A Tale Of Two Tables

Talk about contrasting styles of play...

I played in the Riverchasers live freeroll in Hatboro Sunday afternoon. We started promptly at 1 PM with 5 full tables, and it was obvious right from the start that my starting group was going to be playing good smart poker. I started off pretty good after seeing a flop out of the BB with A8o and check raising a MP bettor when I flopped top 2. The 2 LP callers of the flop bet dropped after the raise (which MP called), and when I bet the turn strong, I took down a nice early pot.

We go to 2/4 and I find A♠Q♠ on the button. Now I make it a habit of playing hands like this pretty soft pre-flop in the hopes of flopping something that it well disguised. When the flop came 663 with 2 spades, I was a little leery that one of the blinds was slow playing a 6. So, when both blinds check, I took the free card which was the T♠. It checked around again, so I bet about 75% of the pot which knocked out everyone but the BB. The river brought an offsuit K, at which point, BB made a pretty small bet. (I think about 12 into a 40 pot) I decided that discretion should rule here and just called. Good thing I did, as he turned over two red sixes. Ouch. One guy commented that he was astounded that more money was not made on that hand.

After I pick up a pot with AK♣, raised preflop with 2 callers, a few hands later a player UTG min raises. This is someone who hasn't raised preflop once prior to this, so the radar goes on just a bit. I look down and find JJ and call. No need to go crazy. I have position, so let's see what the flop brings and what the action looks like before I need to make another decision. Everyone else folds except for the BB, who also calls the raise and it's 3 to the flop. AJ3 rainbow. Yahtzee. Maybe. BB immediately bets out a little over half the pot. Original raiser looks disgusted, and mucks. I'm thinking it was probably T's, Q's, or K's.

Now, maybe I'm actually giving people too much credit, but my thinking at this point is this: We have a player, who never raises, raise preflop. An A comes out on the flop, yet the BB still bets right into 2 players, including that raiser. Bells go off in my head. I massively overbet the pot and shove. My read was correct and he insta calls with top and bottom pair. I manage to avoid the 2 other aces, and double up plus a little.

Now the wheels fall off the bus. Our table is broken up and I am moved to a place where $1 rebuy madness must have been taking place. Every hand was raised to 3.5x BB preflop, many times in the dark, and called by at least 2 other players. Then, someone was shoving on the flop. Every. Single. Hand.

I decide to call once with 99 to see if I can flop the set as I know I'm going to double up if hits. It doesn't. Fold fold fold fold. Then AKo UTG and I call the 10 BB. I figure there is going to be a raise and a call or 2 and then I'm going to shove. Yup, there's the raise, and there's the... oh, crap. BB shoved. No way do I think I am worse than a coin flip, and very possibly well ahead. I call, and the initial raiser eventually also calls. He says he just can't lay his hand down with all that money sitting in the pot. He flips 8♠9♠. BB flips the JackAce. Flop is J high, turn is the A, and no love on the river.

Sheesh. It was either do what I did, or try to wait until the table broke, but since people were coming to our table, I didn't see that happening. All you can do at a table like that is try to get your money in good. As usual, for me, that wasn't good enough.