Villain Perspective

[John S]

Hey guys,

This forum has been a lot of fun. Thanks Brad and crew for setting this up.

Anyways, I got to play with Brad and Andrew last month at the meet-up game in Phoenix. I made the VLOG (both actually), and I thought it would be fun to talk about the hand. Another forum member was asking about floating a week or so ago, and this hand was certainly a float on my part, so hopefully he sees this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K30i75yr1m4#t=05m30s

Quick background: I got into this game later in the session, I was at a must move table so I think they had been playing for an hour or so before I sat down. I had played a few hands at the table because I was dealt strong hands early on, but I hadn’t had a chance to play a hand with Brad. I didn’t drive an hour to nit it up, and I figured what better spot to play than an extremely marginal hand (it was either Q6 or Q5 off-suit) out of position against a pro. So that’s why I called pre-flop.

Flop comes down horrible for my hand (K94, 2 clubs). I check, Brad bets. I called for a few reasons. It was really a float from the beginning. I was planning to fire on most clubs and any card that brought in a potential straight. Plus, in the short time I had been at the able Brad hadn’t been splashing around playing a lot of hands, and the early position raise made me think he had a strong hand. He was in seat 7, I was seat 5. Seats 1, 2, and 3 were raising quite a bit, so I didn’t think Brad would be raising weak hands here to fold to a potential 3-bet, so I thought his hand range was fairly narrow so I could easily re-evaluate on the turn. If I missed, I was done because I knew I was drawing dead.

Turn brings in the 10, so QJ gets there, K10 beats most of his range outside of the set, so I decided to lead out. He called pretty quickly, so I figured he had a big King at this point.

River pairs the 10 and brings in front door clubs. I like my bet size of 105. Brad and I talked about it afterwards and he thought I could have gone larger. I certainly could have bet 120 or 130, but most games that I play in Phoenix the bets are usually around 1/2 to 2/3 pot, so that’s why I chose that size. I remember him saying during the hand that it was a bad card for his range, so I was pretty happy that I had picked a good spot to run a float/bluff and that I had ranged him pretty accurately.

Well, Brad picked me off and called. He was nice enough to tell me why afterwards. The vein thing I had no idea until Brad mention. The bluff may have worked if I was across the table or facing and amateur, but we were sitting two seats apart Brad picked up on it and made a great call. He mentioned that I also looked stiff. I guess that’s something else I need to work on. I generally try to remain motionless in the same position whether I have air or whether I have the nuts and making a sizable river bet, so I’m curious to see if I would have looked the same had I made the flush, the straight, or even trips.

Anyways, I felt it a moral victory that I didn’t get snap called, so I was doing something right in the hand, just got beat by the (much) better player.

It was a fun time, guys. Glad you came out, and hope you come back again to redeem all your raffle winnings.

I have to say Brad is my favorite vlogger, mainly because he only took part of my money, while Andrew took it all. I joke, but they were both great guys. Very personable, friendly, tried to talk to everyone who came up to them, tons of pictures, etc. I guess there were rumors that they were charging for autographs/pictures and I know for a fact that is a lie. They were both stand-up guys, and even though I got stacked I had a great time during the game and afterwards. If any of you gets a chance to play in a meet-up game with them I strongly recommend it.

[Brad Owen]

Thanks for the post John. The main thing I would do differently is just fold preflop. As you mentioned, you had a few reasons to think that I was strong. You did a good job of assessing the situation preflop. You decide to call from out of position though against a competent player that you think has a good hand. It’s very difficult to make a profit under these circumstances. You want to be attacking people when you think that they’re weak and avoid them when they’re strong.

Floating in position with some strong backdoor draws and maybe some overs is one thing but floating out of position with very few cards that’ll improve your hand isn’t something we want to incorporate into our game plan.

You definitely showed a lot of heart by floating and betting two streets. Without knowing much about you and given my actual hand, it put me in a tough spot. I definitely like a bigger sizing on the river.

I can’t believe Andrew got all of your money. What a mean guy. I’ve never signed an autograph in my life so I can also attest that those rumors are lies lol.

We’ll definitely be back. Good luck to you and hope to see you at another meet up game soon.

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