Hand Of The Day #67

Peppermill - $1/$2 NLHE - 02.23.11
AND
Atlantis - $2/$3 NLHE - 02.25.11

This Hand Of The Day is actually two different hands from two different sessions that were two days apart. They are essentially the same hand.

Hand #1 (Peppermill): A $7 Straddle pot. It folds to the SB who calls the Straddle. I'm the BB, and I call the $7 with AKo. The Straddle is a tight, solid player. He goes All-In for around $230. The SB folds, and it's my turn.

Hand #2 (Atlantis): I'm UTG+1, and I limp for $3 with AKo. The very next player is a Super Nit. He bought in for $100, and is spending more time watching a movie on his phone than watching the action at the table. He has won a few pots, and now he goes All-In for around $220. It folds around to me.

First, I want to say why I limped with AK. Everyone knows that AK is a strong hand, but it's often misplayed. I feel that it's a great hand if you're in position, or you're on a shortstack. But if you're out of position with a chip stack, then it's rather tricky to play. I prefer to play it passively out of position. If I totally airball the Flop, then I've only invested a Big Blind and it's an easy fold. If I call someone's raise, and hit the Flop, then I have some deception against what is hopefully a smaller A or K. I know that not everyone agrees with me on this, but it's my style of play and it's worked well for me.

I also limped in the Straddle pot just in case the Straddle got frisky, and made a raise with less than premium holdings.

I ended up calling both of the All-Ins rather quickly, and tabled my hand. I had the Straddle easily covered in Hand #1, but I only had $193 in Hand #2.

The reason for the quick call was due to their range of starting hands. I have never seen a Super Nit push a decent-sized stack All-In with AA or KK. Even a Super Nit wants to get a little action with the two premium starting hands. But with the next tier of starting hands, it's a different story. How many times have you seen a player just overshove All-In with JJ, and then say, "I hate Jacks," while showing them? Or even AK? They are scared to see a Flop with what many of us consider a quality hand, so they just shove it All-In, happy to not lose any money with those "scary" hands. I figured that both of the players had a hand range like QQ, JJ, TT, AK, or AQ. Since I'm either flipping with them, or I have them crushed, why not call?

The results of both hands were the same; I won. With the first hand, I hit the K on the Turn. He didn't show his hand, but he said he had QQ. With the second one, I flopped a K, and rivered an A. He said that he couldn't beat Two Pair, and mucked his hand without showing.

I will never understand the mentally of players who make plays like this. In a tournament, I can understand it in spots where you just want to win the Blinds and Antes. But a Cash game should be all about getting value for your hand, and not winning $14 in Hand #1 (both Blinds with the $7 Straddle), or $8 in Hand #2 ($2 SB + $3 BB + my $3 limp). This type of play is called a Zero Play. It happens when you make a play that will only get called by a hand that has you beat (or a Coin Flip, in this case). And then they start to go on-and-on about how unlucky they were, when they put themselves in a spot they didn't need to be in.

Nits never learn.