Interesting Hand

"So Evan, what the hell are you doing in this hand? Judging by this hand, I'd say you belong in the kiddie pool."

Ok, on the surface, I'd agree this hand does not exactly look like it was played by someone who is "supposed" to be as good as me. But it is not as ugly as it seems. In fact, it is the opposite. I believe this is an excellent example of poker played well at my level (NL100).

Okay, so let's go through this hand, move by move.

Preflop, it's folded to me on the button. With any two reasonable cards this is an automatic raise. So T6s was definitely a raise here. 3.5BB is pretty standard for me, so nothing odd happened here.

One caller and we see a flop of [3c 8c 5h]. Ugly flop for me, missing me wide left. Still, he checks, so I have to fire a continuation bet. This is mandatory in this spot for two reasons. One, to try and win the pot right there with continued aggression. The other is to avoid giving a free card. Now he check raises. Ok, I fire continuation bets a lot, I'm used to getting check raised. What does one to do counteract this? Reraise weak and show the bluff. If opponents know you're capable of 3 betting with nothing, they're not going to want to check raise you without a monster. So I reraise with nothing.

The next action is interesting. It's not that he calls my reraise, it's the time he takes to call it. He took 3/4 of the clock to make the call. What does this mean? Well he could be acting and I could be screwed, bluffing into a set or something. But more likely? Look back at the betting. Call preflop, checks the ragged flop, check raises my bet, then goes into the tank and finally calls my large reraise. What does it add up to? Spelled out like this, it's easy to see that the guy has a flush draw (and a pair to go with it potentially) and was calculating his pot odds on the flop to beat my "monster".

The turn is the [8s] for a board of [3c 8c 5h][8s]. This is a good card. Now my opponent checks to me. I have no pair and no draw whatsoever. This is where this hand gets really interesting. I have nothing, no help on the way, but I do "know" my opponent's hand. The question is how I proceed. At this point in the hand the pot is forty something dollars and I only have 35 left. Most players push their chips in here, one last gasp at stealing this pot. I know better. The fact is most players are donks. If I push here, most players will call with a flush draw, and I'll lose. My hand cannot even beat a busted flush draw. If I fire here I have nothing left for the river and can't bluff out a blown flush draw. So I'm not pushing. What are my other options? Can I check here? It's an option, but not a very good one. Checking here induces a bluff on the river, which is definitely not what I want to do. If I check and he sets me in on the river, there's no way I can call with ten high, even if I know he's bluffing. Can I bet a reasonable amount, say 15 or 20 bucks? Not a good idea, because it leaves me with almost nothing on the river to bluff with. And at that point, a lot of donks will feel committed and call just to see your hand. So what is the best option? What's left? I can't check. I can't bluff all in, I can't bet a reasonable amount. All that is left is underbetting the pot. And this is by far the best play. So that's what I did. I bet the minimum, one dollar. What does this bet say? It's yelling RAISE ME! I WANT YOU TO RAISE ME! But I know this guy knows I have a big hand, and I know he knows that the min bet is a sucker bet, and he knows I know I want him to raise. So therefore I know he is going to just call and see his river for cheap, which he thinks is a great deal, but he is actually getting by far the worst of it. He calls and we see the river. I just have to dodge the flush card. If one of the other tens comes off, I'll check it down and hope to win with tens up.

The river is the [8h] for a board of [3c 8c 5h 8s][8h]. This is an excellent card. No flush, no backing into a pair that he'll be tempted to call me down with. There is no way this card helped him. He checks to me, I bet enough to commit myself so he can't resteal or call to see my hand for cheap, he folds and I steal a $64 pot with nothing.

Like I said, an interesting hand. A nice look at the thought processes required to play this game successfully.

----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to rregehr28 [Td 6d]
hefish: folds
jasrys: folds
GuyZox: folds
rregehr28 (button): raises to $3.50
Camel_11: calls $3
BFREEFALL: folds
----- FLOP ----- [3c 8c 5h]
Camel_11: checks
rregehr28: bets $3.50
Camel_11: raises to $9
rregehr28: raises to $28.50
Camel_11: calls $19.50
----- TURN ----- [3c 8c 5h][8s]
Camel_11: checks
rregehr28: bets $1
Camel_11: calls $1
----- RIVER ----- [3c 8c 5h 8s][8h]
Camel_11: checks
rregehr28: bets $28.85
Camel_11: folds
Returned uncalled bets $28.85 to rregehr28
----- SHOW DOWN -----
rregehr28: shows [Td 6d] (Three of a kind, Eights, Ten high)
rregehr28 collects $64 from Main pot