[mrmuzeman]

The 4th hour


The blinds were now at 100/200 and I played 2 hands of note this hour, both of which I lost.

The first was with the absolute monster starting hand of 76s on the big blind. Im pretty sure 76 is the nuts preflop isn’t it? The button had called and the short stacked Scandy who id won with AK above called also. I contemplated raising here to take the 600 but then I thought about it and thought this is exactly the sort of hand I want a flop with so checked to see a free flop.

The flop came 8 3 3 rainbow. So id missed BUT a good opportunity to bluff the pot here. The small blind checked and I plucked up and tried to look quite amateurishly excited about the flop (not in a stupidly overstated way though!) and bet 500. I figured I would very likely steal the pot there as I really doubt that flop has hit the player who called on the button. He folded as expected but then the short stacked Scandy check raised all in for about 2K. So he had the 3 then I guess and I had to fold. I still maintain for sure that those kind of flops are great for betting at. Slap on the wrist!

I picked up AK in early and opted to bet 700 for a nice raise of 500. Id seen raises to 600 getting folded round so that bet was fine. The problem came when the Small blind re-raised to 1.5K. I was pretty sure he was an amateur player and not one of the many pros and he’d been playing pretty tight so his raise certainly commanded some degree of respect. A raise from the blinds is almost always a very strong move I think as you know you are to be out of position for the flop yet still happy to raise. Note also the raise isn’t that large. Its only another 800 into a 2.4K pot and is essentially a value re-raise with what would seem to be a big hand. He’s not trying to chase me out here I don’t think with that raise. I put him on a premium hand. I have to call though as I have position on him, the pots offering me 3/1 odds and if I catch an Ace or King I’ve most likely got him (unless I’m unlucky and he’s got AA). I called but didn’t re-raise because I had position and although AK is a big hand I had the feeling he wouldnt lay down if I re-raised and I could be facing a coin flip for a lot of chips.

The flop came down 3 rags and he bet just 1K at me. That’s a pretty weak bet there I thought, maybe Jacks trying to feel out where he is at or an AK like me. There is of course the probability that he wants me to raise so he can come back over the top or maybe he genuinely was weak or just a poor player, I simply wasn’t sure. All I did for sure know was I was sitting with Ace High and if I raised it would have to be big, probably in the region of 4K+ to make him laydown. With a large stack I may well have bet 5K here to put him to the test but with just 9K behind me I didn’t feel happy committing that amount of chips on this bluff, especially as I thought he may have something like JJ or QQ. So I folded. I’m not sure if I played the hand that great or not and if anyone wants to comment on that id like to hear what they have to say. I think I was down to around 7K after the 4th hour here so not a very good hour.