Poker Hands From the Thunder Squadron

In the next few columns, I am going to be discussing some of the more interesting hands that have been posted by Thunder Squadron members in my new poker forums at http://www.thunderkeller.com/. Some of these hands were played pretty well, while others were played … not so well. But, I imagine we all can likely learn more from discussing hands in which mistakes were made than from discussing hands that were played flawlessly.



The first one is a limit hold'em hand posted by Squadron member Crimsonduck. The game is a ninehanded $8-$16 live cash game. A weak, loose player in seat No. 3 limps in from early position, our hero Crimsonduck limps in from the cutoff with the K J, and the small blind (SB) and big blind (BB) stay in. So, four players see the flop, which comes K-4-3 with two diamonds. Everyone checks and Crimsonduck checks behind them. The turn is the 10, giving our favorite duck the second-nut flush. The SB checks, the BB bets, seat No. 3 calls, Crimsonduck raises, the SB folds, the BB reraises, seat No. 3 calls, and Crimsonduck just calls, fearing the nut flush. His read on the player in the big blind is that he has a flush and it is just a matter of whether he has the nut flush or not. He says that he is not worried about seat No. 3, since he's seen him call a hand to the river with third pair twice in the last hour and figures he is likely drawing dead.

The river is a total blank, the 2. The BB bets, seat No. 3 calls, and our waterfowl just calls. The BB shows the 8 7, seat No. 3 mucks, and Crimsonduck wins the pot with a king-high flush. Crimsonduck thinks he missed a bet on the flop, and raises on the turn and river that are not excusable. His thinking on the flop was that he wanted someone to catch up to him, since it was such a great flop for him, and by checking, he could possibly get more bets in on the turn when the betting limit doubled.On the turn, after the BB reraised, he knew he was up against a flush, so he played the hand weakly from that point on. Overall, he thinks he missed at least two or more big bets by playing scared in this pot, and wants advice regarding this hand.



First of all, I admired the fact that he came forth with an honest, willing-to-learn attitude. A lot of players think so highly of their play that it is difficult for them to learn to play better, but I can tell that this is not the case with Crimsonduck, and that he's very willing to listen.



Preflop, I would have raised with the K J. This is a great hand with which to build a big pot, especially with position and a weak player who just limped in before you who will be committed to calling one more bet. Secondly, I don't understand why anyone would check this flop. This is a beautiful flop to bet with this hand, and not betting it after everyone checks is … madness. By checking, we're likely to win a smaller pot (assuming that we win the hand), and we also give our three opponents a free card to draw out on us. Our hand is still very vulnerable even with this great flop. All we have is top pair with a good kicker, and a non-nut flush draw. I rarely recommend slow-playing in limit hold'em ring games, and I would always bet this flop. Save the slow-playing for when you flop a real monster, like a full house or quads, not a hand as vulnerable as top pair!



Regarding his play on the turn and the river, Crimsonduck obviously made a good read on our opponent in the big blind, knowing that we were up against a flush. So, the only question is: Are we up against the nut flush? I think it's not likely. First off, our opponent was in the big blind and did not pay any extra to come into the pot, so he literally could have any combination of diamonds. And if he held a big hand like the A Q, he likely would have raised preflop. Had our opponent limped in from early-position, I'd say that there was a much better chance that he could have the nut flush, but this was not the case. Secondly, with the nut-flush draw, he likely would have bet the flop, as he also would have had an overcard and possibly even a straight-flush draw, given that the board contained the 4 3. Based on this, we have another reason to keep pushing this hand; we want to punish the third player who is still in the pot, since we know we have him beat and our read on him is that he will call down many bets while drawing dead.



I would have kept betting this hand to the max on the turn, and possibly even on the river. In my limited experience in lower-limit games, when someone makes a small flush, he will often overplay it. It would have taken a lot more action on the turn and the river to get me to slow down and fear that I was up against the nut flush, especially with the No. 3 seat donating money to this pot while being trapped in between raising and reraising. The bottom line is, even though it is possible that we were up against the nut flush, we can't afford to play with fear when we make a hand as big as this one. We need to jam the pot in this spot, and if we end up losing a monster pot to the nut flush, that is just a case of bad luck. The money we make by jamming the pot in this scenario will far outweigh the times we lose big pots to the nut flush in the long run.



Remember, even though discretion is the better part of valor, in poker, it is often better to err on the side of aggression than weakness. Don't play scared; if you run the second-nut flush into the nut flush, that's just a tough break and you shouldn't feel bad about it.

Thomas "Thunder" Keller is a 25-year-old professional poker player and one of poker's young and rising stars. He can often be found playing at UltimateBet.com under the name thunderkeller. To learn more about him and to enlist in his new squadron, go to his website at http://www.thunderkeller.com/. Also, feel free to contact him at [email protected].