Saturday night, me and friends having our usual poker game. The game is Texas Hold'em No-Limit. Buy-in 50nis, blinds 0.25-0.5 shekels. I was doing really good for the first hour, picked up really nice hands like K-10, K-Q, A-10, 9-9. And even managed to pull a few bluffs, overall putting me on approximately 80nis on the table.
There were no huge pots for the first hour, as far as I remember. So then another hand hit me, A-A! I had the nuts, first time that I've ever hit this hand in a real cash game. I was in a bad position though for this hand, middle-ish position. The round began, and with Alex raising it up to 2.5 shekels. Shahaf playing after Alex, re-raised Alex to 5 shekels! I was really happy, because I had the best hand, and my best move at this point was to go all-in, which I did. Rom who played after me, folded, but then Yshay our lossy-aggressive player, which always makes the game more interesting, called me(he had a shorter stack). Alex and Shahaf weren't expecting this to happen, as the game was pretty solid so far, with no big bets on the pre-flop. And so I revealed my cards to the table, and everyone saw my 2 aces, but what was really shocking was Yshay's hand, J-10 off suite. Clearly I was favorite to win this hand pre-flop.(Rom says 85% against 15%). The flop hits, and Yshay pairs his Jack. Still I was favorite to win the hand pre-turn. The turn comes and a Jack hits. Everyone were pretty upset when that happened, including myself. Now the only card that could help me was an Ace, and as far as I knew, there were still 2 aces left, not a very big chance to win. So the river comes, and no an Ace didn't hit. On top of all that, Yshay even had a Flush on the river.
I think I took it pretty well, I mean you have to know how to lose in poker, especially on hands like these, or else it will be more difficult for you to play. I re-buyed for 100nis, and we continued to play for another 2 hours. In the end Yshay lost again all his chips, this time to Alex, and I managed to cut my loses to 30nis in the end. Next time I'll have Aces, I hope they won't fail me.
5 comments:
I think it was a mistake to go all-in.
I would defiantly raise, to increase to pot, but an all-in would only scare down people.
anyway it was still unlucky.
That's exactly what I wanted, to scare everyone and win the pot right there, since it was already big enough(around 8nis). I was in a bad position(Two people raised before me), and any move beside all-in would look like I'm trying to bluff so I can win the pot. Also, going to a flop with any strong hand when there is over than 1 player besides you, will decrease your chances of winning, and increase the chances of them getting lucky.
I actually agree with Ariel. I would do a big raise, and I don't care if people think i'm bluffing. I have a good hand, let's roll with it.. But maybe that's just me.
Again a big raise would lure more people in to the hand(Two people already raised the pot), giving me less chances to win the pot. If the flop would hit, I'd still have the best pair, Yshay who raised would have a top pair as far as he knows, and Shahaf who raised to 5 shekels but folded a pair of 7's because of my all-in would hit a set(3 of a kind). So again my only option to win the hand with more chances was to hope 1 player would go heads up with me, and lose. Strategically, I would win more money in the long run.
Wether you should go all-in or not maybe has something to do with style, but in this case...
Saying you're afraid from more than one opponent is against the pure math of the game. You have the best hand pre-flop. Being afraid with the best hand is a clear over-rating of the rocket pocket. It's sometimes hard to fold this hand but if you know your limits and your opponents on the table you should want everyone to play against you because in the long run - with the right game - you would have won more.
I told you after the game that you did right going all-in. That was because of Yshay. Yshay had too many chips that he didn't really care about - meaning there was a big chance he would call - making this shove +EV against Yshay in this case.
It has nothing to do with the logic of less chances of winning the hand. Actually this logic fails miserably! But I won't continue this here.
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