Forget bad beats ...

We often come on here to complain about the bad beats we've taken in poker, but after a nice session at the casino over the weekend, I thought it was time to turn it around and talk about some of our best hands. Good fold, good call, good bluff, whatever. Let's put out some positive vibes into the poker universe!

I'll start with a big hand I won on Friday night.

I'm in seat 4 with the button at a $1-2 no limit game. I've got about $400 in front of me (bought in for $200) and have probably the third biggest stack.

Seat 7 raises the pot to $15 under the gun and there are three callers ahead of me. I look down at pocket 8s and decide to just call and see if I can hit a flop.

Flop comes Js-9s-x. Not a great flop for me with two overs out there. Surprisingly, it checks around to me, so I decide to try to take it down right there. I bet $60, about pot size, and everyone except seat 3 folds.

Seat 3 thinks about it for a minute or two before finally calling. Having played with her for a while, I knew she rarely folded an ace, no matter how weak, and watching her decide, I put her on a suited ace, looking for the flush.

Turn comes with the 5d, so I double my bet to $120, more than half her remaining stack. I figure it's an easy fold for her right there, with a slim chance she'll go all in. She takes a few minutes to decide, then simply calls. I was surprised.

River comes with the 5c and she almost immediately goes all-in for her last $100. Now I'm the one with a decision to make. I have a little more than $200 left and losing that pot would have hurt pretty badly. I only have a pair of eights with two overcards and possible three-of-a-kind out there. As I said, I thought she had a weak suited ace, so she very well could have held that 5. I can really only beat a straight bluff.

I replay the hand in my head and keep thinking about it and decide that if she had that 5, she probably wouldn't have bet, she would have likely let me do the betting for her. I'm also getting about 6-1 pot odds to call. I'm thinking the only way she could win that pot was to bet the river so, after about three or four minutes of thinking, I say, "I think you were on the flush draw, I call."

She grimaces and says, "You got me," turns over As-3s. I turn over my 8-8 and everyone ooohs and aaahs at the call as I rake in about $600.

The best part was her saying a few minutes later, "You never should have called that bet." ;D

 

Playing Omaha hi-lo, I had the nut boat and A-2. Smooth called every time until a blank came on the river. Then I bet it up. Other guy had nut flush and A-3. I scooped both ends for a $560 pot.

 

It was really easy to play, but here is my story. I had just started at a $1-2 table, bought in for $100. A couple hands in, I am dealt KJ of clubs, and I call a $10 pre-flop bet. Flop comes Qc-10c-9d. I flopped nut straight, with the open-ended straight flush draw. I bet $20, and a guy goes over the top to put me all in (about $65 more). Real easy call.

Turn was Ac for the royal flush. Nice people of Foxwoods offered me either a jacket or chip set. I took the chips, as I just don't know that I could bring myself to wear a casino jacket.

 

I've never gotten the royal, but sat at a table with a guy who did once. It was in a sit-n-go and he doubled up (other guy flopped a straight, royal guy flopped the open-ended straight flush draw and rivered it). Royal guy busted out a few hands later, though.

 

Only one who really bitches about bad beats is Chef... who has a standing invitation to our Super 6 poker game in December.

 

I can't detail out the hand card by card, but it was the first live hand I played in Vegas. I entered a daily tournament with about 100 people and sat down with Ax-Jc as the first hand in the big blind.

Flop came 9-T-K, all clubs. I checked, a guy bet a small amount and with the straight flush draw, I made the call. Next card was a low club, so I had the flush with the str8 flush still alive. Guy bet pretty big, but having no real clue that chasing was not a good idea, i went for it.

The river was the Qc, giving me the nuts. He bet again, I went all-in and he looked at me and said he had flopped the nut flush and let me catch the one card I could to beat him. He folded the A-5 of clubs face up and I thanked him.

I proved I didn't know what I was doing by finishing 12th, 9 cashed out of 120...

 

I am there, dude.

 

Gotta love when they donate that extra $100 out of complete desperation, eh Pern?

 

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=11828768&an=0&page=0#Post11828768


that's a chip stack

 

I haven't been to the card room in more than a month.
Last time I was there I made a great laydown with a set of queens with one card to come, a flush draw and the case Q in the hole.
The other guy had a set of kings with a flush draw and the case K.

 

Ugh, I've been running bad lately, so I can't even remember my good hands.

 

Absolutely ... she should have never chased that far and when she missed, she should have realized that betting $100 when there was already $500 in the pot wasn't going to get me off the hand. She had to know I had something. I bet it the whole way and I bet pretty big.

Another girl at the table said she thought I was trying to buy the pot, which I suppose I was. But based on what I was representing, no way she should have tried to bluff me on the river unless she could have bet at least half that pot.

Had she re-raised me on the turn, it would have been a tougher call to make, but after she thought about each call for a few minutes and just called both times, her play screamed 'flush draw.'

Best part was, I then became the second-biggest stack and pushed around the table for the rest of the night. I only showed down one hand the whole night and it won me $600. The rest of the time I either folded before the river or everyone else folded to me.