Dispatches from the Creation Wars

A Poker Post

Posted by Ed Brayton on January 28, 2005
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It’s been a while since I wrote anything about poker and things have been much too serious lately, so here’s a post few people will care the least bit about from last night’s game. We had two hands that were really pretty crazy. The first was very expensive for a couple of people. Flop is 10 J Q of clubs. Shane bets the pot, Jeff calls, Kevin calls. Turn is the 4 of clubs. Shane bets the pot, Jeff raises, Kevin reraises, Shane reraises again all in. Jeff agonizes for a minute and folds, Kevin calls. River is a blank. The cards are turned over. Kevin has the A of clubs for the nut flush…and Shane has the 8 9 of clubs for the straight flush. Jeff had folded the K of clubs. Ouch.

Hand #2. Flop is 789, two hearts. Small bet by Jan, Scott and Kevin call. Turn is a 5. Small bet by Jan, both callers call again. River is the 10 of hearts, so there’s an open ended straight draw on the board and a flush draw. Jan bets $15. Scott raises all in to $32. Kevin reraises all in for an additional $25. Jan looks like a truck ran him over. He takes at least five minutes to make his decision, really agonizing over it. It’s $42 for him to call Kevin’s all in bet. Ultimately he decides to fold. Scott turns over the JQ for the nut straight. Kevin turns over JQ, also the nut straight. And Jan stares in disbelief because he had folded JQ for the nut straight, thinking that Kevin must have hit his flush. Kevin and Scott split the pot and Jan begins to make preparations for ritual disembowlment.

Hand #3. I’m in the small blind with a pair of 5s and I just limp in with 2 callers in front of me. Shane raises in the big blind to $5 before the flop, Kevin calls and I call. Flop comes A Q 5. Bingo. I figure Shane has an A and a face card, possibly A Q, so I decide to check and raise his bet when it gets back to me. I check, Shane bets $5 and Kevin reraises it to $15. Hmmm. That made me stop and think for a minute. Was Kevin slowplaying pocket Qs or pocket As? I decide to just call him and Shane calls too. River is a blank. I check, Shane checks, Kevin bets $25 all in. I call, Shane folds. Kevin flips up A 5, I flip up the trip 5s and he goes to bed. I was questioning my decision not to reraise him after the flop, but if I had he would probably have folded. Letting him bet it after the turn card probably made me more money.

All in all, a great night for me. I won $155, which is pretty good for a little $1 pot limit game. I was up from start to finish, which is pretty rare. Unfortunately, our worst player is leaving the game to move to Washington DC, which truly sucks on two levels. I’m going to miss one of my best friends, and I’m gonna miss the money he lost week after week too. And when he reads this, he’s going to call me and tell me he’s not really a bad player, he just doesn’t like to fold because he gets bored.

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Comments

  1. #1 Ginger Yellow
    January 31, 2005

    I might have reraised after the flop on the third hand, just for the information, but then again I don’t know how they play. That was weird play by Kevin – Shane was representing at least Aces, probably two pair, possibly trips, only one of which of which he can beat. A reraise might drive out a pair of Aces, but does he really want to do that when he has Aces up? Even if Shane has a higher kicker he only has three outs (to win, not to split). Then you call a reraise on the flop, and he bets into you after a blank. What’s he trying to achieve? You can clearly beat Aces, which means you can probably beat A5.

  2. #2 Ed Brayton
    January 31, 2005

    I might have reraised after the flop on the third hand, just for the information, but then again I don’t know how they play. That was weird play by Kevin – Shane was representing at least Aces, probably two pair, possibly trips, only one of which of which he can beat. A reraise might drive out a pair of Aces, but does he really want to do that when he has Aces up? Even if Shane has a higher kicker he only has three outs (to win, not to split). Then you call a reraise on the flop, and he bets into you after a blank. What’s he trying to achieve? You can clearly beat Aces, which means you can probably beat A5.

    Good analysis, similar to my thinking at the time. Kevin’s raise surprised me for that very reason, he had to figure Shane for at least an Ace and a face card, which could possibly mean a higher two pair than him. So that made me think that me might have made trips. But I also know that Kevin is the type of player who will bet big after the flop to chase out any draws because he absolutely hates flopping a good hand and getting outdrawn on the turn or the river. So I figured he either had hid a set, or had AQ and figured Shane had AK and wanted to get him out. He reacted with surprise when I called his bet fairly quickly, so that told me it wasn’t a set. I checked to him after the flop to induce him to bet and he did. If I hadn’t had Shane to act after me, I would likely have reraised, but Shane was the wildcard to me.