Hand Of The Day #47

$1/$2 NLHE - Nautica Charity Poker Festival - 07.13.10

A couple of limpers. I'm the Hyjack, and look down at Ac As. I raise to my standard $7, and six players see a Flop of Ah 8d 7d. It checks to me, and I make a standard C-Bet of $25. Ya gotta love Top Set, but the 87d means there are many draws that could tag along. Three players call.

Turn [Ah 8d 7d] 9h. The SB checks. Mid player checks. I check. I hate that card. There is now a three card Straight and two Flush Draws out there. This is a good time for a little Pot Control. I don't mind giving a Free Card here, because I can still hit my Full House Draw. The Button also checks.

River [Ah 8d 7d 9h] 8c. The SB checks. Mid checks. Well, I hit my Full House Draw. I grab two Green chips, and bet $50. Button folds. SB says, "Raise!" He puts the $50 out, and says, "$300." The Mid player quickly ejects, and it's back to me. That's a really big raise that essentially says, "POT!"

98x makes the most sense here. It's hard to put him on Quads. I doubt he would slowplay a Set like this. Plus, most people would only Min raise so they could get paid off. If the Turn and River were both 9, then Quads might be possibility. But in NLHE, Aces Full is usually good.

I go All-In for $494. The SB calls, and shows his hand with confidence. JTo for the Turned Straight. I show my Full House. He looks over the Board in confusion while the table goes "Whoa!" We count down the stacks. He's got around $60 left after paying me off. I scoop what is probably the biggest pot I've ever won.

His check-raise from $50 to $300 is a perfect example of a Zero Play, which is when someone make a bet or raise that could only be called by a hand that has him beat. Am I gonna call the extra $250 with AK? Even if I had 87s, It would be difficult to call that much of a raise, because I couldn't beat anything that would raise that much.

Of course he's gonna lose some money when I made my Full House, but he didn't need to lose the full $494. He could have lead out, and folded to my raise. Or he could have only check-raised to $125 or $150, and then fold to my All-In.

But, as I mentioned before, he really thought he had the Nuts on the River. With the two Red Flush Draws on the Turn, he probably thought, "Dealer, I need a black card on the River." When he saw the black 8c, then he assumed that he still had the Nuts, not noticing that it paired the Board. It's a classic No0b mistake.