[mrmuzeman]

The 3rd Hour


After my Coke break (not the powdered drug but the canned sugary kind) I returned to play the third hour to blinds of 75/150. I decided to use the information gained during the first 2 hours to my advantage now. The loose Scandy directly to my left (who id been chatting with earning a bit of rapport and was a nice guy) I wanted to put him straight to let him know he couldn’t push me around and make me lay down hands. Also I noticed that Tony Jones, chip leader, was playing very tight since winning his big pot and he was only three places to my left and I fancied nicking his big blind a fair bit. Both of these ideas came into fruition in the next hour….

I entered a pot with the loose aggressive Scandy almost straight away. Everybody folded to me in the small blind. I looked and saw 74o but I didn’t care much as I thought this might be the opportunity to show the Scandy what should and shouldn’t happen from here on in so I limped in and he checked. The flop came something like K 5 2. I had missed but checked intending to raise him when I knew he would bet. He bet 225 as hoped (he had a habit of adding a random 25 to all his bets – maybe some Scandy mathematical thing I don’t know!) so I check raised in Scandy style for a further 525 to 750. I knew he thought I was tight and he knew I thought he was loose - and he would be right, so he folded figuring me for AK. I mucked and let him think he was right and long may it continue.

Soon after I picked up A7o in the cut off (which is the seat before the button). Everybody had folded to me so I figured now was the time to pick on Tony Jones’ big blind as I had planned. I like stealing from the cut off as it tends to earn more respect than stealing from the button where people always think automatically that you are on the steal. I tossed in a 500 chip silently. MISTAKE.

I didn’t know this (and I learnt it isn’t the case a lot of the time) but if you don’t declare a raise you are in actual fact only calling. The small blind piped up that id just called and I was saying to the dealer surely the fact I bet 500 means im raising to 500 but apparently this isn’t the case (Jezza later told me it is the exact opposite way in Scotland and if you put 500 in, it means 500). So I’d called with A7o – great, brilliant. AMATEUR! The small blind called and Tony Jones checked. The flop came something crap like 9 6 2 and they both checked to me, so then I held a 500 chip in the air and announced louder than normal, ‘I bet 500’. They both folded and I showed my A7o. I figured since I was playing very tight in general I don’t mind showing lesser hands than I would normally as it might work in my favour in the future when people think I’m on the steal but I’m not.

I picked up my second real hand near the end of the 3rd hour – AK of clubs. Everyone folded to the small blind who called, I didn’t want him to flop something for nothing so I raised a further 300 to 450 total and he called (he was a Scandy, course he called). The flop came A 10 5, with 2 spades, a nice flop for me. He checked and I bet 700. A nice bet but with a pot of 900 it doesn’t necessarily indicate any real strength which was fine as I had a strong hand and quite wanted him to call. The reason I still made a decent bet was because there was a flush draw out and if he holds a 10 for middle pair or KQ, KJ, QJ kind of hand he has a straight draw. And the last thing you want is a Scandy turning a monster on you for free, oh yes. He quite quickly called, so I put him on a probable draw and maybe, just maybe, a lesser Ace. The turn was a blank and he again checked so I bet 2K into the pot of 2.3K and he folded. Nice enough I thought and my stack was about 10.6K at the end of the 3rd hour.