Reading is Fundamental

Every now and then, I’ll post my thoughts on a particular hand I played during the past week.  Pretty much without fail, these discussions have made me look smarter than I really am.  In order to give equal time to both sides, I present to you a hand I played last week that sheds light on my ability to lose my entire stack all at once.

Where:  Full Tilt (thanks Hank for not removing the destroyBadBloodsBankroll boolean – do I need to get Bill and Chris involved here????), $50 NLHE, 6-handed ring game.

Why:  Because I stink.

The environment at the table has seen me raise with some premium hands and take down pots with post flop continuation bets.  I truly had hands, but nobody got to see them.  At this point, I am fully aware of what my table image is based on those circumstances.

UTG I get dealt the Hiltons, QQ for those not reading poker bloggers for the past two years.  I raise and get called by LP and the BB.  The flop is all undercards, 742 rainbow.  The BB bets out a pot-sized bet and I call.  My current thoughts are that the BB feels that the flop missed me, which it certainly could have had I been playing AK,AQ, etc.  Without much board coordination, I wasn’t concerned with the BB’s hand.

Consider my surprise when LP raises 3x the BB’s bet.

Here’s my super-scientific, world class player, might-as-well-have-ESP read on that move:  LP thinks that the BB’s bet is a stab at a harmless looking flop that must have missed me.  He raises thinking that the BB will fold because he truly doesn’t have a hand and that I will fold because the flop missed me too.

As predicted by both me and the LP player, the BB does indeed fold, which brings the action back around to me.

Since my read on the BB was so flawless, I figured my read on the LP player was also without fault.  So I pushed.

LP had me covered easily and insta-called.  With his set of 4’s.  Oops.

Good thing the turn brought the case 4 giving him quads because I would have had two outs on the river with which to suckout.

I console myself after these moves by saying, “At least I went with my read….”