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Location: St. Louis, Missouri, United States

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Tales from 5 max

So last night I was playing some $2/4 five max at Pokerroom. I was in the small blind with KQ. It was folded to the button, and I was really hoping he wouldn't raise cause I didn't want to pay $3 more to see the flop. Plus just calling in that situation is not really an option. You're gotta fold or reraise in order to get out the big blind. Anyway the guy on the button just calls, which tells you immediately that he's a novice cause anyone else would know that any hand worth playing in that spot is worth a raise. So I was like hell yeah getting 5:1 with my KQ. I called and the bb checked. The flop was pretty dreamy: Q Q Q. Yeah, that's the third time in my life that's happened. So I figure nobody can have an ace or a pair cause there was no raise preflop so I decided to slowplay it and check. Note the criteria that must be fulfilled in order to make slowplaying correct according to Sklansky in the best book ever, The Theory of Poker: 1) your hand must be very strong. 2) The pot must be small. 3) there must be a good chance that your opponents will not call a bet now but that giving them a free card will make them a second best hand (e.g. a full house) with which they will pay you off. With all the criteria fulfilled, I checked, as did both opponents. The turn was a K which was not too bad, although I would have preferred a J or a T, so I bet out. The big blind immediately folded but the button raised!! Bingo, he has a K!! I reraised and he capped it. I led out again on the river, and yet again he raised, I reraised, and he capped. I couldn't resist the urge to trash talk so before I called his last raise I typed in "YOU ROCK!!!" And I could not believe what he showed: AA. Wow. Then I typed in "I've never seen aces played so badly before." One or two hands later the guy left the table. I guess he couldn't handle having his aces go down to a measly KQ offsuit. But he really did deserve it playing that way. There's just nothing better than people who can't resist the urge to check/call when they have the best hand but then go berserk once it turns into a steaming pile.

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