Some More Hands of Note

Thought I'd pass along a couple of interesting hands and my perspective on them from this past weekend. All action occurs at the $25NL tables on PartyPoker.

First hand of note has me holding Q,9 diamonds on the button. I call a modest pre-flop raise of $1.00 from the UTG player as do 3 others. The flop is Q,6,6 - one of the 6's being the diamonds. The BB bets out $1 again, the UTG calls and I am the third and final player in to see the turn. At this point I'm thinking one of the two other players has a 6 due to this being Party Poker and all. The turn is the K of diamonds, leaving me with a flush draw and middle two pair. Neither of these hands is great at the moment, but based on my assumption of one or both of the others holding a 6, I feel I can see one more card if the price is right. BB bets out only $2 and the UTG calls as do I. The final card is the 3 of diamonds giving me a decent flush as only the Ax diamonds beats me. Still holding to my assumption about the 6's and realizing either one of them could have just drawn the full house, I await the betting. Amazingly, both the BB and UTG check to me. At this point, my thoughts are pretty much confirmed that they've been slow playing their 6 and neither has caught the boat. If they had, they'd bet into me as there's not a big reason to believe that I would bet and give them the opportunity to check-raise. So I bet out $5 into a $10 pot. The BB simply calls, but the UTG raises it to $20. Now I'm thinking this is a last ditch effort on his part to buy the pot. If he were truly a shark and was holding the boat, he would let me draw out my flush and then hammer me. I wasn't giving him that much credit though. So I call the $20. The BB then goes all-in for an additional $5 and then the UTG goes all in. Well now I'm pot committed and call the final $10 or so. Result: My flush is good and I don't end up seeing what either player had. They leave the table having been busted out and I take in a nice $81 pot. Lesson learned: I'm not a big fan of slow-playing small trips like that if in fact that is what they had. Any overcard that pairs the board immediately drops your boat to 2nd best, let alone allowing someone to draw out a flush or straight.

The second hand is where I'm handed my ass back to me on a plate. I'm holding A,10 and see an A,10,9 flop with two other callers. The 9 and 10 are hearts so I'm not giving anyone the chance to draw their flush, so I bet out $3 into a $2.75 pot. I'm called by both remaining players and a rag hits fourth street. I again bet out $3 and am raised to $6 by one of the players to my left, third player folds. At this point I should have stopped and did some thinking. My rushed analysis concluded that he had A,K or A,Q and thought he out kicked me. So when another rag hits the river, I put the player all-in for about $21. He makes a very easy call and his trip 9's take the pot. So I go from about $104 to $75 and decide to quit for a bit. Lesson learned: When you're raised back by a person smooth calling you all the way after a rag hits, they have a really good hand more often than not.

Not much else to say, hope you enjoyed the show.