Covering loose ends + full analysis of a hand

The way last night ended annoyed me too much to really talk about the good things that happened earlier in the day. I met with Andrew and Taylor at their house to discuss a bunch of stuff for CardRunners. We discussed re-focusing the SSNL video series I made as well as how to enhance its efficacy for new players. They showed me a few of the design drafts for the new website to get my feedback, and I think I had some great ideas for the site. The CR product as a whole will improve tremendously when the new site is launched in August.

I woke up this afternoon ready for my skydiving ground training class only to hear that it was delayed (again) until tomorrow at 2pm. Sigh, I really want to knock this thing out so I can start my solo jumps. Let's hope it actually happens tomorrow.

After hearing this news, I drove to the Bellagio to eat at my favorite restaurant (Noodles) and play some cards. Lunch was delicious, but my high was killed when I saw the massive waiting list for both 2/5 and 5/10. The list to get seated at a table was easily 2hrs long -- possibly longer -- so I went to the sports book to see the over/under for the Spurs/Cavs game was 180.5 . I felt that over was a pretty solid bet so I put down $50 and lost (hey, at least we won the game). This reminded me why I never bet on sports.

So I drove over to the Wynn and played the 5/10 game there. And even though I found myself seated to the left of two friends of mine who are both solid internet players, it was actually a pretty soft table. Clayton, Taylor, and I messed around with each other a little, but other than that nobody else really put up a fight when one of us tried to take down a pot. Taylor was opening a ton of hands from every position, and I wasn't picking up or making very many hands, so I had some fun 3-betting him light from time to time. The most interesting hand of the session went thusly:

Stacks: Taylor has ~$5k (there is no maximum buyin for any of the NL games at the Wynn), Clayton ~$2k, I just lost a pot and was down to ~$600.
Preflop: One limp in EP, Taylor opens for $40 from MP, Clayton calls, one fold, I make it $170 on the button with QJo, folds to Taylor who thinks and then folds, but Clayton thinks for awhile and (to my great surprise) calls!
Flop: A64r. Clayton checks, and I decided to bet $200 on this flop, leaving myself with only $225 behind. Clayton sat and thought for a very long time before reluctantly folding his hand. I told him I'd let him see one of my two cards, and he picked the Q. This sparked a really interesting discussion between us three about the hand and about how poker theory relates to situations like these in general.

Here's my analysis of the hand; I've tried to explain my thoughts as simply as possible for the novice poker player reading this blog:

I decided to make a move in this hand before the flop because I knew that Taylor was opening lots of hands, most of which couldn't call a preflop re-raise (aka "3-bet") from me. When Clayton just calls Taylor's bet instead of raising it, he's saying that he has an OK hand but not a great hand. I took advantage of this by raising with a non-premium hand in position, expecting to take the pot down preflop a large % of the time. It is very abnormal for a solid player to be the only caller of my 3-bet preflop when he was not the initial preflop raiser, so Clayton's call raised a few flags in my mind. However, the most likely holding when a player makes a non-standard call like this is a mid-strength pocket pair (77/88/99/TT) hoping to flop a set or possibly an overpair. Given this knowledge, I was rooting for at least one big card on the flop to either pair me or for me to bluff at.

When the flop came, I obviously I didn't have anything, but as I explained above it's extremely unlikely that this flop hit Clayton in any way whatsoever. The key to this hand is that he cold called Taylor's raise preflop before calling my 3-bet, and since he's a solid player, this basically rules out the possibility of his having a hand with an ace in it. This flop is also awesome because a large part of the range of hands I 3-bet with preflop is something like AK/AQ/AJ. So, even though I don't have anything right now, I know that:
-- he almost certainly doesn't have an ace
-- he knows I'm a solid player
-- he knows that a large portion of the hands I play this way will flop top pair on this board
-- he has no way of knowing that I don't have anything, and he has to be worried that I have an ace if I bet here.

Given all of these factors, I think that I played the hand almost perfectly. Clayton told me later that he actually had KK this hand, which came as a total surprise to me. If I had a hand like KK or QQ myself instead of having air (aka nothing) on that flop, I would have checked behind since the only hands that would call me on the flop would have me beat. However, since I did have air, I wanted him to fold and decided to bet the flop. I would bet it with all of my ace-x hands though, and this is why he had to fold his hand.

During our discussion after he revealed to me he had kings, we talked about how he approached the hand. He knew Taylor was raising a wide range of hands and wanted to trap him. He also knew that I was picking up on this as well and that I was capable of making a move on both of them without a strong hand if given the right opportunity. So, he essentially tried to trap both of us by cold calling with KK preflop. He also knew that by just calling again preflop, I would put him on a hand like 88 or TT, which was not the case! So basically, he could check/raise me allin on any flop and take me for everything (or at least most of what) I had.

My problem with how he played it is that his hand was significantly underrepresented and he knew that there was a reasonable chance I might not have an ace. But, if I did have the ace, he was in big trouble. Obviously he smooth called twice preflop to trap me, but if he does this, I think he has to commit to taking the hand all the way regardless of what comes on the flop. By underrepresenting his hand and then check/folding, he let me get away with a bluff I shouldn't have gotten away with, making all situations like these extremely profitable for me. It's not easy to check/call or check/raise with KK on an ace-high flop, but given the way he played the hand preflop, I think he has to commit himself to the hand on the flop even with the ace showing. I hope some of you who don't have much experience with the game enjoyed this lengthy overview of the thought processes that went into this hand.

Whew, that was long. The only other thing that happened today was that I finally found somebody to trade me $7k in cash for $7k on PokerStars. Feels good to finally have a cash bankroll to back up my play. Time for sleep!