Saturday, December 30, 2006
The Attack of the 3's
It was turning out to be a horrible end of year run at poker for me. After getting beat up by the Canadians playing 5/10 limit Hold’Em in Canada for -$190, I followed that up with a smack-down at Greektown playing $1/$2 NL Hold’Em for -$200. Then, just to keep things rolling before the New Year, I had my single biggest losing session to date at a home game in Clarkston on Wed night. I lost $300 playing NL Hold’Em.
Thankfully, I had a good comeback on my very last session of the year (I'll save the details for the next post).
The details of this loosing session are pretty gruesom. Proceede with caution.
Loosing $300 was surprisingly easy. I've seen plenty of people play like donkeys and still have difficulty loosing. I thought I'd play like a donkey for a while, but I lost my money pretty efficiently.
I started the session off playing pretty loose. I bluffed into 2 small pots with the game’s host acting behind me. After, I checked the river on my failed bluff attempts, he bet and I laid down a hand that couldn’t beat anything. I was pretty sure he was bluffing back at me on the river, but I couldn’t really defend. Then, I moved seats so that I was positioned to his left. This may have been one of my best moves of the night. I was thinking I could use these 2 hands to set up some plays later in the night as I now have position on him.
I got my chance toward the end of the night to trap game’s host – Daryl. I know, this sounds a little hostile, but hey, it’s poker. It’s all good.
But first, an important hand that I slaughtered pretty good. I’m in the big blind with 2 random cards that I can’t remember. The UTG player, Lance who is pretty solid, raised to $5, which is a small bet playing with $1/$2 blinds. He gets called in about 4 places – including me.
The flop comes Ax 7x X. SB checks. I check. Lance fires in a continuation of $5. It goes fold around to me. I call. I’m not exactly sure why. I’ve got no piece of this board, but I thought his bets were awfully weak. I saw him throw out a series of small blocking bets earlier in the session when he was drawing to a flush and this looked very similar. The turn card comes with a 7x which I treated as a good bluff card for me. I bet $20. He thinks and calls. The river card comes a 2. The board reads Ax-7x-X-7x-2x. I bet $20 into a $70 pot. He puts me all in for my last $50. I muck. He shows Aces full of sevens for the second nuts. So, here’s the summary. I chose this spot to try to bluff a solid player, out of position, with an Ace on the board after he open raised from under the gun. Brilliant.
Then, the story of might night unfolds. The story is about the evil of 3’s.
So, I’m dealt pocket Kings in middle position. After 3 limpers, I raise to $12. This was a slightly larger than normal open and must have screamed “I need protection” to the field. I’m called in 2 places. The pot now has $43. The flop comes 3x 3x 6x. The first limper opens for $15. I make it $45. It gets folded back to the original opener. Now this guy, Dave, seems like a pretty solid player. I’ve only played with him a few time and a few hands, but he seemed like he knew what he was doing at the poker table. Also, he wasn’t “money-scared”. He didn’t mind putting all of his chips in the pot.
Dave decides to bump it. He makes it another $100 on top of my bet. He doesn’t have Aces; otherwise, we’d have all of our money in the pot already. He could have Qs, Js, 10s. More likely, he as 66 for sixes full. I’m not sure how I can lay my hand down here. I had just recently got unstuck and now had about $350 in front of me. Dave has me covered. Something nagged me. He really seemed like he had me beat here and was worried about me drawing to 2 outs. This didn’t seem like a bluff to me. I agonize and fold. I beg him for some info and he shows me a 3. Ouch!
I swear it wasn’t 5 hands later, I’m dealt Ah Kh in middle position. The hand plays out the exact same way. Flop comes 3x 3x X. Dave leads out for $15. I make it $45. He pushes. I make a much easier fold. He flashes a 3.
Damn, I just lost $114 to some frigg’n 3s. I hate 3s. I hope I never see them again.
Now, back to my trap hand with Daryl. I’m dealt Kx 5x in the big blind. Daryl is in the SB. The pot is raised to $4 on the button. Daryl and I call. The flop comes Kx Jx 8x. It goes check, check, check. The turn comes a blank. I bet $8. Button folds. Daryl pauses and calls. I really read this as Daryl thinking of a way to make a move. I truly expected a bluff lead bet on the river. I had Daryl pegged dead-on. The river comes with a 9. The board now reads (Kx Jx 8x 9x).
On queue, Daryl leads out for $50 into this $28 pot. I had made my read and I need to stick with it….right? So I call. Daryl shows a set of nines that he hit on the river. Oh well. I had the play set up oh so good, but it turned out oh so bad.
