Bad Hands

Tina Fey: I threw my panties at Britney Spears once. It looked like she needed some.

"Man Of The Year"

Caught up with two movies over the weekend, Man of the Year which was only released in Australia this week and Miami Vice which I never caught when it was released. Man Of The Year was just ok, but most of the jokes told were so old that I think I heard them when I was sill in High School. There were a few funny moments, but on the most part it seemed to try to take a more serious tone than I expected, but that didn't spoil it. It was just ok.

As for Miami Vice…I could not believe a movie with such a large budget could look so bad. There was very little to like about it at all, I can't even understand how someone could put their name to this movie. When the Distraction starts to notice how bad the editing and direction is, you've got problems. I know it got reviews worse than this when it was released, but something in me expected it to be better for some reason.

I have been getting killed still in online cash games, need some readjustment but I am not sure what it is yet. Maybe a change of card room will spark something.

Friday night poker took an unexpected turn last week, with what one player dubbed the single worst hand ever played took place. I was in the BB for this particular hand, and there was maybe 4 or 5 limpers around to the button who made a weak raise for whatever reason to $3. SB and I both call, and then UTG bumps it up $20. That's a massive raise for this game, and effectively tells everyone he has a pair of aces. After a long think, only the button calls. For a bit of background, the player on the button chases nearly everything to the river, and usually ends up down a few buy ins and borrows money regularly when he is dry (always settles his debt quickly though, don't get that part wrong).

Anyway, the flop comes small and UTG bets out another $20, which the button calls. Turn is another small and the board shows two spades and two clubs. UTG bets another $20, button goes all in for the remaining $50 and UTG calls. UTG has AA of course and button has 45s for the straight and UTG is drawing dead.

Like I have never seen before, UTG was furious. He said that is why he is forced to borrow money so often, for calls like that. To make note, the pre-flop bet was a total of $23, which is half a buy-in for this game. The only defence the button could come up with was he was titling and decided to gamble and it paid off.

I said UTG shouldn't slow play aces like that. Anyway, it did put a little bit of a tarnish on the game for the night. UTG finished the night down about $40 and the button player ended the night down a minimum of $200 – which included that $190+ pot. But I have seen worse calls pre-flop before, and even lost a bigger pot because of it.

For me, I could not help but hit sets with my pocket pairs. I hit maybe 7 out of 10 on the flop, and only had to throw away one of them (when the board had 4 spades). I was up $140 at one stage, and then down as much as $70 before ending the night at $60 on the good side.

My most interesting hand of the night was with 84s on the big blind. A good player raised it to $3.50, call behind him and I call also. Flop comes 994 and I checked, looking to check-raise. The pre-flop raiser bets $6, then a call and then I bumped it up to $18. Both players called. The turn was a 6 and I bet out another $20. I had put the pre-flop raiser on AK-AJ or maybe JJ/TT. The other player was a bit of a mystery, but I figured for a flush draw. But again in my mind I was ahead vs a big ace and a draw. The first raise was to hopefully get at least heads up, and it didn't work so now that was my goal, to at least get rid of one of the draws. After agonising over the decision, the pre-flop raiser eventually called. This just reaffirmed my read, as I had a fairly good read and didn't place his actions as acting. Then the second player also called, and I got worried. This now looks like someone has a monster and is laughing all the way.

The river brought a 10, and I lost my confidence in my hand and decided to check. Both players behind me did the same. Pre-flop raiser had pocket Kings and took down the hand, and the player behind him did have the flush draw (jack high).

Even though I lost nearly a whole buy-in on the hand, I was kind of proud at myself for playing it that way. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but that was how I felt. I made a read on the situation and stuck with it, right up until the last card. I could beat a lot of hands that he had, I just didn't put him on the right one. If there was only one caller and not two on the turn, it could have been a very different hand. The pre-flop raiser though I had Aces and I think a final bet on the river would have had him making (what he thought would be) a great lay down. He is a good enough player to lay down the over pair as well. But I lost my nerve and pulled out at the last moment, so that is the way it goes some times. In hindsight, I made a wrong read and lost a lot of chips, but at least I made a read and stuck with it. It was wrong this time but hopefully I can improve on that.

Wow, is that scary or what? I try to justify betting big when I had 2 outs and think it's good play…