continuation bet (if I make it) will likely be smaller than normal and so a check-call line (which might well be a draw, but could also be something like KJ, AQ ...) is likely both to build the pot and to cost less when the draw fails to hit.
Furthermore, the big problem with the bet on the flop is that it just spews money if I elect to raise (as I promise you I would have with any of AA, AK, KK, KQ, QQ). Facing a pot sized raise, you're going (in principle) to have to let the flush draw go (because you will not be given implied odds on such an obvious draw).
A hand came up a few days ago that I simply can't get out of my head -- it's not a huge pot, nothing terribly exciting about it, but there's just something about it that worries me. So, in a carthatic spirit, here it is:
$25 pot limit hold'em.
I'm in the cutoff with a full stack and get T♦T♥. A mid position player who has yet to make an impression on me limps. The next player, on a short stack of $1.50, also limps. Now this player has certainly made an impression. He plays any two cards and calls raises with any two cards. I've been looking for the chance to isolate him for some time, and though it's hardly worth while at this point given the size of his remaining stack I follow through with a pot-sized raise to $1.35.
This gets folded around to the BB who, holding 8♣9♣ elects to call. I can just about see this -- he can be sure that our any two cards friend will call (or more likely commit his last $0.15 to the pot), and if the previous limper does so as well, his suited connectors are getting nice odds. Even if the first of the limpers folds it's not too bad, and because of the small amount of cash remaining in the short stack it's impossible that he'll be facing a true reraise when it comes back to him.
And that's pretty much how things turned out, the first limper folded, any two cards put the rest of his money in, I called (not being allowed to raise) and we all saw the flop:
K♣Q♦4♣
Enter the funky chicken. With his flush draw and undercards, the BB bet $3 into a $5 pot. I folded of course, a club came on the turn, but another came on the river, so mister any two cards picked up the pot with A♣5♥.
Postscript What I simply can't understand is what the bet on the flop was meant to accomplish. In order to win the pot, even if I fold, he must believe that he as to improve a bit (even against mister any two cards, 9 high is not a great hand). With an all in and a dry side pot, my continuation bet (if I make it) will likely be smaller than normal and so a check-call line (which might well be a draw, but could also be something like KJ, AQ ...) is likely both to build the pot and to cost less when the draw fails to hit.
Furthermore, the big problem with the bet on the flop is that it just spews money if I elect to raise (as I promise you I would have with any of AA, AK, KK, KQ, QQ). Facing a pot sized raise, you're going (in principle) to have to let the flush draw go (because you will not be given implied odds on such an obvious draw).
Labels: cash
posted by Michael Albert at 11:15 am
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