Vital Stats
Starting Chips: $3000 Blinds: $25/$50
My Stack: $5000 Opponent's Stack: $1100
Still in the first blind level, I have had a lot of success, and find myself in the Big Blind. Everyone folds around to the dealer, who limps in and the small blind calls as well. I look at my cards, and have A-5 of Diamonds, which I figure is the best hand, but decide to check, hoping that if an Ace is flopped, no one would give me credit for having one in my hand.
The flop comes down Ah-Kd-Ks, and I figure to be miles ahead of the other 2 players in the hand. The Small Blind checks, so I decide to try and play the hand as planned. No one expects me to have an Ace, so I bet $250. I hear the SB make a noise as if to say "BULLSHIT!" as I make the bet. It's subtle, but I've known him for a long time, and played many, many hands of poker with him.
The dealer thinks about it for a minute, but folds, and the SB pushes all in with supreme confidence and absolutely no hesitation. Like I said, I've played a lot of poker with this guy, he's renown for making huge bluffs, and is generally not very successful with them. His raise is $800 over top of my $250, and I now have a lot to consider.
If he has a King, he's got me slaughtered, but with no "acting" before pushing all-in, I really don't think he's got a King. He could have a better Ace than I do, in which case there's still a decent chance we could chop, but the fact that he limped in preflop leaves me skeptical that could have an Ace when he was getting so short-stacked.
So I conclude that with no obvious flush draw, my opponent likely has a small pocket pair or a complete bluff, and I'm leaning towards the bluff again based on his lack of preflop action. There's also the possibility that he's makiing a play against me, playing the player, not the cards. In this case, I look like a genious, because he assumes I am bluffing at this pot, because I did't raise preflop, so he doesn't suspect an Ace, and I wouldn't likely bet if I had a King. Therefore, maybe he's just trying to push me off my bluff, regardless of what he has.
The cards get flipped over, and he's got K-3, and I'm in terrible shape. I've only got about a 12% chance of winning at this point, and another player at the table blurts out "let's see runner-runner diamond for the flush!".
Well, as you might have guessed, that's exactly what happened. I still had only a 22% chance when the 2nd diamond hit on the turn, but caught my miracle, and caused the first elimination of the tournament as a result. I actually did feel sort of bad for the guy, it was a terrible "beat" and I've been there many times before.
Then came the onslaught of criticism from every other player at that table for the next 30 minutes. To them, it was painfully obvious what the other player had, and they couldn't understand my call with just an A-5. Shocked by my unusual luck in winning the hand, I was flustered to explain my decision adequately, which only added to their disapproval.
My decision was based on the reputation of my opponent and the amount of chips he had. If I were playing someone else, or if he had more chips in front of him, I probably don't make that call in that situation. Now that I've said my peace, I'd love to hear back from anyone, good or bad.
2 comments:
I think it was a no brainer. As it was only an extra $850 to call.
He had K,3 so rightly shouldn't have called anything to be in that hand. He was lucky to have caught the K,K,A on the Flop. He was really unlucky you caught the Diamond flush on the Turn and River.
So it was good that he lost the hand he should never have been in, lesson learned by him!
I think both sides played it right. He limped in as the small blind because the odds were there (another $25 to call with $125 already in the pot). He did get lucky with the two kings, but being shortstacked, he probably would have went all in even if the flop gave him one king.
You thought you had the best hand from what you explained. The odds of him having one of the remaining two kings were low. I think it was the right call for you to make as well.
From the description, I would have put him on an ace, which would have probably meant a chopped pot, so a call is still the right move. I don't think he would have moved all in with a small pair with an ace and two kings on the board (although I don't know the player as well as you do).
Sometimes in poker you can play a hand right and still lose. That's what happened here. You both played it right, he just happened to lose.
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