On my way to a minor cash in a $1million tournament last
weekend I had a couple of reminders that you should never
under-estimate your opponent’s ability to adapt and mix up
their play. Well, there was one major reminder to me that
I shouldn’t pigeon-hole my rivals and hopefully a lesson
for somebody else that I can’t be so easily read!
The first incident occurred about three hours into the
deep stack event when I was ticking along comfortably
while the play at the table was generally quite frisky. In
fact I had come to the conclusion that only one player at
the table was a real rock. Everybody else seemed keen to
play at least the odd marginal hand where as the chap to
my immediate right seemed tight and I assumed weak. He
literally didn’t play a hand for the first two hours after
joining the table. Delighted to have such a timid
character to contest the blinds with, I was confident I
could bully him on a very rare occasion when everybody
else folded to him and he elected to call the small
blind. I quickly fired a raise from the big blind with 5-
2o assuming I could quickly take down the pot with the
minimum of fuss. Somewhat surprised that he called the
raise I was confronted by a rainbow flop of A-Q-6. I
paused momentarily before firing a standard bet of about
60% of the size of the pot. My rival flat called quite
quickly at which point the game was up with 5-2o and I’d
have to shut it down.
I have been generally pushing myself to fire more often on
the turn and river because of the dangers of ‘float
callers’ I have discussed before. However, there has to
be a limit to this heightened aggression and if ever that
limit had been reached it was surely now. I mean I was
holding 5-2 against a perceived rock who had flat-called a
flop with three over cards. The situation could surely not
have appeared more forlorn! The turn and river failed to
offer even the faintest prospect of showdown value from a
small pocket pair and I resisted the temptation to fire
again on the river as I couldn’t imagine it would ever
look convincing and was thus a bluff destined to fail. I
had hoped he would bet at some stage so I could at least
muck my hand to avoid showing the trash I had made a move
with, but alas he did not and was able to see my feeble
holdings.
But what was this? He turned over J-6o! This was fairly
extraordinary. There had been nothing to suggest that he
could defend the small blind with such mediocrity pre-flop
let alone call with bottom pair when the first community
cards came as well. I immediately realised that I had been
out-thought by my adversary who was seemingly more aware
of his weak table image than anybody, and was therefore
determined to make a stand no matter what. My irritation
at being outplayed was only extended by the realisation
that a further strong bluff bet on the turn would have
almost certainly ended the pot in my favour. He had called
desperately hoping I was making a move and was indeed
floating me. But regardless of his read and his
determination to stand up for himself there’s just no way
that he could have called a further bet with fourth pair
and a re-raise all-in was quite possibly, surely, beyond
him.
But as frustrating as it was I ultimately wasn’t going to
be too hard on myself. Taking on a rock in position is
generally smart and very few people can suddenly transform
so dramatically. He just played a blinder. A little later
though I gained some redemption with a move made at the
right time that won me a lovely big pot with queen-high..
On this occasion I opened up the betting with a mid-seat
raise holding Q-9o. Incidentally, I don’t just play bad
hands, even if this is the way it seems! These were just
two isolated incidents, and everybody loves a little play
variation. Anyway, I got a call from the player on the
button only who was seeing a fair number of flops against
everybody. Despite my earlier faux pas my table image was
I felt probably pretty sound at this point as I’d stayed
in line for most of the previous two hours and shown a few
big cards. This time however I was scraping the barrel
with Q-9 on another rainbow board of 10-7-2. Again the c-
bet failed to take down the pot and the turn brought
another 7. I paused, then checked and waited to see what
my opponent did. He hesitantly bet about half the pot at
which point I suddenly spotted an opportunity. I got the
distinct impression that he didn’t like that second 7 all
that much although he could easily have had a 10. When
contemplating his range it felt quite likely that he held
something like Q-10 or K-10 and I felt he could be taken
off such a hand. The other possibilities after the flop
call included a set, that would now have become a full
house or even quads, but the speculative bet on the turn
made this seem unlikely. A monster hand like that would
surely encourage a check with the hope of encouraging me
on the river when his hand was already made. I therefore
concluded that a check-raise of 4500 chips on top of his
1500 bet was likely to get through.
Our relevant chip stacks was a crucial factor in this
decision. I had begun the hand with several thousand more
and was therefore able to risk the bluff move knowing that
if it failed I would still have a playable, though heavily
depleted stack. My rival in contrast knew that a re-raise
committed the rest of his stack and that even a flat call
was likely to see him all-in on the river. He therefore
had to be very sure I was bluffing to confidently commit
everything with a hand like K-10 or anything less. He soon
folded; as suspicious as my flop continuation bet may have
looked, the check-raise on the turn had to look much
stronger. That it came after a second 7 made a hand like
A-7 very plausible for me. The audacity of committing so
many chips to the bluff by check-raising rather than
simply firing again was what ultimately made it a good
play. Of course, I might not be looking back quite so
fondly and proudly had I got my read wrong and lost a
massive pot with queen high! But such are the fine margins
of poker where the gap between bravery and stupidity is
never too wide.