NLH Shootout Part III

All of the fish are gone. There is but one donkey left in the room.

Play ball.

Ten guys crammed around a table playing 200 400 with 50 antes so there's 1100 in the pot before cards are dealt. The first big hand we play is from seat 8. Everyone folds to us and we raise to 850 with TJc and get called by the BB. Flop comes 3QA rainbow (no clubs). Good flop for us because we pre-flop bet so they should believe us if we bet now indicating we hit the A. They check and we bet 1400. They call. Hmmmm, a king would be nice. Turn comes another 3. Could they be playing with a 3? They check and we fire again 2800. They raise to 6500 and we fold. Likely hands for them either AK, AQ or 3x. Okay, it's early.

Seat 7 limps for 400 and everyone folds to the SB who smells weakness and raises to 1200. Pretty likely the SB is stealing so we raise to 3400 with A3. If we get a caller, A3 is likely not great, but if the SB was stealing and just calls to see the flop ad pray, A3 is likely good. At least to start. In any case they both fold.

Seat 5 raises to 900 and we re-raise from the SB with TT to 3600. The flop comes JKA. Wow, probably the worst possible flop. We check and he bets 4000. We fold. Hmmmm. Down to just under 30,000 in chips.

Everyone folds to is in seat 9. We raise to 950 and the BB calls. The BB has played a lot of hands down. He's not one to bluff against. Flop comes 69k with one heart. He checks and we check, again not wanting to bluff. Turn comes A. Giddey up. He bets 1175. Possible he has an A and if he does he has us beat. Let's see how strong he is. We min raise to 2350. This says to him that donkey has a hand and is not worried about a re-raise. He calls, which means if he has an A, it's not a strong A (still stronger than mine). River comes another A which means he is much less likely to have one, but from his perspective so are we. He bets 3100, likely with a K but maybe an A. We min raise again to 6200 hoping he will call with a K. He folds.

I can't describe exactly how it happens, but we win several hands back to back. We bluff a large one and we make two pair on a large, each of which bring 10 to 15,000 chips to us.

Now playing nine handed 300-600 with 75 antes.

Seat five raises to 1200 and we call from the button with 23s. Not a great hand but if it hits it can be huge and hidden and we are in position. The blinds both call and the flop comes a fantastic 234 rainbow (no spade). The SB bets 3000 and the BB calls. Seat 5 folds and we raise with our 2 pair to 10500. The SB pushes all in for another 23000. The BB folds and it comes to us. There is about 53000 in the pot and we have to put 23000 in to fight for it. He could have a set, 2 pair, a straight, an overpair (or an overpair like 55 giving him a straight draw), a 4A or 45. There are so many possibilities because the preflop action allowed almost anything in. We call and he shows 34 for a bigger 2-pair. We need a 2!!! Turn comes 3 giving both of us full houses and ending any chance we have. I have a great photo of this board and our cards if anyone wants it.

Down to 32k. Okay.

Seat 7 raises to 1800 and we are in seat 9 with TT, our best starting hand of the day. We raise to 4800 and he calls. Flop comes 48J. Hmmmm, as long as he doesn't have a J or a set this is great for us. He checks and we bet 4500. He calls. If he had a strong jack, he should have raised. Turn comes 5d putting 2 diamonds on the board. He checks and we bet 10,000. He goes into the tank and then folds claiming to have had 9Td and to have been calculating the odds. If that were true, he had 15 outs, or about a 33% chance on the river. As he only had to put 10000 in to try to win about 30,000 plus whatever he could get us to put in on the river bet if he did make his hand, either he was lying or really bad at math. As we had the Td in our hand, I'm going with lying.

Everyone folds to us and we raise to 1600 on the button with A9. The blinds both call and the flop comes AA8. Giddey-up. They check and we check hoping they hit something on the turn, bluff, etc. turn comes another 8. They check and we bet 2400. The SB calls. The river comes Jh. As long as he doesn't have AJ or 88, we have a winner. He checks and we bet 9000. He goes into the tank and then calls hoping we are bluffing. We are not and we take it down with Aces full of 8s. He had an 8.

Seat 5 raises to 1200. He has done this quite a bit when no one before him bets. On showdowns, his hands have ranged as low as a king eight not suited. Two players call him. Clearly, they have seen the same weakness that I have, and their calls mean that they do not have very strong hands either. We have A9 in the SB again and raise to 5800. They all fold.

We close the round with just over 50,000. Hopefully more good news in 2 hours.