Caesar's Palace 1/2 NLHE (9-handed)

Cobalt $350
Button $250

Cobalt is MP3 w/ A 9 . Cobalt is viewed as TAG. No significant read on Button other than that he seems straight-forward.

Pre-flop:
4 folds, Cobalt raises to $10, 1 fold, Button calls, 2 folds

Flop ($23): A K 9 (2 players)
Cobalt bets $15, Button raises to $30, Cobalt re-raises to $75, Button pushes all-in, Cobalt cringes, mulls for a while, and folds face-up

I think your fold is correct, but I wonder if calling the initial flop raise with the intent of check/raising or donking the turn would be better. Draws tend to play fast on the flop, but will slow down no the turn.

hard to put him on a hand here, especially with the As in play.
If he's pretty straightforward, we can eliminate AA and KK i guess. 99 seems likely, though you're looking at the last two. otherwise nothing is really beating you, and you're in decent shape against other likely holdings, like T9s, 89s, TJs, TQs, JQs.

if my NL pot odds calculation is correct, you're calling 175 to win 325, or just worse than 2:1. considering you're 60/40 or so against a lot of his range, i would usually call there. but that is only if you think you can eliminate AA and KK. if he isn't that straightforward (and a lot of guys probably slowplay those), then you might be in real trouble.

Actually calling 165 only, I think, as $10 was in the pot preflop.
I make this call. K9 calls $10 preflop in this game. K9 makes
that same push when flopping 2 pairs in this game.

I stacked a player yesterday in a near identical flop with 99 and he had A9. Its good to be able to fold hands like this but I don't know if its +EV in the long run.

Not sure if I could fold this live without an extrmely strong read. Actually I decided I wouldn't. AQ or K9 might be making these plays. Maybe even weaker ace. I'd probably go broke here as I can't see him not reraising KK or AA p-flop and the odds of him holding A9 are probably equivilent or more probable then him holding 99. Plus, it's not like he open pushed into a 30 dolalr pot, there is a significant amount of money in pot already.

I couldn't fully eliminate AA/KK from his range, but K9 is extremely unlikely...and even then, he's got to be scared of my hand. This isn't a maniac, folks. There just isn't a reasonable hand that we beat that follows this betting pattern.

I already wasn't comfortable when he min-raises the flop (a sign of decent strength), but I re-raise to get the information that I need. I need to know if he's just on Ax/drawing. By his push, he's saying that he has AA/AK/KK/99/A9. I really think that the best we can hope for in this situation is a tie or two-outer.

i like the fold, but why show

oh wait....to let the table know we can dodge bullets

nevermind, showing is +EV

I think that AK is a very likely holding in this situation one that may not be reraised preflop.

Is AQ out of the question. I know this guy isnt a maniac, but he might have thought his AQ was good. I think it's a tough fold...but I think is was a reasonable one. His betting pattern says trips/AK. But ask DN about that "full house" betting pattern that T. Brunson showed. LOL.

i like the play cobalt, ESPECIALLY with the show

and you can use this to your advantage by the way

if you're on the buttonish and it's unraised, raise big despite your cards

if you're able to steal the pot, show your cards with an amused angry tilting face (that sounds complex)

and the next time, hopefully someone tries to make a play at you when you hold the nuts or monster



I write this weird post because I wouldn't want my table image to be ROCKish. I want people to pay me off because they think I'm tilting or am possibly bluffing.

I think AQ is out of the question when he pushes. The problem was that it was certainly in his range when he initially raised.


Part of the show was just showing off. Part of it was to encourage him to show his cards (I found this move to work quite well to that end). Another part was to encourage others to show their cards. And finally, another part is that I want other players to fear my ability to 'read' them.

I almost never show when I win a hand, but I don't mind showing strong laydowns if I think I can get some good information out of it. Oh, and it's also a bad idea to show if there's any chance you got bluffed out. Nothing more humiliating than showing a big laydown and them turning over a bluff. Fortunately, I've never run into that...if I think a bluff was plausible, I'll muck.

In this particular case, I was convinced and showed. Villain said that since I showed, he'd show. He turned over 99. The table was buzzing. You can't imagine how empowering that felt. Always nice to have confidence at the poker table.

Oh, funny little side note on this hand. The guys that I was sitting next to were convinced that villain was 'Bull' from Night Court. They said they'd heard he'd caught the poker bug recently.