Getting Information Too Late

Sometimes you find out about the extent of a situation just a little bit too late. This happened to me last night in a very interesting hand during the League tournament at Loose Cannon. I was up to 5k in chips (from 3.5), after having the fortune of being dealt Aces (no action) and Kings (plenty of action) back to back.

At this point Hugh sits down, having arrived late after work drinks. Hugh professed to being drunk, although there wasn’t (at this stage) too much evidence that it was going to affect his play. Hugh wins a pot to get up to 4k and then this interesting hand occurs:

I get K♣Q♥ UTG. I hate this hand really, as it’s a trap hand, so I just limp for 100 to see how cheap the flop is going to be for me. Hugh raises to 300 and Shazbo calls in the small blind. I call to make the pot 1000 and we go to the flop:

Flop Kh, 10h, 8h

Great flop for me, as I have top pair, decent kicker and the Queen heart draw.

Shazbo and I check and Hugh bets 500. Shazbo calls, and I think about shoving here, but my stack is a little bit big to do it. If I raise and either one shoves on me, it’s likely they have at least the Ace of hearts, perhaps a made flush or AK, in which case I have to probably call knowing I’m behind.

I decide to call, and see what develops on the turn (I am praying for the Ace of hearts to give me the nuts, or perhaps the Jack of hearts, to give me made flush and royal redraw if either player has the Ace. Pot is 2500.

Turn is a black 4.

Shazbo checks, as do I because I’m trying to figure out what Hugh is up to, and Hugh responds by betting 2k. Shazbo dwells and passes. I hate this spot. I have zero fold equity as Hugh only has 1k behind, and if we get it all in and I lose I will be crippled and down to about 1.5k.

This hand is one I have given a lot of thought to, both at the time and since. Hugh is normally a very solid tight player, who plays premium starting hands aggressive. A classic TAG I guess. The hands I like to play against him are odd hands like 46, 57 etc, because I want to be in a spot where I know I am ahead of a big starting hand and can hopefully get his whole stack if he overplays AA for example. The worst hand to play against Hugh is a trap hand like KQ, KJ or JQ because you will generally be getting yourself in a spot where you have hit, but there is a decent chance you are behind, as was the case here.

Hugh’s likely hands:
AK, no hearts - I think Hugh would be more cautious here with the hearts out and 2 calls, but possible as he knows myself or Shazbo may have the bare Ace of hearts, and that’s the reason we are hanging around.
AK, with Ace hearts - I think this is most likely - Hugh is afraid of the hearts but has the nut draw to back him up, if he has been unfortunate enough to run up against a made flush. Betting makes sense as Hugh can be aggressive with his redraw and TPTK.
AA - possible - makes sense with betting, particularly if one is Ace hearts. AJ hearts - Hugh has played this hand too aggressively to have this, he would try and trap I think
QQ/JJ - unlikely - board is too scary for Hugh to be betting like this. KK/TT - makes sense - afraid of the flush draw but with a made set may have taken the stance to play aggressive to stop someone with a lone heart drawing out, but also with the redraw to a house if someone has a made flush.

From the above, I figure I’m in pretty bad shape despite my apparently strong hand. I put Hugh on AhKx, in which case I am drawing to 2 outs. I pass and Hugh shows…QQ. Wow - I am really surprised and have clearly made a bad pass, but it was made with my read on Hugh as a tight solid player, who wouldn’t put his chips on the line like this without really strong hand.

I then get the extra information I mentioned at the start. Hugh has to move tables - as he goes over there he stumbles into the side table, and catapults two of his new tablemates dinners onto the floor behind the dealer. He is slightly more drunk than I realised! The uber aggressive play with the Queens on a flushing board is making sense now! Oh well - would have been good to have that information before the pot. Never mind. The fold was correct the normally sober Hugh, just not in this situation.

That hand was the most interesting thing that occurred during the tournament. My stack mostly stayed average, but with 6 players from 22 remaining I became short stacked and had to shove A9 and was called by Maltese Mike with a big stack holding AJ and I was done for the night.

I did have a small win on the cash game (£22) playing a bizarre combination of IronCross, 5 Card Omaha River Blood and 3-2-1 Omaha. I also won 2 last longest bets for £5 so it was almost a flat night. Not sure where these go, so I have added a “sundry” category to my P&L which includes these items, together with any sponsorship received so far this year.

Next stop…GeordieLand. Next week I’ll blog the £200 warm up event followed by the Main Event.