Poorly Played On All Streets

Before we begin, this felt good. Moving right along:

Okay, so waaay more often than not people post about hands that were played well... maybe they played it well and won, or played it well and got a bad beat. But really you don't tend to see a lot of "holy crap did I $#!@ this hand up" posts on poker blogs: it's naturally, embarrassing to an extent. But in the interest of fairness, I've been looking for a bad hand to post about for a while now, and last weekend I found it (or it found me, however you look at it).

So I'm working off my 1000 raked hands for a bonus at Empire, and though I keep reminding myself that I'm just here to clear raked hands, that little voice in the back of my head keeps nagging at me: "Look how soft this game is!" ..."Come on man, you're in late position, play that draw!" ..."Jesus, did you just see those two guys both raising with nothing?!". And so I'd been getting involved a little more than I really should have, but had only lost money on one hand: when I dropped the entire $25 buy-in when my pocket kings were beaten by a flopped set of fours. I raised to $1 pre-flop, and had 5 callers = UGH. I rebought, and about 10 minutes later the kings struck again...


***** Hand History for Game 2046366236 *****
$25 NL Hold'em - Saturday, May 14, 02:22:47 EDT 2005
Table Table 37470 (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 4: myster_e ( $24.92 )
Seat 8: canoenorth ( $21.65 )
Seat 9: DannyBoy3331 ( $35.15 )
Seat 1: Opobi33 ( $27.25 )
Seat 5: travis8787 ( $7.4 )
Seat 3: alpo824 ( $5 )
Seat 7: jybsie ( $42.05 )
Seat 10: RPMPRGUY ( $7.3 )
Seat 6: dual567 ( $24 )
Seat 2: dw97vegas ( $27.15 )
canoenorth posts small blind [$0.1].
DannyBoy3331 posts big blind [$0.25].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to canoenorth [ Kh Ks ]

Oh here we go again. Pocket Kings in the SB.

RPMPRGUY folds.
Opobi33 folds.
dw97vegas folds.
alpo824 folds.
myster_e folds.
travis8787 calls [$0.25].
dual567 folds.
jybsie folds.

Okay, so I've got a middle position limper, and the BB yet to act. I figure raising to $1 is reasonable here.

canoenorth raises [$0.9].
DannyBoy3331 calls [$0.75].
travis8787 calls [$0.75].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kd, Td, 6h ]

Two callers to the flop, and I nail top set. And here is where things really go bad... I decide to slowplay and check. But let's back up to the pre-flop action for a second.

It could have been worse, and technically speaking I did quadruple the big blind with my raise... but it could be said (especially in hindsight) that I should have raised more. My knowledge of the table texture should have been screaming at me to raise to something like $2 or more... these guys were calling a lot of pre-flop action with marginal hands, presumably relying on implied odds. Still, I don't think the $1 raise was nearly as bad a move as checking the flop.

I was the pre-flop raiser, so people would be expecting me to bet on the flop, even if it had missed me. But more importantly, there's two diamonds laying out there, and two broadway straight cards: I needed to defend my hand, and I didn't.

canoenorth checks.
DannyBoy3331 checks.
travis8787 bets [$1].

Well, good... somebody bet at least. Then, fearing that a check-raise will scare everyone away here, I just call. This hand is going downhill, and fast.

canoenorth calls [$1].
DannyBoy3331 calls [$1].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2s ]

All three of us to the turn, which is a blank, thank you very much. There's a decent pot laying out there now, and I certainly have the best possible hand at the moment... these guys either have made hands that they really like (two pair?, a lower set?, the other king?), or draws (diamond flush or a straight). Either scenario should mean an automatic big bet by me here... something on the order of half-pot to pot-sized. I should be trying to get lesser made hands to commit more money to the pot, and betting enough to give the possible draws bad pot odds to call. With an open ended straight draw being close to 5 to 1, and a flush draw close to 4 to 1, a half- or 2/3-pot bet would easily give my opponents bad odds. So what do I do?

canoenorth checks.
DannyBoy3331 checks.
travis8787 bets [$2].

So like an idiot I check, and the flop bettor bets again, and instead of pounding him with a pot-sized raise...

canoenorth calls [$2].
DannyBoy3331 calls [$2].
** Dealing River ** [ 9c ]

So here we are, three to the river, which I am grateful is not a diamond. The only cards that can beat me at this point is someone holding QJ or 87 for the straight, so I go ahead and bet out, thinking that my very risky, pot-building, slowplaying strategy has paid off.

canoenorth bets [$3].
DannyBoy3331 raises [$6].
travis8787 folds.

I'm sure you see where this is going. At any rate, I figure that since I only displayed strength pre-flop, and have check-called since then, that my raiser is possibly on a failed-draw bluff. A draw is very likely, since he check-called the flop and the turn. I ignore the straight possibilities and guess that he missed his flush, and now he figures it is worth $3 to try and win this growing pot. I think my read here was just close enough to being correct to get me into trouble, but I should have just called and been content to win what was already in the pot, or lose only what was already in the pot.

canoenorth raises [$9].
DannyBoy3331 raises [$12].

Might as well just move all-in now.

canoenorth is all-In [$5.65]
DannyBoy3331 shows [ Qc, Js ] a straight, nine to king.
canoenorth doesn't show [ Kh, Ks ] three of a kind, kings.

---

And that is how not to play. I had opportunity after opportunity to take charge of the hand and at the least give my opponents an awful price to continue playing, but I just passively sat there waiting way too long to spring my trap... in fact, I was sitting right in someone else's trap when I finally sprang my own. And then, instead of realizing that something funny was going on around me, and just calling down the river, I jammed the pot.

Another important idea here, is that had things gone differently, I might be tempted to call my play here "good"... for instance, let's assume one of my opponents was on the diamond draw (perhaps the guy who folded on the river actually was), and the river had been the two of diamonds, giving someone a big flush, and me the big full house: I'd have likely walked away a pretty big winner from the hand. I think playing this hand the way I did was mostly a mistake no matter what the outcome might have been.

Mostly, it was a mistake because I was simply trying to clear raked hands and avoid big confrontations: it may sound counter-intuitive, but a big flop bet by me in this hand would have helped to avoid such a large confrontation. And if I had been called, and had lost to a straight on the river as I did, at least I would have put my opponent in a situation where he was getting the worst of it, and making a mistake, instead of giving him good pot odds street after street to hit his draw.