Big pot in a $1/2 game.

[Heath]

Went to Harrah’s Cherokee last night and jumped into a $1/2NL game. Got into an interesting hand, wanted to see if anyone has any thoughts about it. Playing 8 handed, UTG raised to $8. It folds around to me and I’ve got KJo on the button. I call the the raise as does the BB. The flop comes out 67J rainbow. BB leads out for $15, UTG raises to $30. I call and BB again calls. Turn is an off suit 5 to complete the rainbow. BB leads for $25, UTG raises to $70.

I go into the tank and the following flows through my head… I had been at the table with these guys for around 3 hours when this hand happened. BB is a loose aggressive player that I had caught a few times trying to take a pot with a low pocket pair on similar boards, but will also reraise preflop with any pocket pair. UTG mainly has experience playing online and is relatively new to poker from what I could gather, and has been playing AK/AQ type of hands on any board similar to how most would play pocket AA. With how this hand unfolded, I’m not really worried about a set but there is obviously a straight possibility. I’m not putting UTG on the straight or having a draw for a straight, the BB I’m really thinking he is open ended or has a gut shot.

The pot is $210 at this point, and I have $234 left in front of me. BB has me covered and UTG has maybe $140 or so left behind. I didn’t see any point in just calling here, so I jammed. BB goes into the tank for a few minutes, making sounds of agony and repeatedly saying what a difficult spot I had put him in, but ultimately makes the fold. UTG then goes into the tank and I’m honestly hoping to get the call from him, can’t help but think I’m good against his holding. He tries to get some conversation out of me and asks the classic “will you show if I fold,” and after getting no reaction at all he turns his cards face up. J10o, which is stronger than I gave him credit for. He finally settles on a fold and then starts begging me to show. I lay my cards out in front of me face down and tell him to pick left or right, he picks left which turned out to be the jack. Old man coffee who is sitting a few spots to my left immediately declares that I had a set of jacks and it didn’t matter which card was picked.

If anybody has any thoughts about how this went, I welcome any feedback. I took down a big pot so I’m happy with the outcome, just thought it was an interesting hand worth sharing.

[Brad Owen]

This is a tough one to analyze since the players in this hand are all doing a series of unorthodox things. Opening JTo from UTG is way too loose. Usually I’d fold KJo on the button to a raise from that early. I’m not sure what is going through the big blind’s head when he’s leading out on the flop. I really don’t know what UTG is thinking by raising since there aren’t many worse hands that would call a bet other than straight draws I guess. Once you call that should really set off alarm bells in his head.

When the turn comes out I am even more surprised the big blind leads out again. I am super surprised the UTG player raised again with a hand that weak after he raised flop and got called in two spots. He’s turning a hand that has a lot of value into a bluff. I honestly would probably fold turn unless I knew the other players really well because we are up against multiple opponents who are betting and raising in front of us, showing a lot of strength. I am not a fan of shoving since you’re also essentially turning your hand into a bluff. They’re folding JT face up and I imagine they’re folding QJ as well. Those are the best hands that we beat… and they’re letting them go. If we get called we’ll almost always be in really bad shape. I don’t think they’d fold overpairs or better so putting in a third bet doesn’t accomplish much except deny equity from a possible straight draw. The problem is that the most likely straight draw already got there (98). Most of the time shoving after all this action will be lighting money on fire.

It sounds like you’re in a great game with opponents who are not typical at all though. It’s really tough for me or anyone else to give much advice under these conditions when we don’t really know the opponents and they have tendencies that aren’t rational. If you play straight forward poker, I imagine you should be able to crush these guys. Just be careful not to overvalue top pair. Also, make sure that your bets have a purpose. You either want to make bets that will get worse hands to call (value bet) or better hands to fold (bluff). The shove on the turn doesn’t accomplish either of those things so that’s why I don’t like it. I’m glad you came away with the pot though. Thanks for sharing and good luck man!

[Heath]

Thanks for the reply Brad. After the hand was over I was thinking I had basically turned my hand into a bluff. If it had not been for some of the strange things I had seen these two doing over a few hours I probably would have folded in that situation. It left asking myself “what the hell just happened” for a good while after it was over.

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