I had two bluffs go bad this weekend. They should have worked. :-)

Bluff 1 was Firday night at Hawaiian Gardens. $100 NL. Table is ok players except for the random drunk fish who would sit down and donate chips to the table. I get KJ and raise it up. I get one caller in the blinds and the flop comes KQx. He puts out a big bet and I come over the top. He pauses and says, “You like that two pair, huh?” He calls. If he thinks I have KQ and he’s still willing to call that can only mean AK. Turn brings a blank and I push all in. He debates it for several minutes and then calls saying that he has to at least take a shot because the pot is so big. Uh oh. He flips up his AK and the dealer deals the river before I have a chance to flip up my cards and it comes another blank. He congratulates me and I flip up my KJ and he takes down the pot.

In retrospect I should have pushed all in on the flop. By the turn, even though I was putting in a substantial size bet it wasn’t large enough to push him off his hand. He would have had a much bigger decision to make and I think he was close enough that it would have made him muck the hand.

Lesson learned.

Second hand was in Grubby’s tournament. The hand I went out on was a little dumb on my part but I was getting a little tired of being shortstacked and I imploded a little. All the same, this bluff should have worked. :-)

I’ve got 4,400 and my opponent has 11,108. I get KJo which is the juciest hand I’ve seen in a long time. Blinds are 200/400 with a $25 ante. My opponent raises it to $800 and I call $400 from the BB. Flop comes Qs 4c 8s. Even though I missed I didn’t want to give my opponent a chance to put me to the test. If I check he’ll probably bet a large amount and now I’ve got to decide if I want to keep playing. I bet $400 to see if he’s going to try and come over the top. If he does I can get away from the hand. He foils my plan by just calling. Turn is Qc putting a pair of queens on board. Now, if I were smart I would not only start off fewer sentences with “if I were smart” but I would have also pushed all in here. I didn’t put him on a Q and since I had bet out on the flop he might buy that I have one. So, do I do that? Of course not. I bet $800 which he calls. The poker gods decide they like queens tonight so they serve up Qh on the river. I’ve got a chunk of money invested in this pot and if I check, he’s going to bet and either completely cripple me or put me all in so I push in for $2,375 more and after a long pause which gave me some false hope that he might lay it down he calls and flips up Ks 8c for a full house, queens full of eights.

In both of these featured hands, I wimped out. If I was going to make a play at the pot I had to make it big enough that it would sting to make a call. In both cases, I put out just enough where it made them think but not enough to prevent them from making the call.

I guess it’s just one of those things that’s hard to adjust to coming from mostly a limit background. I don’t always use my chips as effectively as I would like to. I think I’m going to start working in some tournaments into my regular play. I could use the practice.

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

1 DoubleAs November 22, 2004 at 1:30 am: Your flop bet wasn’t a Queen bet in my eyes. A check-raise would’ve been a lot more convincing. I had position and didn’t want to give that up by raising yet. On the turn and river, I thought you had me on 2 overs and would make that play with just about anything.

Right before I called on the river, I cursed myself for not raising you on the flop. I put you on a collection of hands including a missed spade draw or lower pair than 8s. I called and wouldn’t have been surprised if you showed me tens or nines. If I had to bet on what hand you held at the time, I would’ve said busted flush draw.

I basically called because of the weakness I had demonstrated in the hand up to that point. You couldn’t really put me on a hand based on my play and figured it would be a good time for you to take a shot at the pot.
2 Bill Rini November 22, 2004 at 1:51 am: Interesting. I did put you on overs. I was surprised to see the K8 because you had raised pre-flop. I was thinking AJ, AT, maybe even JT.

You’re absolutely correct; a checkraise might have been better here. I’m not sure I was trying to sell a Q as much as I was trying to find out if you had one. I would have rather have gotten away from the hand with a raise from you than have to see another card out of position and not improving. :-)

Good play though. I enjoyed it. It was very different from most tournaments. People were chatty both on the board and in the chat room so it felt a bit more like a home game rather than a normal tournament.

I just booked a flight for the Las Vegas blogger tourney. That should be a blast!