Take Two (Hand History Included)

So much for that idea.

FTP rejected my last two cash pickup withdrawals on the basis that they are no longer available in my geographic area. Seems to be the case for all of Washington. So I'm trying the check option again. One has been approved; I'll wait to see how that goes before I do the other one.

My remaining bankroll originally was supposed to be just under $1k but I've had a decent run lately and have worked it up somewhere just above that. I've mostly been playing the $10 90-seat SNGs. I've had a lot of success at the $3 variety & I'm finding that the players don't improve that much at the higher stakes. Haven't found my way to a first place yet but have a couple of final tables to keep these things fairly profitable. I've also been playing a lot of O8 SNGs as well just for variety.

I did play a couple of MTTs recently, one of those being the Mookie. I had a strong table: Miami Don immediately to my right, LJ two to my left, and Jordan somewhere between those two. And, to make things more interesting, CK and Lucko joined us when the tables broke. I played fairly tight, pretty much surrendering my SB to Miami Don regularly, but slowly worked on building my stack until my 99 lost to LJ's 88 on a 7 high board when she rivered a gutshot. Held tight until I decided to take AK to war against Jordan and his QQ held up. So much for the Mook.

I couldn't really get too much started in the $28k and ended up going out with what I thought was two overs & a flush draw on a 7 high board. Villian flopped middle set with 66 and I couldn't find a third spade.

However, I did have an interesting hand that I wanted to get some feedback on. If you read my blog regularly, you probably know that I like to bluff. Additionally, for better or worse, I like to get creative with my bluffs. One of the easiest bluffs is against a paired board vs a c-bet. At higher stakes, it may be more difficult to detect whether or not the villain has a hand. But at the lower stakes, it becomes a fairly good way to pick up some additional chips.

Full Tilt Poker Game #7349179637: $28,000 Guarantee (55775202), Table 108 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:18:45 ET - 2008/07/23
Seat 1: marshallltd (1,610)
Seat 2: cranmer00 (3,565)
Seat 3: mclarich (2,885)
Seat 4: VVisor (2,895)
Seat 5: dsk403 (7,905)
Seat 6: Petros (3,285)
Seat 7: aisya (8,990)
Seat 8: dame le soldi (5,580)
Seat 9: ramjet12345 (2,690)
aisya posts the small blind of 20
dame le soldi posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [9h 9c]
ramjet12345 calls 40
marshallltd calls 40
cranmer00 folds
mclarich calls 40
VVisor folds
dsk403 has 15 seconds left to act
dsk403 raises to 155
aisya calls 135
dame le soldi has 15 seconds left to act
dame le soldi folds
ramjet12345 calls 115
marshallltd calls 115
mclarich calls 115

I didn't want to invest too much in bad position with 99 so I decided to limp. dsk403 wasn't playing too wildly but had a fairly wide range; a couple hands prior, he min-raised then called a push for 10x more with T9d. His raise was again pretty weak, less than 4xBB with 3 limpers thus far. Once everyone + the SB call, my call is all mathematical.

*** FLOP *** [Jc Jh 7c]
aisya checks
ramjet12345 checks
marshallltd checks
mclarich checks
dsk403 has 15 seconds left to act
dsk403 bets 750

So not only did he bet almost the full pot, he did this very quickly too. (edit: I just realized that he used part of the time bank. For some reason I remembered it being quick. Oh well) He could have something like AJ or KJ, but even the biggest donk would try to squeeze more value out of trips. Add to that the speed of his bet, and it looked like he was just trying to take it down with a c-bet. It seemed fishy to me.

aisya folds
ramjet12345 folds
marshallltd folds
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich has requested TIME
mclarich raises to 1,840
dsk403 has 15 seconds left to act
dsk403: a J or flush draw?
dsk403 has timed out
dsk403 folds
Uncalled bet of 1,090 returned to mclarich
mclarich mucks
mclarich wins the pot (2,315)

So obviously no one else limped in with Jx. I thought about the story he was trying to tell, and more importantly, what kind of story I could tell:

1. My range is fairly huge considering I limp-called preflop
2. I checked on a paired board to the preflop raiser
3. I check-raise the c-bet, but not my full stack

Once I decided to go with the read that he didn't have a jack, I decided to represent that I did. The other reason is that, considering the preflop action, I didn't put him on QQ or greater, so I figured that he had some kind of hand that he could fold.

I also think it helped that I held a pair here, and very well could have had the best hand. My check-raise pretty much commits me if he pushes. However, I didn't just push all in because I felt that would look more like a bluff with a flush draw. In the event he did push, I was calling in case I was up against overcards; if he had a jack, then well-played by him. But I felt pretty confident that I could steal the pot from him; the next step is improving on my ability to make these kind of plays regardless of what I have.