But, after I settled down, I resumed my tight play, which has been working very well on FTP $2/$4 NL tables. Took $400 down after I flopped AJA with my AJ and slow played it to make the chick's flush. Another big hand was slow-playing AA from the button with a raise and re-raise in front of me. The flop of AK7 hit everybody, and I took down a pot of close to $1200 against 77 and KK. Not too often you see 3 sets!
Outside of those two monsters, I tested some tactics, but overall had bad timing and threw a couple hundred away being re-raised on stupid semi-bluffs.
One other interesting hand was AA vs. KK and a flop of AK3. Both checked their monsters. When the turn revealed QUAD A's, I think the KK's knew something was up, but he lost his $1000 stack in the end. Nice to win a big one with quads, which doesn't seem to happen much when I hit them.
One project I am working on is the suited connector vs. overs/AK. One frustration I have with this strategy is the tendency for badbeats. Because your opponent can often have the K or A of the flush draw, you can be particularly exposed to getting outdrawn. Now I know, this is precisely the kind of situation you want, all your money in the pot with an advantage, but it is nerve racking, knowing these guys have live draws to suck-out on you. It's a double edged sword, getting them to commit all their chips when you have them 2:1, 3:1, or worse. My point is that as I prepare for WSOP, I'm not sure I want to have all my chips at risk with only a 2:1 advantage with little or no chance to get your opponent to fold if they have the A-high draw. Here's a couple of situations where I got out-drawn after I was significantly ahead in the hand.
5h6h vs. AsKh
I called the raise of a very tight player (less than 10% of hands) from the button. Although he was tight pre-flop, he played VERY aggressive post-flop. So, my reasoning was that I had a great read on his hand, so it would be easy to throw a loser away, and if I managed to hit it, I'd get paid off. Flop gave me the flush draw, so I called his $30 pot-bet on the flop. When I hit the flush and had an up and down straight flush draw on the turn, I was feeling very confident with a 4:1 advantage. He led-out with a half-pot bet of $40 and I raised to $120. Putting him on AK, I was pretty sure he didn't have the nut flush. He pushed all-in, making me question my read, but I called and was pumped to see his AsKh. Unfortunately the river brought the 9h, missing my SF and bailed him out. This is a perfect example of a situation that I'd like to avoid in the WSOP, even knowing I have great odds, it's a horrible suck-out risk as they are rarely going to lay this down.
QdTd vs. Ad7s
Now, I would rarely play this hand too aggressively given the two higher flush cards, but the particular circumstances gave me confidence I was in the lead. My opponent defended his blinds EVERYTIME, and had shown some weak cards earlier -- not very disciplined. He would always raise aggressively pre-flop if he had something. Several times I even saw him raise with A rag and get beat. So, when I raised his SB and he just called, it felt like he had a marginal hand and was defending. The flop came Kd7d3d, so I was pretty sure the best he had was the K or one diamond. When the turned missed, he pushed all-in for $100 into a $30 pot after we both checked the flop. In this case, it was the latter, and he was willing to risk it all to hit his flush. 85% to 15% is a pretty good situation, but I imagine a weaker player doesn't realize his Ad flush draw is that badly dominated against a made flush. So, as I noted before, this is a tragedy not a comedy, and this story ends badly when the fourth diamond fell on the river. It's the equivalent of a bad blackjack player splitting 9's against a T and makes 21 on both. The end justifies a bad play and he'll probably make the same play 3 more times and loose to three other more fortunate souls.
Congrats to KARL!! Third place and ($25k winnings, but made a 3-way $40k deal) in the $2,500 NL Bellagio Cup (WPT)...inspirational. 78 players started and first prize was $69k. See his link at right "Hit Squad"----------->
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