Best Laydown I've Made In Awhile
I had a great night at Lake City Casinos on Saturday night. I bought in for $100 and when I cashed out at the end of the night, there were zero rebuys under my belt. I always feel good when I cash and I haven't had to rebuy at all. I ended up pocketing just a c-hair under $500 which is not too shabby for a $1/$2 no-limit game and logging about six hours of play. I want to quickly mention two hands that I thought I played very well. One of which I lost, and one of which I won.
I'll start with the winning hand. I'm in the big blind with 6-7 of hearts (one of my favourite starting hands) and I call the pre-flop raise of $10 so I have $12 invested. The flop comes down Kc-4h-Jh so I've flopped a flush draw with a back-door straight draw. The small blind comes out betting with $15, I call, as does a mid-position player. Since he came out betting so early, I put the small blind on a flush draw as well, and the mid-position on a weak king or Broadway draw. The turn is the 5 of diamonds, which in actual fact, is a great card for me because it effectively doubles my outs. The small blind makes a continuation bet of $30, so now I'm leaning towards him being on a stronger king with possibly two pair. I call and mid-position folds. The river is the best card I could have hoped for, the three of diamonds, and I've got the nut straight. Small blind bets out about half his stack, around $40 and I push him all-in, which he calls and turns over pocket fours for a flopped set. So my read was wrong on him all the way, and I credit that to his weak play. Since I called on the flop he should have pushed harder on the turn to get the draws out, but a low turn bet enabled me to see the river, make my hand, and take all his chips.
The second hand I'll mention was one I ended up folding pre-flop and as it turns out, was a great read, and ended up saving me $150. I'm in the small blind and I look down at two black queens. Second from the button puts in a small raise to $5 and the next player makes it $25. I wanted to find out where I was so I raised to $75, quite honestly expecting to take the pot right there. The $5 raiser folds and the $25 raiser immediately lifts his butt out of his seat says all in and pushes for around $150 more. I thought about this for a good two minutes. I hadn't seen this guy jump into too many pots, he had been sitting back for almost an hour. I also remember the sage advice of TJ Cloutier who says that the third raise means aces or kings. I flip my pocket queens face-up and say "I think you've got me beat. I fold." The table reaction was pretty funny, because I put most of the players at the amateurish level and I actually heard a couple of 'em gasp. The guy next to me says, "I couldn't have layed that down." The $25 raiser says, "Nice laydown, sir.", and proves me right by flipping over his pocket aces. I couldn't have been happier with myself. I felt like I played the hand perfectly.
And as a footnote, I must say that I STRONGLY prefer no pre-flop cap rather than the $40 one the Victoria clubhouse has. It doesn't kill the action like you would think, and I believe it to be a more true form of poker, in such that weaker hands can't get in cheaply to the flop and rundown stronger hands.
posted by Xorply @ 7:19 p.m.
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