February 8, 2006
“That’s Poker” - A Lesson on Playing the Unpredictable Player
So, I’m playing limit hold’em over on Poker Stars and I’m feeling pretty good, working my way out of the downswing (still got a little bit to make up, but that’s neither here nor there).
In the BB I’m dealt the following:
:5s::3h:
Crap cards right? Well, the action is limped to me and I check to see a flop:
:4d::7s::6d:
I hit an extremely unlikely straight, a “big blind special” and decide to push. No one is going to put me on these cards. I bet and a player who I have a note for saying simply “clueless” raises, I re-raise and he caps. I immediately put him on a set and begin rubbing my hands together. We see a turn:
A nice safe card for me, if he does have his set I’m a 77% chance at this point to take the pot. The betting is capped again and we see the river card:
ARGH! I’m sure he’s made his full house, but I check-call anyway and he shows me:
:7h::7c:
to scoop the pot of around 13 BB, what’s worse is this actually put me on tilt for the next orbit or so which while it didn’t cost me any money it did cause me to miss a few extra bets here and there when I was ahead.
To make matters worse, a few hands later in the SB I’m dealt:
:Td::Th:
The same player as the previous hand raises and I flat call (he’s been raising with anything so it’s hard to put him on a hand here), one other player also calls. The flop comes:
:8s::Tc::9s:
I hit my set on a scary kind of flop but bet out anyway, he raises, I re-raise and he calls, turn comes:
I think to myself “Uh oh, he’s done it to me again” but bet anyway to see where I am, he again raises and this time I call. We see the river:
Putting a straight on the board, meaning at best we’re splitting this thing. I check, he bets and I make a crying call for half the pot. What did he have?
:Ks::Qd:
A king high flush (and a better straight, for what it’s worth). By no means was this a bad beat, he had odds to raise that flop with his flush and straight draws (though by the way he had been playing I doubt he knew it).
In hindsight, perhaps I should have been a little more conservative here and folded to the turn raise. Truth is I couldn’t, there was no way I could put a player who sees over 60% of the flops and caps the betting with almost anything on the hand that he had.
When you get beaten, repeatedly, like this by a maniac player you’ve just got to keep calm, take the hit and smile knowing that next time you’re heads up with him you’re likely going to have the cards and experience to take his money.
