Hand Of The Day #74

$2/$3 NLHE - Atlantis - 05.13.11

There was a couple of limpers. I have AA in the SB, and I decided to limp. Why? Well, I don't have a good reason. But in the previous hand, I just checked my option with JJ, and won a small pot on a scary board. The odds of me having another big hand are tiny, so why not do it again?

Fortunately, the BB raised to $18, and has a little over $400 behind. A Mid player back-raised All-In for $44. It folded around to me, and I give it a little thought. I decided to just call the $44, hoping that the BB will raise and try to isolate. Well, he cooperated by raising $75 more. I go into a little thought while the Dealer gathered up the $44 for everyone for the Main Pot. I was basically hollywooding since there really isn't much to think about. I grab my 4 Green $25 chips, put them on top of a stack of Red $5 chips, and push it forward to bet $200.

It was rather obvious that the BB was not expecting this. He went into deep thought for about a minute. Finally, he gathers his chips, and pushed them forward. I call, and show my hand. He turns over KK, but the Mid player didn't show. The Board ran out 6d 5d 4c 5s 2d, and everyone mucks their cards. The Dealer pushed me the pot that has almost $500 of profit.

There is some Good News and Bad News about this hand. The Good News was that I won more in this AA vs KK hand than I lost in my previous three KK vs AA hands.

The Bad News is that I almost royally screwed this hand up, and got very lucky to win as much as I did. I'm not referring to my AA running into KK. I'm talking about the Mid player going All-In.

One big flaw in my game is that I can be too passive. I don't know it's from over-thinking things, or just too much of the Fancy Play Syndrome. I was definitely in that state of mind on that night. After all, I did limp in the Blinds with both JJ and AA.

If the Mid player folded, along with everyone else, then I probably would have just called. I may have check-raised the Flop. But the Board got scary, and there is a decent chance that I only win $150-$200 from him, rather than the full $400+. I then would have posted the hand, and complained that my big hands never get paid off.

I'm not saying that I should never limp with a Big Pair (JJ - AA). But if I do limp in, there needs to be a damn good reason to do it. Usually, that reason is to put out a big 3-Bet against a Straddle who like to raise, or a crazy action table where the players are throwing $100 bills around.

But none of those were in effect on that night. And they rarely are in Reno. So stop doing it.