Ok, I spent Labor day weekend in Vegas, and played a good amount of hands at the 2/5 NL game at the Bellagio. A couple were interesting so I will post a few over the next week.


Anyways, this was the absolute last hand I played in Vegas and I wanted to get some thoughts on this.

First off, the 2/5 NL game at the BEllagio has a max buy in of 200 bucks. So you start with only 40XBB. It makes it interesting....I hate the structure but it attracts donkeys so its not all bad.

The backdrop for this hand. I have just won a sizable pot the previous hand, busting a guy for about 140 dollars pushing my stack to about 480 bucks. I am UTG and I had already decided that this would be my last hand for the session (had to get to our fantasy football auction draft.)

So, I am UTG and look down and see KJ of spades. Decent enough hand so I limp in. ( I am sure some would have just passed here and folded. I dont play that tight probably at times to my cost. )

UTG +1, an aggressive guy but a total donk, limps as well. a few folds and then the CO, a good solid-tight aggressive player with about 370 chips raises to 20.

Button folds. SB calls. BB calls. I see it will be 5 people seeing the flop if I call and I like my hand in that situation so I call. UTG+1 calls.

Flop comes K-8-2 rainbow. There is the problem with playing kojak. Not sure where I stand. UTG+1 and SB are fish they could have anything. BB is a good player but wild so he could be anywhere as well. CO is solid so him having AK, AA, or even KK is likely enough.

Flop action: SB checks, BB open farrells (LOL), I check, UTG+1 checks and CO, surprisingly checks. I put him on QQ as a guess.

Turn is a jack. Now I have top two. SB checks, I check, UTG+1 checks, and CO this time throws in a bet of 40 bucks. When he makes the bet, everything seems wrong. Like he really didnt want to make that bet but felt obliged. I now have more confidence in my read of him having QQ.

SB folds. UTG+1 is a schmuck and I can see him already gettnig ready to fold....he always gets his chips ready if he is planning on calling. nice of him!

So I know it is really down to me and the CO. Now, what is my play here?? Do I just call? Min raise to try and extract value? Normal raise to say 120 or so??

Would love to hear some advice. I am sure I played this hand poorly but at this point I felt I was ahead anyway.

Just so you know, I ended up check raising him to 120 and he folded fairly quickly.

Thanks in advance.

With this board it's also possible that he is slowplaying a set. He may also have a hand like Ace-Queen, and just picked up a few more outs... and decided to take a stab at it.

Since you say he's an aggressive donk, I would call him down. You are eithe WA or WB

No reason to slow him down if he's bluffing by getting too aggressive.

Thanks for the advice. I didnt say he was an agg. donk though. If you go back and look I said that the CO player was a very solid player. Tight aggressive.

I asked him after the hand if he had QQ and he said "something like that"

He said CO was a solid aggressive player, but either way I think I'm leading out after the flop with a small bet to see where I stand w/ TP, decent kicker. If I get just callers, I push a little harder on the turn to eliminate any drawing hand with my kings up.

Any other suggestions?

PF: I see a good case for folding here preflop (not saying a call is wrong play). Particularly since you described the raiser as a "good solid TAP". He also had 370 which is far above the table buy in and probably was one of the few stacks who could hurt you. I understand that by calling you're hoping to collect from one of the donks in the pot by hitting a big hand. You are far more likely to improve to top pair like you did, which leaves you out of position and guessing against the raiser most of the time.

FLOP: Anyway, so you called, not horrible at all. Curious as to why you'd check the flop instead of leading, were you planning to check/call? In that case your line would give you no information at all about the raiser's hand. A check raise would be risky because you're both deep chips. I think you should have bet flop, like 1/2-2/3 pot. This bet by you into 5 players in this raised up pot denotes a lot of strength. You would likely have K10 as a minimum to bet here (winning utg limper who then called a raise). He likely isn't going to raise you with a hand you can beat, so you're going to get the info about the raiser's hand you need if you just bet. Because he checked back you ended up giving a free draw to an ace/set to a large field.

TURN: Why did you check it again when you turned top 2? You said you had him on QQ, if you led the turn he might have put you on a Jack and paid off 2 bets. The check-raise announced the strength of your hand to him he got away with a minimal loss. As a side note, the Jack put 2 broadway cards on the board and one of the donks could have a Q 10, the raiser could have AQ, etc. a good card for you in one way but still not a card to check on, the raiser checked the flop and likely the Jack didn't help him, you were fortunate that he bet actually.

Not disparaging your card playing in any way, just some thoughts.

I probably fire at the pot with the top pair and J kicker for no other reason than information. If I get called, I'm cautious, If I get reraised, I reevalute. Checking after the turn is risky b/c you are giving someone a free card, there may have been two of one suit or a straight draw developing.

I am certainly glad it worked out.

Also Cane, what I have learned about you lately is that you went to private schools, played exclusive golf courses in California, and flew to Vegas for a fantasy draft. Next time you're in WP, your treating me to a SnG at the Hard Rock. We'll talk about WPB and Simmons. Just a thought.

Sounds like fun to me. I wont be back in WPB until December unfortunately.

The fantasy draft was with a bunch of radio guys from Kansas city....my girlfriend's brother works for the ESPN radio affiliate there 810 AM if I remember right. It was like half vacation, half fantasy football. I was the youngest one there by a few years but it was still a very good time. (its vegas how could it not be right?)

Dont hold any of my good fortune against me though Ron! I did live on "the island" for a while.....we had too move though too many WASPs (I prefer the ones with stingers). I dont normally date out of my tax bracket, lol, but for you I was going to make an exception you sexy man,

No offense taken at all. I admitted in my original post that many would not play KJ suited from UTG. It is marginal and calling raises out of position is definitely -EV. I play too many hands...it is my greatest weakness.

With 5 people in I was a little worried about leading out on the flop. I was planning to check and call if the original raiser bet unless he really fired out with a big bet.

I think checking the turn was probably a mistake as well....but I had a feeling the UTG+1 donk would try to fire and steal it. It was his standard operating procedure. He might have been the worst player I have ever had the pleasure to play with. AS you know he checked though and I got bailed out by the CO making a desperate steal attempt.

Definitely some shaky decisions on my part this hand....but all's well that ends well sometimes.

Canebrain = Tucker max?

Ray

Very cool that you go to Vegas for your fantasy draft. My baseball league has been talking about that for years. Of course most of us have kids now, so it becomes probelmatic to even suggest.

I do like your description of your trip "it was like half vacation and half fantasy football"..........wouldn't the fantasy football be considered vacation as well? Not like it was "half vacation and half sitting around a booth at a trade show all day listening to customers from all over the place bitch and moan about costs of product, cost of fuel, taxes, slow business. ' But I digress.

Fantasy football is ALL business!

I dont get it. But it was probably a reference at my expense. Jerk.


I hate the name Tucker.

i hate your checkraise a lot.

as weak as it sounds, with your read, you absolutely have to call the bet.

then, if you're in doubt, check/call the river, or if you're more confident that he has QQ or whatnot, you can make a decent value bet on the river.

people tend to be a lot looser with their river calls than with their turn calls.

aseem

check raises scream strength...you have top two, you really don't need to c/r here, especially when you think he's weak.

i might even check the river and try to get him to bluff at it if I think he will make a bet. otherwise i'll put out a smallish bet on the river...but i don't hate checking the river here incase he totally phiffed with AQ and may bet it one more time.

if you do lead the river though, i doubt you'll be called very often by said opponent...

- Jordan

I don't get the Tucker Max thing either. Ah, the Island. Good for you. I've been drunk many times on the Island. The old Bradleys was ridiculous good and some others that have changed names a million times.

Let me know. We'll definitely play.

Don't listen to them, last hand, I woulda played those cards as well.

One for the road if you will.

First time I was ever drunk was at the old Bradley's. GOOD times. I went to school with the owner's daughters so they used to let us underagers in.

I actually live half a block from the new Bradleys. Is that near you at all? I am sure when you speak of places changing names a million times you are talking about 251....although who knows what it is called now.

I actually hated living on the island. WPB is much better. Still nice, without the mean, rich old people and the stuffiness and all that. Plus as a jew I never felt that comfortable living right near country clubs that wanted nothing to do with me or my "people".

Yeah I am big on playing my last hand. it is just fun that way.



Aseem: So you would let him bet the river for me? What about if a scare card hits?? (backdoor flush was possible) Not disagreeing with you just asking for me some clarification. Do I call then lead out for 60 bucks or so on the river? Or do I check again? Thanks for the help. I figured the check raise would show enough strength to chase out any draw he might have had....I just felt like ending the hand at that point.

like I said I was pretty sure I misplayed this hand.

Cane, I'm confused. I thought you lived in New York. I live in Lake Worth. Near The Fountains. As you know, everything is 15 minutes away. What a coincidence. I lived at the New Bradleys for about 6 months. Too drunk, too much. Divorce has that affect on you.

This is starting to sound like a dating email. Want my measurements? Anyway, how old are you? Trying to constuct a timeline. Go to H.S. locally?

yeah I feel like you are behind a curtain on the Love Connection right now. lets just pretend thats not the case.


I live in NY right now. Just got out of college a year ago. I am 23. Working as a paralegal in the city before going onto law school.

I am from South Florida. Lived in Miami til I was 9. Then Palm Beach til I was 14...then went to boarding school in connecticut but my parents still lived in PB. Then, went to college at Penn and my parents moved from PB to west palm (apt. on flagler drive by the new bradleys.)

So I havent actually lived fulltime in palm beach county for ages....but it has always been my home.

I was down there a lot between Jan. and April of 2005. Wont be back down until December though.

There is my story in a nutshell. (Help! I'm trapped in a nutshell!)

If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be? When making whoopie, do you make noises? Enough love connection for the day.