Back in The USA and Rushing to The Commerce

Okay, so I'm back in the US for about ten minutes, when I get a call from a friend at the Commerce where a big game is going on and he says I need to get there and quick. As it happens I'm in the Miami airport headed to LA for a couple of days before heading back to Vegas. I am due to leave at 9pm and get into LAX at around midnight. So I call The Commerce and get a room and arrange to get picked and brought right to the Commerce. Not ten minutes later I get called back and told the game just got interesting. As I have been talking about cash games I thought I would discuss an interesting hand that just took place in a 50-100 No Limit Holdem game at The Commerce.

So the history is that one player whom I have been playing with for years, and has been on a hot run since the LA Poker Classic in February is perhaps the most aggressive player I have ever played with on any long term basis by the name of Julian. In fact he plays almost every hand preflop, and will call almost any preflop raise. To his credit he is hard to put on a hand and seems to have pretty good instincts after the flop. Another player in the hand is an extremely talented cash player Ryan, that when he's playing his A game is as tough as anyone. He may splash a few chips around here and there but when he puts a lot of chips in you are usually behind. The third player I don't know, but was described to me as an ABC player and fairly tight without a lot of imagination.

Now the tight ABC player opens the pot UTG+2 for 180 and the solid player in the cut off makes it 700 to go. So now Julian, Mr. Aggressive, takes a minute and makes it 3,000. The stack sizes are as follows; UTG+2 has 5k, Ryan 30k, and Julian 17k. UTG+2 pushes making it 5,000, Ryan goes all in and has both players covered. Julian insta-calls 14k more. Stopping the story right there it is pretty obvious that UTG+2 has either QQ or KK, Ryan in the cut-off had the only hand he could have, AA and Julian has AK, but is happy because it's suited. An Ace falls on the flop and no magic happened and the hand ended as it should of; with the aces winning. Now Julian thinks he got a cooler, and yes AK into KK and AA is bad, but it's only as bad as you let it become.

I tell this story for a couple of reasons, one being to illustrate how awareness of how and where you stand in a hand is paramount, and AK (suited or not) may be ok to go all in pre-flop in a tournament situation and in some cases when you know where you are in a hand, but not against four raises! Even if they are bluffing, so what, throw it away and pick a better spot. Best case you are up against QQ and KK, but not likely. When Julian raises to 3k, I don't hate that move, although he would of accomplished the same thing with a raise to 2,200, I think of that as asking a question, and you better damn well pay attention to the answer. The question he is asking is do I have the best hand or where do I stand in this hand? Now if the UTG+2 pushed and made it 5k and the cut-off folded, then by all means call, you are then putting only 2k more into a 9k pot, and are getting the correct odds for all but AA. Now if he were deep as well, then it's a tougher decision and I would factor in my read. When I'm playing deep stack high stakes poker (at least what I consider high stakes) against another deep player the ONLY hand I'm thrilled about putting all my chips in with pre-flop is AA. I'm there to play poker, not gamble, if I wanted to gamble I'd shoot dice, play black jack, or drive on the LA freeways. Well, I'm on my way; I hope the usual suspects are tilting heavily by the time I get there. Here is the after action report:

I get to the Commerce around 1am and sit in a 10-20 game while waiting for the bigger game. About an hour later I get in and as advertised it's a great game. Julian has made something of a comeback and is sitting pretty deep with 35k, and there are three players in the game that have scales, gills, and a tail. So I spent the next 6 hours playing and things went well. I mostly played small pots and chipped up slowly. In one hand which was a six way straddled pot I called on the button with 99 and the flop came 952. Julian opened for 600 and it was folded around to me and I raised to 1,800 and Julian insta-called. The turn came a 2, Julian checked and I opened for 2,200, and he thought for a minute and folded. I hoped he was stronger and was going to raise or at least call, but no such luck. He rabbit hunted the river and said "I would have had you, I made a nut flush." I couldn't contain myself and told him that I had top full house. He said I played it bad and should have slow played him and he would have bet big on the river. I replied (which is the truth) that it's not my way, I want to build a pot when I'm strong, and I hoped you had enough of a hand to play. So a couple of minutes later from mid position I make a 5 BB raise with 24. Julian calls and the flop comes KKQ, and I say to him "should I slow play this time or not?" He replies "slow play" as I throw 900 in the pot. He looks at me flashes a Queen and mucks, at which point I show the bluff. I have to say I really enjoyed that.

The Oracle

http://www.cardplayer.com/players/results/Roy-Winston/36778