Mike Johnson History Buff

A couple days ago I talked about a key hand from my last home game in which I overplayed pocket Kings and lost over 90% of my stack. That hand signaled the end of my time in the first tournament of the night. The second tournament started around 11:30 and featured all the same players and blind structure as the last one. We each started with 8000 in chips and my stack is up to 8325 after winning the first hand.

My buddy Rocco is 2nd to act and he doubles the blind. Everyone folds around to T-Mace in the small blind who calls. I'm in the big blind and it cost me 50 more to see the flop. I look at my hole cards and see 22. I call knowing that if I don't hit a set I will be able to make an easy lay down. I like playing small pocket pairs early in a tournament but only if it doesn't cost me much and only if my opponents has a decent chip stack. The flop comes down 4c 2c 10h. This is a great flop for me. There is three hundred in the pot and the small blind has checked to me. This is good flop for me for a couple reasons.

1. I caught the set
2. There is no Ace or King to scare off any pocket pairs like JJ or QQ which Rocco may have.
3. The only straight draws would come from someone holding a combination of A,3,5 or 6 (except A6). All of which are gut shot draws except the 35.

Rocco only doubled the blind which could mean one of two things for him. He has a very strong hand or a very mediocre hand. Rocco is very good a changing gears so it's hard to tell if he is playing vey tight or very loose at this point. Mace on the other hand was in the small blind and he will often play any two cards from the blinds if it doesn't cost him much. It's possible he could have something like 35 at this point. I put out a probe bet of 150 to get a feel for where the other players are at. I'm hoping for either a raise or only one caller. The last thing I want is for Rocco to call thinking his preflop hand is still good and then mace to call with a straight or flush draw since at that point it will cost him 150 to go after a pot with 600 in it. In truth I should have bet closer to 250 since that would potentially give mace worst pot odds if he is drawing to a straight or flush.

Rocco raised to 600 making it 600 to mace and an additional 450 to me. Mace folds and now I need to figure out what I'm going to do. At this point my read on Rocco makes me think that he has a high pocket pair. If he has 10 10 then I'm smoked but I'm thinking more like QQ or KK. He could have Ax for a flush or straight draw, but he usually doesn't bet into draws. He could have something like J10 or 9 10 and have hit the 10. He stays away from those hands when he is playing tight but he is capable of playing those hands when he is playing loose. The thing that is throwing me off is the doubling of the big blind preflop.

After some thought I put him on a high pocket pair like QQ, KK, AA. I decide to call thinking that if he doesn't have the flush draw and that I want to string him along and not scare him away yet. I call and the next card is the King of diamonds. I'm kind of worried about this hand, but only because I thought he might have KK preflop. Still I can't always worry about someone having the nuts against me. I want to put more money in the pot because I think I still have the best hand. I check, knowing that Rocco will bet. He bets 1200 and I think for a moment and raise it to 3000. Rocco thinks for a moment and then goes all in. At this point I'm lost. I really am not sure what he has. Some of the hands that cycle through my mind are KK, 10 10, AA, A10, AK suited clubs. Some of them fit the betting pattern but some don't.

Rocco's ability to switch gears and play different styles is what makes this hand hard to analyze. It would be a lot easier to figure out if I was playing against one of the other players who doesn't change it up all that much. I'm just about 50/50 on whether or not I should call but one thing tips me on the side of calling. When facing a player who indicates through betting that their hand is strong, Rocco at times will push with a hand that other players would only call with. Rocco also saw me over play a high pocket pair in the last tournament which may make him think that something like top pair top kicker, or two pair is good even though I'm betting like the board has hit me hard.

I call the all in which leaves me with only 350 chips if I loose. Rocco turns over K 10 of clubs giving him two pair and a flush draw. I'm in the lead but my percentages aren't as good as I like. There are 9 clubs that can win it for Rocco plus there are two kings and two 10s that would also give him the winning hand. That gives him a 29.55% chance of winning. T-Mace openly is rooting for a club, and sure enough nine of clubs comes on the river.

When I look back on the hand I can understand why Rocco played the hand the way he did. He was mixing it up and caught what at the time looked like a great flop. He then got even stronger on the turn. It looked like he had the best hand and may have had me drawing very slim. I'm happy with my call although I can't pretend that I did it with anything close to a strong read.

On a posistive side note, I won a heads up Horse tournament and a heads up 7-card stud tournament playing against some of the other early round losers that night.

Later
Mike