Last night was a good night, $170 in fewer than 3 hours. But it was made so primarily because of one hand where the pot I dragged was bigger than it probably should have been (not that I’m complaining, of course), where someone either was too stubborn, not paying attention, or just playing “pot odds.”
That table was just how I like it, pretty much passive and a bit loose. I was in one of my favorite seats, seat 9, with most of the players in positions that favored my style of play. In this hand, I was UTG+1. The UTG player limped and I found pocket kings. I raised.
Then the unbelievable happened. At this table, raisers were getting only about 2-3 callers, maybe 4. Yet this time, even with my early position raise, instead of folding, I saw call, call, call, call, 7 in all, 8 of us going to the flop. This is not at all good, I thought to myself, I am going to have to flop a set.
Well, I didn’t flop a set. The flop came A-K-K. Quads!
Now the question: How to play it.
It was, of course, checked to me. I hesitated, acted a bit, looking like I really didn’t like that flop, knowing also that people who flop sets, trips, or other monster hands are known to slow play those flops in low-limit limit games. Knowing this, I’ve taken to leading out on the flop when I make a set, knowing that I’ll usually get callers. This time I thought might be a little bit different, and with the pot already so big, I was also thinking that someone would surely take a stab at it. I was right.
The player in seat 3 bet out. This was someone who had come to the table earlier with a small stack. I put him on an Internet player who thought he was going to come to a cash game and run roughshod over the old-timers with his aggressive play. He lasted something like 3 hands, go up, said he was coming back, and didn’t. At least, not for awhile, but he left the seat open until he had to be picked up by the floor. Not good.
But he made his way back, got on the list, and came to out table again, this time buying in for a bit more, $100.
One other person called, and I smooth called. The turn came a total blank. I checked again. He bet out, the other caller folded, and I check-raised.
At this point, he shoudl have gotten out, and I made 2 more big bets because he didn’t because he didn’t think the situation through.
Yes, the pot was huge. 16 small bets preflop, then 3 small bets on the flop. His bet and my 2 bets, that’s 12 1/2 big bets at that point. From a numbers standpoint, you have to win less than 10 percent of the time to make a call here profitable.
But then there’s the situation and the person. True, he hadn’t been around long enough or played with me befoer to know that I’m on the tight side of things. even without that, unless you’re a maniac, and there clearly wasn’t one of those at our table, what does an early position raise mean?
In most cases, especially at a more passive table, we’re talking big pairs. Aces or kings or queens. Maybe AK, but a lot of people limp in with that. (Heck, I’ve been limping with AK, and AQ, about half the time these days.) Once in awhile jacks or tens. But figure the most likely holdings at aces, kings, queens, or AK.
He called. he called my river bet too, and then showed AQ offsuit after I tabled my quads.
So what did he think I had? Of the 4 likely holdings, the only one he had was queens. My call on the flop and my check-raise on the turn clearly communicated power.
Yes, there are those who would look solely at the odds and think that you have to be right just a very small amount of the time, that the pot was way, way too big to fold. But I would counter that by saying that sometimes the message is so clear that your actual chances are easy to tell.
I liked his continuing to call. I like it when people such as that are at my table. It’s why I pay attention. It’s why I fold my flopped set when the 4th card to a straight comes out on the river and someone I know calls with any draw suddenly bets out (or raises, if someone else is foolish enough to bet into him), and I know with as much certainty as you can have in this game that I’m beaten. And it’s why I had another profitable night.