Creative poker can be dangerous
Last night I was playing in a home game. I came across 10
8
in late position behind a lot of people limping in. I decided to “get creative” and throw in a raise. With the blinds at T$100-200 I made it T$400 to go - a very small raise, and I was expecting all the limpers to call.
Unfortunately only one of the limpers called, no big deal though because if I catch a flop I can take down the pot and if I miss I only invested T$400 of my T$7,000 chip stack and I can get away from it pretty easily. I felt good going into the flop.
The flop came 7 8 9
. While it may not look like much, I was very excited. I was in a 2 way pot with middle pair and a straight draw. It was checked to me and I bet T$700 into the pot of about T$1200.
I got called. The turn came 8
. I made a set! Great news for me as I was still drawing to an even bigger hand and felt like I had it won.
At this point it was checked to me again, I bet T$1500 into the pot of T$2600. The following conversation follows my bet:
Dave: Ben…could you be betting the flush draw? Or pushing the flush draw out?
Me: …[silence]
Mitchell (not in the hand): He made his bet bigger he’s pushing you out.
Dave: I think so too.
I was happy that he believed I wanted him out because I really wanted a flush draw to stay in at this point with only 9 outs they were about 20% to hit their hand making me a 4-1 favorite to win a significant pot. But rather than simple call, Dave made a minimum raise to T$3000. Interesting. When he mentioned the flush draw and thought I might be on it I immediately thought he had a Ac10c or something similar - and then as an afterthought the idea of Dave having a big 8 crossed my mind, but I really didn’t want to believe he had an 8 that beat me.
So I moved all in.
Dave showed J8o and outkicked my 108o. The river brought a blank and I lost T$7000 in one hand and Dave had T$14,000 at the end of the hand.
I made a few mistakes in the hand that I think should be pointed out:
I went up against the other chip leader without much of a hand. Not generally a good idea. I then got myself deeply involved in a pot with the other chip leader and after I made my set I don’t think I could have gotten away from it. I like to make great lay downs as much as the next guy, but I really could not have believed Dave played his 8 the way he did. Had I simply made a single 8 I might have been able to get Dave to fold if any scare card hit the board, but the 8 was probably the worst card for me to hit on the turn - it got Dave deeply involved and gave him a hand he couldn’t have folded either.
Related Posts
- Live tournament report
- Poker tournament success
- In the Money: 29th of 1095 Entrants
- How I confused my opponent with a flush
- Tournament Strategy: Part 1
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Sponsors
