A Fun Hand From A Bellagio Cash Game

I recently played a fun hand at Bellagio in Las Vegas that I think is worth sharing. We were playing $10-$20 no-limit hold’em. I recently got moved from a must-move table to the main game, so my reads are based purely on generic assumptions, which means I will not make any significant decisions on them.

A tight, aggressive player with $2,000 raised to $80 from first position. A good tight, aggressive player with $10,000 called in second position. The player in third position, who was unknown to me, also with $10,000, called. I had more money on the table than everyone else. I looked down to find the nice 8 8 in the small blind. I decided to call $70 more.

I don’t think the other options have much merit. Folding would be way too tight and re-raising versus a first position raiser with a hand that has large implied odds from out of position is almost always a mistake. I can’t conceive of a deep-stacked situation where I would re-raise a first position raiser with 8-8. It is simply not a good play. When you can see a relatively cheap flop with a hand that has large implied odds, you should tend to call, especially if you don’t expect to get re-raised too often.

The player in the big blind, with $12,000, announced that he was calling in the dark because he didn’t think he could fold anything due to his amazing pot odds. The big blind was clearly a recreational player, but I was unsure if he was goofing around or not. Some players actually think they have to call with any two cards when getting reasonable pot odds. They are not concerned with the number of players in the pot. Other players like to say asinine things at the table and should be ignored.

The flop came 8 7 5, giving me top set. I decided to check.

While I could bet into my opponents, I thought that one of my three opponents would bet on this flop a high percentage of the time, allowing me to check-raise to a large amount, hopefully tricking my opponents into thinking I have some sort of draw. I am not a fan of betting into my opponents in this spot because I imagine they will play fairly well, calling with overpairs and draws while folding everything else. If a bet will induce your opponents to play well, you probably want to choose a different action.

The big blind and the initial raiser checked. The player in second position bet $300 into the $400 pot, which was excellent for me. The player in third position called, which I was thrilled about. I was already counting the money that was about to be in my stack!
Sticking with my plan, I decided to check-raise to $1,300. I thought this bet size would make my strong opponent think I want to realize some fold equity, which may induce him to make a huge blunder with an overpair or a marginal draw.

The player in the big blind thought for around three minutes before lifting up his cards from the table in a manner such that the initial raiser could probably see his cards. I was annoyed, but didn’t say anything because it wasn’t clear the initial raiser could actually see his hand. After a while, the big blind folded.

To my surprise, the initial raiser went all-in for $620 on top of my $1,300 bet. The other players folded and I happily called. The board ran out A K, which I was not happy about because I assumed my opponent had A-A, K-K or a draw. He showed K-K and won the pot. Bad beat!

As a brief aside, it should be clear that the K-K had a super easy fold when facing a bet, a call, and a check-raise. Even if there was a $300 bet and two callers, K-K should probably fold. You must realize that an overpair is a fairly weak holding when there is a lot of post-flop action on a coordinated board. Of course, I was happy he called. When your opponents make errors, you should be happy, whether or not you win the pot.

After the hand, the initial raiser said he saw the big blind fold 6 4. Of course, he should have said something during the hand, but that isn’t the point of this article. The player in the big blind instantly started defending his play, saying that he thought I either had a set, a strong draw, or the nut straight, which is likely a correct assumption. He said that he didn’t want to gamble because $12,000 was a lot of money to him.

I later found out that he bought in for $1,000 and ran if all the way up to $12,000. While I didn’t know it at the time because I just got moved to the table, this player was an extreme example of someone who was playing scared. He effectively flopped the nuts and still didn’t want to put his stack in. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are afraid to get all-in with what is almost certainly the best hand, you should pick up and leave as soon as possible.

One of the easiest ways to make money is to flop the nuts against other strong, but worse, hands and pile your money in. If you are unwilling to take this “gamble,” you should not be playing for that much money. While some players play with a sound mind when they are playing for money that is significant to them, others lose their minds and make gigantic errors.

Even though I got unlucky to lose to the K-K, it could have been a lot worse if the big blind stuck around, because I certainly would have lost $10,000 more. When you can make the best hand fold and the worst hand call, you simply must view the hand as a success. This was a fun one! ♠

Jonathan Little is a two-time WPT champion with more than $6 million in tournament winnings. Each week, he posts an educational blog and podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com, where you can get a FREE poker training video that details five things you must master if you want to win at tournament poker.