A Little Poker, Lots Of WoW, and One Really Interesting Hand

Most of my time this weekend has been spent (expectantly) playing World of Warcraft which recently launched its second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. It's been good times so far, and I'll leave it at that for now.

I still managed to squeeze in 21k hands this weekend. I'm not sure whether to be disappointed in that total or not. It certainly won't cut it in the future, though.

Here's my winnings graph for the weekend. Very swingy, but they don't affect me too much anymore. Note that this is the first Hold'em Manager graph I've posted on this blog! Get used to them, the tool kicks ass and is clearly the market leader.


Moving on, I played one hand on Saturday which I found to be very interesting from a hand reading perspective. I'll take you through the hand and why it is so intriguing.

Villain is a reg nit, and runs around 10/7. I've played a lot of hands with him and I do not remember him ever spewing bigtime post flop.


Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 9 Players

Hero (MP1): $201.20 (201.2 bb)
MP2: $111.95 (112 bb)
MP3: $88.50 (88.5 bb)
CO: $38.35 (38.4 bb)
BTN: $101 (101 bb)
SB: $101.85 (101.9 bb)
BB: $101.35 (101.4 bb)
UTG: $15.50 (15.5 bb)
UTG+1: $19.50 (19.5 bb)

Pre-Flop: Hero is MP1 with Qd Kd
2 folds, Hero raises to $4, 4 folds, SB calls $3.50, BB calls $3

Standard raise for me. I actually raise KQs in EP some of the time as well.

Flop: ($12) Ac 9d Jh (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks

This is actually a pretty decent spot to c-bet, even three ways. Plus we have a gutshot for backup. Checking is likely a small mistake relative to betting.

Turn: ($12) Td (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets $8, Hero raises to $26, SB folds, BB calls $18

We turn the nuts, and get bet at by our nit reg. His range at this point is AK/AQ and sets. Very well defined. We raise, SB folds, and reg calls. His range now is polarized to exactly sets. His call here is interesting though, as you may be thinking that he should be shoving all day. He elects not to shove because he (probably) knows that my raising range is going to be straights and AQdd which chose not to bet the flop (checking AQdd on the flop would have been ok, very little that we beat calls). He probably would also put AA in my range, though I don't think I ever slowplay AA on that flop 3 ways.

Thus, he decides to call and see if he can improve to a boat via the board pairing, or failing that if he will take down the pot when my AQdd bricks its flush and checks behind the river. This isn't a bad call, I think it is probably the right play.

River: ($64) Jd (2 players)
BB bets $36, Hero raises to $169, BB calls $35.35 and is all-in

The board pairs, also completing the flush. Villain bets a little over half pot, almost exactly half his remaining stack. This is a very good bet on this part - it allows for my flushes to make a crying a call, when they might fold to a ~pot size shove.

What he doesn't expect (and hates to see) is my shove. He knows my made flushes probably aren't shoving here (it's definitely a mistake to shove a flush against villain's range, which is a boat here). Thus, he really doesn't beat anything. But he has a full house, and what could I possibly have? It's very doubtful I have AA (and he's right, I almost never do). That only leaves a straight flush that could be shoving. It's tough to give anyone credit for a straight flush, so he can't find the fold button, especially getting great 5:1 odds.

It's interesting to note that villain timed all the way down before calling the river shove. I'm quite certain he highly suspected that I had the straight flush, and almost hero folded. It would have been quite a fold.

Results: $206.70 pot ($3 rake)
Hero showed Qd Kd (a straight flush, Nine to King) and won $203.70 ($102.35 net)
BB mucked Th Tc (a full house, Tens full of Jacks) and lost (-$101.35 net)