After a hot run Friday night (more then $300 net in 2 hours at $6/$12), I decided to head back for some more play Sunday night after a long weekend of fun and frivolity. I was debating whether to enter the evening tournament or sit and play in a cash game, but it was decided for me when I arrived to find the tournament full and a long waiting list.
Most of the night was a slow one, one where I played at a net loss. I found what should have been a pretty good table: I was in seat one and most of the loose players were on my right. In fact, in seats 5 and 6 were two players who knew each other well and who regularly made the stupidest of plays: straddling the blinds.
Actually, it was worse than that. When the player in seat 5 straddled, the player on her right put in a blind reraise, so it was 3 bets to go before the cards were even dealt.
Meanwhile, I was getting a bit hammered. For most of the evening, I had a nice, chatty, and rather loose player on my immediate left, and a tighter, more fundamentally sound player on his left. I was picking up few hands–in fact, I got dealt no pairs in my first hour of play and in the first two hours, my only pairs were 4s and 6s–and when I did pick up a good hand (a big ace, for example), the player two seats to my left seemed to usually have a better hand, simply called my raises, then let me bet out, trapping me well. I did read one trap when I bet out on the turn, he raised, got called, and I folded and he got called to the river and had flopped a set of 10s.
But one key hand turned my night from loss to profit, and it was one where I got lucky on the river.
The loose chatty player on my left had lost his stack and left (as expected) and a player who was in seat 7 moved to the empty seat. I had picked up on him to be a solid player, playing few pots, and going in only with good hands. I think he was smart to make that move, because while he was moving away from the two really loose players, he was moving to my left.
Now this was a table that, except for the two players almost always straddling, there was almost no preflop raising. Even postflop, raising was mostly limited to players raising on made hands.
So before the key hand, I found AK offsuit in the cutoff seat with a couple of limpers and, of course, raised. The player to my left reraised, which raised, so to speak, my hackles. This was a player who did not raise lightly. Naturally, considering the looseness of some of the players, two called the two reraises, and I reraised again. The player on my left capped, the two others in called, and I called.
At that point, I suspected strongly aces or kings. The flop came rags, it was checked to me, I bet out to find out where I was, the player on my left raised, got called by the two other players, and I was almost sure at that point I was beaten and folder.
As it turned out, he got called down and was forced to show the aces he’d played so well. I think I played pretty well, narrowing down his holding to be able to make a good post-flop decision and minimize my losses.
It was getting late and I was thinking it was going to be time to move on. I was again in the cutoff seat, which means that the players in seats 5 and 6 had again done the straddle-straddle move. Everyone folded to me, where I found AJ offsuit and raised.
Ominously, the player to my left called. The blinds folded and the first straddler capped the betting. The flop came AKx rainbow. The capper bet out and the second straddler called. The bettor tended to bet out with top pair or better and check-call if she got any piece of the flop. I put her perhaps on a small ace, so I raised. The player on my left just called, and I was feeling more dread. The two other players just called, and I was feeling confident I had them beaten. But the player to my left, I was beginning to put him on perhaps a bigger ace, such as AK or AQ or even pocket kings.
The turn brought a rag, it was checked to me, I bet again, and it was just called around.
The river brought what in most cases would be a miracle card: a jack, but in this case, even aces up didn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy. Still, it was checked to me and I bet out again, getting called by all three other players.
I showed my aces up, the two players in seats 5 and 6 folded, and the player on my left had one of the hands I had feared: AQ. I knew I had gotten tremendously lucky on the river; I had been behind the whole way.
That was a pot of more than $250 and put me more than $100 for the night. I was feeling incredibly relieved, not to mention lucky, knowing that it was a situation where I’d been in lots, where a player on my left had a bigger hand than my bigger hand, and this time I had spiked a golden card.
Of course, the pot would not have been as large had it not been for the straddlers, who put their raises in the pot before even seeing their hole cards. There’s a reason why that’s called the dumbest play in poker, and on the rare occasion when I get a good hand against someone who straddles, I enjoy making them pay.