Professional Poker Player

My Hand: KJs

My position: Big Blind

Preflop: 6 players, which includes me, limp in. I check on the big blind to see a flop.

Flop Qs Qd Jc: I bet $40 into a $60 pot, an early position player calls, everybody else folds.

Turn 5s: I bet $60, my opponent calls.

River As: I bet $100, my opponent raises to $300. I reraise another $400 (all-in) and my opponent calls

Showtime: I have KJs, nut flush. My opponent shows QJo, full house on the flop.

During this whole hand, I was trying to find out where I was by making raiseable bets along the way. When I bet the flop so weak and got a call there were several possibilities that I put my opponent on. K10, 910, AJ, J10, or a Q with any kicker above a 9. My bet on the turn was supposed to induce a raise to $180 if my opponent had a Queen, which I would have called because I still had a draw and a fair amount of cash behind me. After catching my flush on the river the only two hands I was worried about were QJ and AQ, but I felt that the likeliness of him holding AQ was low because there he didn’t raise from an early position preflop. QJ was much more possible, but was also the only hand that worried me even the slightest.

Did I make a mistake in this hand? Should I have just called on the river? Was there any extra value in reraising another $400? If my opponent had 910 of spades, would he have called for another $400? Would he have called with a KQ, Q10, or Q9? I think that he would have, so I believe that I still made the correct play and I would repeat the hand just as I played it.

My Hand: 10 10

My position: Button

There comes a time in a hand when you need to ask yourself, “just what would my opponent playing here?” This hand that I played in a $5-$10nl game at Bellagio was no exception.

I was sitting on the button with pocket tens. All players folded to my opponent who was 2 seats off the button in seat 6. He was a new player, who I had just seen sitting at the $10-$20nl game around the corner. Usually, when I see somebody coming from that game, I assume that they are an above average player in a lower game such as $5-$10nl. This opponent raised the pot to $100, way overbetting the pot. I decided that this type of play must have been from a bad beat over at $10-$20nl or just a bad adjustment to new stakes, so I made the call. Everybody else folded their hands.

The flop was 776 rainbow. My opponent fires $200 right at me, showing almost no fear. I thought for a second, wondering if he had an overpair, but his aggressiveness looked more like weakness and that he was trying to get me to fold, so I made the call. The turn card came an 8 and my opponent bet two stacks, $400. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go any farther in the hand, but after a minute or two of thinking, I made a crying call, hoping that he would check a bluff on the river rather than bet it.

The river was the worst possible card that could have come, a 5. My opponent puts me all-in for another $380 and I feel like I paid off a bigger hand than I had anticipated. Any other card would have been better because now any pocket pair except 22, 33, and 1010 would beat my hand. The only hand that I could possibly be ahead of would be a total bluff by something such as AK or AQ, but why would my opponent be betting such a hand all the way like this?

I folded my tens, and my opponent peaked at his hole cards, flipping over the top card which was a 6. Later on, when I was about to leave, I asked him what he had and he told me that he had J6, his favorite hand, and that he thought I was calling him with over cards. What he told me somewhat made sense though. I’ve found that the majority of the time that a player makes an overbet before the flop, they have a weaker than normal hand. I’ve seen a player raise a $90 bet to $500 and shown 94 offsuit proclaiming “If you make it $90 before the flop with $10 blinds, I’m going to raise you to $500 every time… keep the game friendly!”

Although I doubt his story was true, I’m sure I’ll find out how sincere he was about his hand by playing with him more and revealing what his favorite hands are.