Hand Of The Day #82

Peppermill ~ $1/$2 NLHE ~ 08.09.11

This hand happens almost two hours after the previous hand.

This hand is a limp-o-rama, including me in the BB with K7h. Six or seven players see a Flop of Kc Qc 5h. SB checks, and I check my Top Pair. I could bet, but my hand isn't that strong in a 6-way pot, and I would have to fold to a 3-Bet or even a big raise. Since I'm out of position, I would rather just see what develops.

UTG bets $10. He's the Drunk from the previous hand. He finished his half-filled bottle of Corona, but he hasn't had anything else to drink. He has sobered up a little bit, but not much. His play has calmed down a little bit, but not much. He's also lost a chunk of chips, but none of them went to me. A few players called the $10. I just call, hoping to hit hit a 7 or pick-up a Flush Draw on the Turn.

Turn [Kc Qc 5h] 5d. Ok, that was not what I had in mind. I check. UTG (Drunk) bets $25. Mid player thinks for a bit, and calls. SB calls. I grab five Red chips, along with a $100 bill, and raise to $125.

Why would I raise in this spot? Do I think I have the best hand? Well, my hand is currently KK55Q, which means my kicker (7) doesn't even play. So, no, I don't think I have the best hand, as it's likely that one or both of the remaining Kings are in the other three hands. The reason I raised is because nobody else has a better hand.

Because of the Q on that board, there aren't a lot of hands that could be better. AK, AA, KQ, Q5, K5, QQ, KK, 55. Since everyone limped preflop, that takes away half of those hands. I'm assuming that anyone with KQ, Q5, K5, or 55 would have raised on the Flop or Turn. There is a tiny chance that the Drunk (UTG) has Quad 5, but I think that he would have checked the Turn in order to trap, given his skill level.

Since I've been at this table for over two hours, I've gotten a feel for the players. We've already talked about the Drunk. The Mid player is the definition of TAG. If he had a better hand, he certainly would have raised the Flop with such a big draw out there. The SB was the 42h guy from the previous hand, and has moved seats a few times. He plays a lot of pots, and likes to call. But we saw him check-raise in the previous hand, and I've seen him do it in a couple of other hands. So if he had a random 5 in the SB, then he would have raised right before I did.

Plus, the way I played my hand screams of a 5. So, as the Internet Kids say, did I take a hand with showdown value and turn it into a bluff? Well, since I don't want anyone to call, then I guess I did.

But it's not that simple. This is more of a Split Pot strategy. Since I'm likely chopping this pot, then I've got half the pot locked up (unless a terrible River card comes like Tc). As any decent Omaha-8 player knows, when you're freerolling for half the pot, then raise and try to win the whole thing. Well, that's what I'm doing here.

Anyways, back to the action. UTG starts thinking for a bit, as usual, but finally folds. Mid player thinks for much longer, close to a minute. I'm not sure if he has a hand like KTd, or a sweet draw like AXc or T9c. But any decent player knows that a Combo Draw is not as tempting on the Turn as it was on the Flop, especially when the board is paired. He finally folds, and the SB quickly ejects. I push my cards towards the Dealer face down with a $1 chip on top, and win a rather nice pot with a rather mediocre hand.

Maybe I actually do know how to play this game.

Eventually, I finished the session up $89 in three hours. Certainly, it's nothing sexy, but $30/hr is solid for a weeknight session. But I'm sure you loyal readers have noticed that I've been dumping money lately. So hopefully I can stop the bleeding by putting together a few wins.