Thougt I'd post these hands on here, as they were interesting ones, and also slightly shamelss plug for my blog- on
www.32redpokerblog.com- where I'll be listing my 50 worst mistakes, as they happen!
1) Rendezvous Casino Brighton, £500 Freezeout, 11th October 2008.
I had a pretty tough table given that the field looked quite weak, and one of the toughest opponents at the table was Karl Mahrenlohz. I have never been quite able to work out his game, but it is obviously strong. He is a highly rated player, and I even wonder whether he is underrated. It was actually because of his strength, and because he is such a clear thinking player, that I chose him to pull a bluff on him. If someone is exploitable, it does not necessarily mean that they are weak. In this case, it was quite the opposite reason that I chose to pull a play that, to a thinking player, should look really strong, and make it very difficult to call without a super-strong hand. And the mistake? I’m gutted to say it, but I wimped out on the river, and didn’t make the follow through bet.
Blinds were 150/300, and Karl raised to 700 on the CO, and I defended the BB with Q9 offsuit. The great structure meant we were both very deep, with 80BB stacks. The flop came Qx4s3s, giving me the top pair. Karl bet 900, I called, and we saw a blank 5 on the turn. Karl bet 1,200, which was another fairly small bet. I was fairly sure that these smallish bets were for pot control reasons, and that his range was fairly wide. It did seem to suggest, however, that he probably did not have a super-strong hand like a set, as he might try to inflate the pot in that case.
It seeemed a perfect spot to try a rather unsusal move- of turning top pair into a bluff. It seems a fairly dubious move, but the logic behind it is often misunderstood. Many people would say, “but he could have nothing, or could be behind you with JJ or something,” and would argue that by trying to get him to pass hands that can beat our top pair, we are bluffing a very narrow range of hands. This is correct, but it is important to understand, that if I do have him beat, it is a void scenario. Those hands will pass to my river bet, but I would beat them anyway (and I think it is very unliekly he will 3-barrel air).
It is crucially important when you decide to bluff that you pinpoint the kind of hands you are trying to make pass. Here the hands were specifically AQ, KQ, QJ, aces and kings. It may seem like a pretty dubious bluff, but I thought I had the right type of player, and the right situation to worry him enough to make him pass. The plan was to raise to check-raise the turn to 3,200, and then to fire a big bluff on the river. A good, thinking player would reconstruct this pattern, along with my flop call, and find it very difficult to pull out a call.
The check-raise to 3,200 was called, the river a board-pairing 4, and somehow I found myself checking. Karl actually fired out a 4,000 bet, and I made what I am 95% sure was the right pass. (even some missed draws have showdown value, and there is no way he is value betting a weaker hand).
The really disappointing thing about the hand is not so much the failed bluff on the turn, but simply that I failed to follow through the plan I had made in my mind. Poker is a game where you just have to trust your instincts, so it really is disappointing to report that I managed to second guess myself into changing my plan. It’s difficult to say what it was, but I would say was a big part due to feeling tired on the day, and to second-guessing the logic of the bluff. It obviously was not the best river card to bluff (a J, ten, 7 or 6 would have been) but was definitely good enough that I should have continued my plan.
2) Rendezvous Casino Brighton, £500 Freezeout, Saturday 11th October
A new table now, and an opponent who was much less experienced. I was playing a stack of 25,000 and raised to 1,200 with KsQx. The small blind called, and seemed a fairly weak, cally-type player. The flop came Q93, all spades, giving me top pair and the 2nd nut flush draw. My opponent checked unusually quickly; I knew that this meant something, it was just difficult to say what.
However, it probably meant that he was at either end of the range, adn had either flopped nothing, or flopped a flush. This probably means that my rather large bet of 2,500 was probably wrong. This is an importnat type of hand. The extra insurance of the second nut draw means that I can make what I will call a balance play of a flop check- it disguises my hand, and balances both its reasonable strength, and the fact my opponent may have a really big hand. It is actually more suitable if you think your opponent may have a set, as this is the exact hand that he is going to check-raise you big with. My hand was strong in some ways, but was definitely not a spot where I would be happy to get it all in on the flop.
So, that was the first mistake, and now I’ll tell you that my opponent had in fact flopped a flush, holding J10 of spades. He let me off lightly, echoing my mistake with a flat-call. I think he has to try to get it in here; any hand that he can trap into betting when he checks on the turn will have to give him action on the flop, so I think this is a really bad trap.
The turn was the 6 of spades, giving me the lead. I decided to check behind; not knowing what his hand was, this is the default play. It both encourages him to bluff the river, and also will help by giving me far less credit when I value bet the end.
The river was a complete blank, and my opponent fired out 3,500 into the 8,800 pot. I made what would be normally a quick, default call (too thin to pass, but raising is too thin for value, and could lead me to getting re-rasie bluffed)and saw that he had flopped the jack high flush.
And the mistake? I acted far too quickly on the end. I really should not have made the defualt move, without thinking about the type of opponent. I could be sure that he would not re-raise as a bluff, and so only needed to judge whether it would more likely he had a lower flush and would pay me off, or had the ace-high flush. If he did have a lower flush, I think he probably would have made the mistake of calling, particuarly after the frustration of flopping it and seeing it semi-counterfeited. In fact, there is a case for making a big raise; I could have got even of 9,000 more from a suspicious player, and so maybe missed big value.
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