Part 2 Hands

It is a 1/2 NL game at the Eldorado in Reno. It is Friday night, so there is a mix of players from total fish to players that know they have a good hand and are aware of what beats them. It is hard to describe them. Their goal is to see as many flops as cheaply as they can with any two cards. They can hit nothing to a monster and play so you would never know what they have. This means raising all in with 6 high to checking a full house because they think you might have quads the way you were calling.

The first hand is against a player that is aware of the cards, people, and betting. He is by no means good just one of the better players at the table. We have 200 effective stacks and I am UTG with 67s in spades.

I get a little fancy and raise to 12. 3 people call so there are 4 of us to the flop of Qs, Js, 5s. I flop a 7 high flush and bet out 20 into the $48 pot. The next player min raises to 40 and I call. The turn is the 2s I check, he bets 80, and I fold.

I raised preflop to thin the field, get money in the pot, and disguise my hand. I expected this many callers and alot of times a simple C-bet will take it down on the flop. The flop was good and bad for my hand. I only bet 20 because anyone with a spade will call correctly, so I wanted to thin the field more and build the pot for an all-in push on the turn with any non spade card.

The min raise from the player to my immediate left surprised me. Everybody else folded and it was back to me. I put him on any decent spade, straight draw, set, or two pair. I thought about pushing but decided was just to scared of a higher flush. I was trying hard to reduce variance. Thinking he put me on a just a C-bet or a flush draw, I called, planning to check raise the turn were I would be a huge favorite.

I have more hands like this that all come down to being scared to loose the money. It took me 3 times before I realized what I was doing. There is some credit to my thinking and some of my folds were/will be correct but I still think I am playing scared.

Last night I flopped a straight with a 10 high flush draw. It was obvious the better had the A but I just called because the highly volatile big stack was also in the hand. He loved to check raise you all in and was catching everything. The board paired on the river and the big stack check raised big. I knew he had trips but did he have the boat. I decided to call and yes he had it.

It is hard to know if he would have folded but I should have raised the flop and turn. I was a huge favorite but he got runner, runner. I am more frustrated with myself for playing scared then loosing the hand. I didn't give myself every chance to win the pot that I should have.

The company I worked for went out of business so while collecting unemployment I am following my dreams. I have some money saved up but not nearly what I should have to play poker. This is why I am playing the way I do. I know it will take longer but even with tight scared folds I should be able to beat the games more then I am. It isn't much, but if I had folded to the check raise last night I would have been a small winner instead of a small looser.