Thursday, July 10, 2008

Wednesday is League night

I played in my local league and the Mookie. There is nothing more bizarre than having KK at both tables at the same time with the timer action alarms going off. I ended up over betting both and scaring everyone away.

Here is a familiar and old story.

You have QQ and when you get called by TP jack, he hits the river and sucks-out. no big deal, happens (I already had his money in the pot too.) I dont mention it or blink an eye. But of course, later in the match, I suck out on AA with A7 and I am a complete donk and everyone feels free to say so. Why? Because earlier in the evening I cracked a big hand with 75 suited. That first time I got called a donk too. But listen to this... I out played him. Period.

Look: Folded to the button, who min-raises. Gus taught me, from the BB and raise smaller than 3x (3.5x with antes) is an AUTO-CALL. AUTO CALL. Flop comes with 2 clubs and I check. He checks. WHY? Turn is a third club. I check again. He bets and I call. River is a blank and when I make a value bet of $1k (20% of his stack), he CALLS my made flush. How am I the donk there? HOW?

On the A7 hand, its folded to me on the button with a short stack. The giant stack is in the BB. I make the raise, he calls. Flop is all junk and when he checks I bet. Well, when he moves is I am already on the ropes stack wise. He trapped me fair and square. And I got lucky. Runner-runner lucky. But how is a short stack moving in when its folded to the button with A7 bad? And how is running a Stop-N-Go instead of pre-flop all in so much worse?

Frankly, I understand why everyone called Gus crazy when he first started winning big money. Its the math. Some decisions are not reads, or big laydowns, or a "feeling". They are just position, initiative, and math. And from what I gather, knowing that makes you a donk.

2 comments:

carbide said...

Ray, I think you played the flush hand fine. But the A7 hand I think was all in preflop, if it wasn't how do you do a stop & go in position? I've never seen that before.

columbo (at eifco dot org) said...

I think you are right on the Stop N go, but I was only making a point. Yes, it was a bad suckout agreed. But in my position, if I shoved into AA there with A7, it would have been just the same.