Evaluating Your Play: Part V

In many ways, I prefer mixed games to straight no-limit hold’em, especially no-limit hold’em at nine or ten-handed tables, which can be very slow. My reasons are that there is more action and more variety in the mixed games. Last week I went up to Bellagio for an $80-$160 mix, but by the time I got there, all the seats were gone, so I decided to play $10-$20 no-limit hold’em while waiting for a seat. (As an aside, the recent trend toward adding a lot of new and unusual games to the mix, including baduecy, badacey, super hi-lo stud regular or eight-or-better, has added a lot of opportunities for those who are quick to pick up new games and are willing to do some work away from the table. Unfortunately they have also frozen out a lot of the drop-ins, who are usually very desirable opponents.)

I start at a must move table. Players at this table must move to the main $10-$20 game when seats become open. Our table starts off six-handed, and players are rapidly moved until we are playing three-handed. Someone starts straddling on the button, which is also under-the-gun (UTG). It is a high action, exciting game. Then I get moved to the main game, which is not only nine-handed, but which has several players with huge stacks — $10,000 to $25,000. I arrive with close to $5,000, and I am one of the shortest stacks at the table. The game is a little unusual in that there are a lot of limped pots.

Usually at this stake, the first voluntary entrant comes in with a raise. I think the huge stacks are trying to find a cheap way to get situations where they have some unexpected nuts and can win another huge stack. After a few quiet orbits, I pick up two black deuces on the button. There are three limpers to me, one UTG, one in middle position and one in the cutoff. I call, thinking it has been a long time since I flopped a set. Both blinds also call.

The flop comes 8 5 2. There are three checks, the middle position player, with a huge stack, bets $100, the cutoff calls quickly. I want to thin the field and build a big pot with my bottom set, so I raise to $340. The blinds fold, and the UTG player starts to think. I can’t be sure, but I feel that he is trying to decide between raising or calling. Eventually he calls. The initial bettor now reraises to $1,040. The cutoff looks disgusted and bounces his cards toward the muck. I get a flash of color, and even with my relatively poor eyesight, I think he folded a small heart, maybe the 6. I am now faced with a tough decision. There is a reasonable chance my set is no good. On the other hand if I’m ahead, they probably have a lot of outs, although if they both have draws, then their outs will overlap, and I’ll be in a great spot. I eventually fold.

As I have asked you to do in these columns, evaluate my play. To make it simple, score each play from 0 (horrendous) to 9 (great or at least automatic.) There are only three decisions to evaluate: preflop call, flop raise to $340, and final fold.

Now that you have evaluated my plays, I will try to describe my thinking on each one, and you can see if your evaluation changes:

Preflop limp seems pretty standard. I could have also tried to steal the pot with a large raise, but to combination of a UTG limper, a good situation for set-mining, and excellent position to play a pot makes limping seem fine.

There is a bet and a call, so I raise. Bottom set isn’t close to good enough to slow play in a six-handed pot with a draw-heavy board. I’m hoping to get heads-up against a flush or straight draw with enough in the pot that I can make a big turn bet.

This is a very tough decision. If I fold the best hand, I have thrown away a tremendous amount of equity. If I call with the worst, I will end up getting a lot of money into the pot with only one out. I try to review everything I know about the hand. The UTG limper may have been thinking of check-raising when he called my flop raise. I guess he’d limp with a small pair, suited connector or suited ace. If he hit a set it is higher than mine. If he has a hand like A 5 he has a lot of outs, but that would also explain his wanting to let everyone in so he’d get maximum odds with his draw. The cutoff, who folded, but flashed a probable low heart might have folded a hand like 7 6 or 9 7. This means fewer outs if my opponents have draws, but more chances that they have something else. Lastly, I have to figure out what the man who just made it $1,040 has. He is risking a very large stack, and it certainly doesn’t feel like he’s bluff or semibluffing. I think there is a good chance he limped with a small pair and has now hit a bigger set then mine. I fold.

After my fold the UTG player went all-in for about $5,000 more and the other player snap called. They agreed to show their hands and run it twice. The UTG player showed A 4, a flush draw and a gutshot. The other player had top set and won both runouts. Even though I lost the hand, I felt that I had done a great job of reading the situation and dodged a bullet that might have wiped out my stack. ♠

Steve ‘Zee’ Zolotow, aka The Bald Eagle, is a successful gamesplayer. He has been a full-time gambler for over 35 years. With 2 WSOP bracelets and few million in tournament cashes, he is easing into retirement. He currently devotes most of his time to poker. He can be found at some major tournaments and playing in cash games in Vegas. When escaping from poker, he hangs out in his bars on Avenue A in New York City -The Library near Houston and Doc Holliday’s on 9th St. are his favorites.