I played a hand at the Poker Stars last night where I had AK off suit. I raised $30 to $50, making the pot $100. Everyone folded to me and I made a continuation bet of $50, which got 3 callers.
The flop was QJ suited, I checked to my opponent who bet $50. There were 2 limpers in front of me and I made a pot sized bet to $100. Our opponents were very tight and made the call. There was just enough money in the pot to make this a profitable play. I raised to $300 and my opponent in the small blind folded.
The turn was a Joker. That should have tipped me off to the fact that my opponent held a good hand. But I was too lazy to figure it out. I had $ immersed in the pot and I flopped a third Jack! I’m feeling very good about myself right now and my flop bets were terrific. I raised $600 and my opponent folded.
Now the pot was nice and juicy, especially for me. I raised to $1200 and my opponent made the call. He may have had AK, but he could have held on to the low. It could have been a low as well and he might have been holding pocket 8’s or 3’s. IOhad 10K with a weak kicker.
Another player raised to $600 and I called. bbFold. He may call. I wondered if he had missed. But bbNo, he did not.
The river was K and my opponent checked. He had pocket 8’s or 3’s. I waited nearly 12 minutes before calling. Sure enough, he deposited $92 goody’s before quitting.
As I was going to call the remaining $600 or so until I got a third player, a player said “I thought I had him”. Well you better, because a pile of money was on the table. You couldn’t see my opponents cards, but you could hear the tell on my part. I even heard the tell “I have clinched the pot.” when the third player put in another $600 or $1000. Hmmm, it’s starting to sound like a bad beat.
It got worse before it got better. The player who had initially limped in got aggressive and tried to pound a stake. That’s normal. It happens on regular basis, both on and offline. Ioker sets are so scarlet that it would look pretty silly if a pro would be raising in that situation.
When I got the third player, another player flung chips at me. This guy had been very aggressive pre-flop, and randomly checked on the flop. When he had not hit the flop, he got aggressive with a bet of around $400. Oh, joy. Another player with a strong hand had picked up a short stack.
And, suddenly, I had become the chip leader! I realized that if I could stay in the game, the maximum payout would be $5,000. And there were still $20K on the table. Not liking this turn of events, I returned to the cash table, only to be confronted with yet another player, this time in the big blind.
Down to the final three tables. This guy had hardly any chips, and was acting very understandably. When he saw that I was in the big blind, he became desperate to double up. He got aggressive with a bet of maybe $800. When I called, he said something like “no attitude” or “I wanted to get it all in.” eh? It certainly didn’t feel like a “Egp88” or “I wanted to get it all in” because he had about $4,000 in chips. It would have been easier to stumble out of the hand if he would have come out with a more reasonable bet, like $400. But he didn’t, he went all-in. I called. He revealed to me his hand: AhAd5h. Not a good hand for a pro. Unless he really wanted to go all-in, with a weak hand, he should have folded. But he did not. Because of this, I learned a valuable lesson about patience. It doesn’t matter how powerful a hand you have, if there is a possibility that someone can beat you, you should fold.
So, there I was against two maniacs, neither of whom wanted to get out of the hand. It ended with a coin flip for the last pot, which they both thankfully lost.