Nh thread

Poker Discussion
109

Here’s a very nice hand.

It’s the second hand of a 2-seat SNG, and I take Ks5h into a flop 4h5sAh for middle pair with backdoor straight and flush possibilities. I end up drawing the 3h, 2h, and make the straight flush – I think my first ever wheel flush.

The board is a wheel straight, and four to the flush, so not a particularly well disguised flush here. I bet pot, hoping I’ll get a call, and V shoves. V has Qd6s and apparently blind to the flush possibilities of the board, apparently thinks that I’m just trying to steal the pot with a community Wheel straight that he has a better straight by virtue of his 6. Of course it’s a very long shot that he’s up against a straight flush, but all he needs to be beaten by is a simple flush here, so not a very good jam!

I consider his move carefully, just to be sure of my hand. I’m blocking a better straight flush, so yeah, obviously I call, holding the absolute nuts, and get all but 60 of V’s chips. He doubles up the next hand, but I get him on the hand after that, for a 4-hand win.

110

Very nice, and I got a little river luck to bring it home.

111

just happened

this is better than it looks. earned me 28.5 for the bounty

112

Very nice!

I had a straight flush last night, first time that’s happened in a few months.

And got beat by quads twice.

First time: Hand #644665061 · Replay Poker
Second time: Hand #644667837 · Replay Poker

I ended up winning the game in which the second quads hit me. It was a 39 minute heads up match that took 106 hands.

113

On a night where I’ve seen quads four times, here’s the nicest hand I had tonight:

55 vs ATs, I raise, V jams 700 into 200, I call; V rivers Broadway straight after I make the Kings Full, KKK55. He needed to pair the Ten or the Ace to beat me.

114

Played my first 1M HU SNG tonight. How’d it go, you ask? I lasted all of one hand.

Pocket KK vs pocket AA.

115

Just out of curiosity, what, exactly, about this hand do you think is “nice?”

You got it in as a 4-1 dog, then hit a 2 outer on the river. Sure, nobody can fault you for getting it in pre with kings, but why do you consider this to be a “nice hand?”

Nice outcome? Sure. Very lucky river? OK. Nice hand? Not so much.

116

It’s a combination of various things. I think in the KK vs AA hand, the preflop raising was well played by both players. I happen to have the inferior cards, but I still stick by playing my Kings this way. AA is certainly in V’s range here, but the number of times I expected to see it is low. Typical pug luck, it’s what my opponent was holding. Being willing to go all in on the very first hand even at the 1M stakes level shows that I’m not letting the stakes distort how I’m playing my premium pairs. Then I got a lucky river, which is definitely nice. It’s nice to be on the other end of that for a change. Almost makes up for the hundreds of times it’s happened to me. The outcome of this had nothing to do with skill, of course, but I’m happy with it.

117

Well, I can’t agree there. Your bet sizings were OK, but let me ask you this… when he 6! jams 3k into your 1080 5!, in the first hand of a 1m HU SnG, what did you think he had? Your snap call tells me you didn’t think about his hand at all.

To me, it would have looked like pairs QQ+, or AKs, and you were blocking AK and KK pretty hard, so probably either QQ or AA., and likely weighted towards AA. He had 17m left in his bank after entering that SnG, I wouldn’t think he was 6! jamming light there.

Look, I’m happy it worked out for you, but I still don’t see why you thought this was a nice hand.

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118

I didn’t need to think about it because when I went to 1080, I already knew that I was calling if he did jam, and if he had AA and it beat me, so be it. I wanted him jamming me. I wanted him to not have AA, obviously, but I felt it was improbable enough that it was all but certain on this site that I’d be looking at that hand, and I think we all know that i love to embrace being set up for a screw job by the seemingly stacked decks they love to serve me on this site. Yet by my masterful skill at playing cards, I was able to conjure the right river. A lesser player could not have done it, but I did.

I’m kidding, naturally. AA is certainly in his range here, but players on this site will jam 55+. Realistically, I put him on a pair, 99-AA. I wanted to see them. When you have Kings, you can charge them to beat you. And if they can do it, it’s ok.

Any time AA and KK go all in preflop, it’s going to be a nice hand. It’s unusual, yet it is a classic match-up. For it to happen on the opening hand, especially in a million chip game, is pretty crazy and exciting. The outcome was nice for me, but that’s really beside the point. Still, you can’t sit in my seat, play that hand that way, and not say “Nice!!!” when the river comes down.

You might be over thinking it, maybe. Generally is there a way that one can look at a hand and say something nice about it, it’s a nice hand. Nice doesn’t have a precise meaning. It’s just a thing people say to each other after a hand’s strength is revealed. But a hand may be nice for any number of reasons. Could be the cards, could be a good decision, or the entire line of decisions taken every street, could be the board cards complimenting one player or the other’s hole cards just right. Could be a nice read leading to a perfectly executed bluff.

119

AA v KK pretty much plays itself, yer gonna get them in pre if you can. As I said earlier, nobody will fault you for getting them in the middle there.

Anyway, I was curious about your thought process, thanks for taking the time to explain.

1 Like
120

Desperation Bluff

I once stated that my path to the money usually involved a hand of sheer luck. This is an example of that:

Didn’t do as well as I should have, due to self detonation, but did net 112K in a 50K tourney

121

Final hand of a 2-seater I won:

JJ vs 86, I figure I’m good here, I raise to 2BB, V shoves the 86o, because they might as well, they have only a little over 2BB; it’s on; they then flop a straight, 5-9. I’m about to freaking lose it, when the dealer pairs the board with a 5, and then fills my boat with a river Jack to suck out and take the hand and win the game.

122

I basically broke even today, ending up slightly up. Along the way I had some terrible games get away from me. Twice, I had my opponent down to their last few BB, put them all in, had them suck out or cooler me, then come all the way back to win the game. High blinds + me going cold and not being able to win another hand. Infuriating.

I’m here to talk about the good hands.

3-max SNG, one player never made it to the table, and their undefended blinds create an incentive for the two of us who are there to play for every pot we can, so there’s a bit more aggression preflop than I think there otherwise would be whenever the absent seat is in for the SB or especially the BB.

It happened that early on I won a very nice pot with A6s flopping top pair Aces on an A24 wheel board, and then rivering the nut flush, and I was well up over my opponent. I opened to 2BB preflop, check-raised the flop, hoping he only bet because I didn’t, and now he’ll fold, but he called; I check-called the turn, wary of his possible better Ace, but optimistic when I picked up the flush draw, and then bet the river when the flush filled, but didn’t get paid off.

He responded to losing this pot by getting more aggressive preflop, raising me off K2s when I opened it to 2BB, he made it 6BB, and I thought better of it and laid down. I have so much trouble sometimes when it comes to knocking out the small stack. I have close to a 3:1 stack advantage now.

I came back the next hand, limping 87s, figuring if he was going to raise me 3x, again, I would call, but I didn’t want to put in a 2BB open and get raised 3x to 6BB to call with this hand. V makes it 120, just as I expect, and so I call. Fortunately the flop comes in nice and low, giving me top pair, 88s, and pretty dry, 843-rainbow. V puts in a pot-size bet, and I’m just not buying it, not on this board, the way he opened. I think he’s trying to steal from me, but since I have top pair, but a pretty vulnerable top pair, I decide to raise him to make it all-in for him to see the Turn card; he calls, showing T9s, backdoor flush and straight draws, but no pair. Not sure why he called the raise, but probably because he was committed after the flop bet, and, well, he did have two overcards and two backdoor draws. The board runs out 2, J, missing him and I get him out. This was a good read on top of a little bit of luck.

I think I played these two hands pretty well.

123

Final hand of a HU SNG from yesterday.

I’ve played well enough to have a 3:1 stack advantage.

I get dealt pocket 33s on the Button, and limp it, V raises to 3BB, 120 I call, 240 in the pot. Flop: Qh3h6s, giving me bottom set. V bets pot, I raise, V calls. Pot is now 1440, V has just 440 chips left behind. Turn card is the 5d, which I don’t like because I don’t want to see my set get destroyed by a straight. I feel it’s unlikely that he’s on a straight draw with the action on the previous street, though, so unless he was playing Q4, I’m probably safe from having to worry too much about it. I reason that he must have top pair, but that I’m probably holding the best hand, and I put in for 440 into a pot of 1440, which is all I need to since it’s all he can match; he calls, shows AQ, and then the board runs out a river 3 to give me quad 3333s. No one ever plays AQ on a Q34 board and expects to lose to a set of 333s.

Another final hand from a HU SNG that I played yesterday.

I’m up 4100:1900; V has shown a little aggression trying to stage a comeback in recent hands, shoving me off of middle pair in this hand.

I take Ks9c and limp, button also limps, into a 4s7s8d flop. I have two backdoor draws, otherwise not much going on with this board. We both check. As hits on the Turn, giving me 4 to the nut flush, and I like that, but I check to my opponent, who min-bets for 60. I call, now 120 in the middle. 6s lands on the river, filling my flush. I bet pot for 240, V shoves. I call, knowing my hand is good; V holding Qd5d for a 4-8 straight, filled on the river. Somehow, they thought raising on a 4-spade board with a straight was a good play. I guess they were hoping I just had an Ace and no spade. What could have easily been a paltry nothing pot where I get just 1/8 of my opponent’s stack with a nut flush ends up being the game winner for me.

The hand before, I had just missed a spades flush, and two hands before I had made another spades flush, Q-high. It was quite a cluster of spades dealt to me.

124

I though thtis was a fairly nice hand from the mid-late stage of a 10k buyin MTT…

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125

Well played!

1 Like
126

Straight flush draw, filling after calling a shove from a small stack. It is unheard of that I can knock out a small stack calling a shove from them. It literally has never happened. But I hit my 2-outer and did it!

127

Final hand at a HU SNG I just finished up. I think the bet sizing (on my end) here is what makes this a well-played hand.

77 in the SB/Button, I open to 2BB, V 3-bets to 160; I call.

We both flop well; he hits top pair, I hit middle set, and it’s a cooler in my favor. V lets out a pot-size bet at the flop, I raise him from 320 to 800; V calls, he only has about 850 behind, for a half-pot attempt at the river, which is an easy call, and the hand runs out bricks and I get the pot.

I like the slightly small re-raise on the flop, here, as it’s giving great pot odds to call with what is almost certainly the best hand (unless he’s got QQ), and it sets him up to either jam back at me, which is fine, this bet size is practically inviting a re-raise, or call/jam the turn, which is also fine.

128

Here I sucked out on a cooler: AQo vs. JJ, I flop top pair Aces, V flops a set of JJJ. They bet pot, I call, he fills up JJJAA on the Turn and shoves, I call with trip Aces, fill a boat on the river as the board pairs a second time, A6JA6. I double up, knocking out the first player at the table, and end up riding it to take 2nd in the SNG.