Even when you play a hand of poker and temporarily lose your mind, along with your money, the bright side is always the opportunity to learn from your mistakes.
I played a hand in a live $1/$2 $100 max buy in game that I wish the poker gods would let me have back. I hate everything I did in this hand but I was able to learn quite a bit from it.
With a stack of about $600, I was in the Hijack position with 
. The under the gun player limped in and the action folded to me and I chose to limp in as well. The Cutoff player limped in for $2 with about $80 behind him. The player on the button was a very tight passive player and the only other deep stacked player with $950 in chips. He limped in as well. The small blind completed his blind and the big blind checked, making the pot $12.
The flop came 
, obviously a fantastic flop for me.
Both blinds checked.
The under the gun player bet $10.
I raised to $30 to test the table and get a better read of how much the players behind me liked this very wet board.
The cutoff flat called $30, with only now $50 behind, which really puzzled me.
The button re-raised to $200.
The under the gun player folded.
Yuck.
I hit the tank so long that this is the only hand where a player called clock on me in the countless hands I’ve played, which admittedly really annoyed me.
I had to attempt to put the button player on a hand, and considering the pot was limped, I knew the range of hands that I would put him on would be very wide. This meant quite a bit of math. Sigh.
Any kind of over-pair like 
or 
was out of the question. Even if he limped on the button behind three limpers with either of these hands which is extremely unlikely, it was doubtful he would now overplay the hell out of them on this type of board. Limping behind three limpers with 
on the button was too unlikely as well. Also, since he was tight passive, this raise is never a stone cold bluff or just a flush draw.
So in my opinion, his hand range looked something like this, (shown with my equity against that hand):
- 10% Likely Holding, 63% Equity
- 10% Likely Holding, 63% Equity
- 25% Likely Holding, 80% Equity
- 10% Likely Holding, 76% Equity
- 20% Likely Holding, 0% Equity
- 5% Likely Holding, 47% Equity
and – 20% Likely Holding, 45% Equity
could very well have been higher than a 5% likelihood, but since he was tight passive I didn’t give him much credit for this hand since it’s still just a draw (albeit a monster draw) and he made such a huge raise. You don’t usually see tight passive players make huge re-raises with drawing hands.
So long story short is, after tanking for five minutes and doing the math and figuring out my equity against his perceived range (and having a dealer yell TIME at me, which is always fun), I re-raised all in.
Even with the very real possibility that he had , a hand that had me essentially drawing dead, I still had positive equity against his entire range of hands (52%, not counting percentages for hands to tie). I absolutely hated the spot though. Sure, I flopped the 2nd nuts, but the board texture was very wet, and my hand has no chance to improve. I had the same equity share in the pot as some starting hands that were still drawing (like )! With the 2nd nuts after the flop! So I shipped my chips in with my eyes closed…
The cutoff called, which I knew he would. I couldn’t wait to see what hand this guy had to call $30 cold with only $50 behind.
The button insta-snapped called quicker than the speed of light, or a speeding bullet, or whatever, take your pick. I was so sick to my stomach. He didn’t even have to turn the cards over. I already knew.
Oh yes, he even has the King of hearts! That makes me even more of an underdog! Poker is fun!
Then I shook my head in disbelief when I saw the cut off’s hand:
Not only does this guy not raise preflop so I can safely muck my invested $2, he cold calls $30 with a set on the wettest board known to the poker universe, and only $50 behind him. Getting felted always hurts, but if this guy plays his hand one iota better, I lose, at MOST, the $30 re-raise + the $2 I limped in for. I figured if the cutoff shipped for his $80 on the flop, the button might have made an even bigger FOUR bet and knock me right off my hand.
Oh well, that’s poker!
- PTN Team
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