2/5 Poker Room - 9 handed


V - I've played with him 20+ times. He's rich and not averse to being up or down $5K per session. He's fun, very LOUD, and wild when he's been drinking. He always bluffs a lot, calls A LOT, loses a lot, and wins a lot when the poker gods want to smile down upon him. He's been drinking and the poker gods are with him today. He's hit runner runner flushes and doesn't care how much he has to pay to see the river. There is no pricing him out because he covers everyone at the table by at least 2X.

H - TAG I've been quietly at the table for a couple of hours, down $400 but I keep refreshing my stack to $800. Because V is playing so wild, I've had little chance to play speculative hands like suited connectors. I'm basically looking OMC at this point but I doubt V has any idea of what my style is.

V (~$5K) opened to $20 from UTG. It is one of his smallest raises of the day so he's either very weak or wants a pot builder in case he hits a strong flop. He has no idea of starting hands relative to position so there is nothing to read into it that he is UTG. Everyone knows V's frequent raises are meaningless so everyone calls.

I'm BUT and call with J9o. There's no sense in trying to squeeze because V will call and price others in. As expected, the Blinds call, it's a family affair.

Pot = $180 Flop JJ8r

V bets $65, everyone folds to me and I call. blinds fold.

Pot = $310 - JJ86 with two hearts. V checks and I bet $160 hoping he will call. Too small?

Pot = $610 - JJ864, no flush. V bets $300. He's obviously at ease, his smallish bet is inviting a call, and he gets up to talk to the waitress, chats with others in his relaxed way. I know him, he is transparent, he thinks he is ahead. I continue to watch him and he picks up his cards in his mildly drunk fumbling way and slightly exposes a small card, maybe a 4, 5, or 6.

fold, call or raise?

If you are completely convinced villain thinks he has the best hand and villain is still coherent enough to have an idea what the best hand actually is then folding is possible. In practice I call against the majority of drunks in this situation. He is likely to think weaker hands are good because you have not played like you have a jack and/or he misunderstands the situation. He can have J6 but he can also have 86. If he is sufficiently drunk the chance he misread his hand may justify calling.

Against this guy you should have raised his flop bet or bet more on the turn. He isn't going away, extract more value when you have a big hand. Don't let him chase garbage cheaply and then pay off when he hits. Given how often he is bluffing you can't avoid paying off much of the time so you need to charge him up front.

turn size hp is fine

I'm not raising the river, but vs him I don't see how we can fold. I would really like to see how he called the turn (snap call? tank call?)

His 1 second delay on the turn was what I typically associate with a draw.

Or an over pair or Jx, AKhh/xxhh

He cbet vs 9 players, doesn't he think someone might possibly have a jack? It's still hard to fold though as described.

Never folding. Rarely raising.. soo..

What you do here depends on what you do with a bunch of other hands in this spot. If you're only raising Jx or 88, well, then it's going to be pretty easy to play against you.

So I would say it depends on your image. Do you raise with T-9 suited here, with one of your suits on the flop? Do you ever raise the flop as a pure bluff? How aggressive are you? If the table thinks you're OMC then raising looks pretty strong. I get being card dead but sometimes you have to mix it up a little or you're not going to action on your big hands. It's tough to say what to do here. Honestly, I suspect it's a fairly break-even spot on the flop (raising vs calling with an OMC image).

As played, never folding. Raising, for me, would require specific information (a tell) that V is weak.

But let's talk about preflop. This is awful. Raise or fold. It doesn't matter if the fish plays every hand. Punish him and the rest of the table with their weak-tight play by raising a wide range in this spot. J-9 is at the bottom of that range but I still think it's a raise or fold spot (mostly folding TBH). Limping along is just playing like the fish and hoping to get lucky like the fish. If you never raise here I have to ask if you're properly rolled for the games you're playing. The game sounds juicy so I would be inclined to put as much on the table as I could and I'd be playing as many pots as I could in position against weak limping ranges.

The reveal:

I knew I was beat but couldn't stop myself. I've seen the guy make worse bluffs. He had 57 for the straight. Damn.

He would punish me a couple of more times with stupid luck play. He built a stack of well over $7K and then moved to the main game on the table beside us. He would hoot and holler very loudly every time he won a hand. It was driving me nuts.

Within the hour I moved to the main and V had just lost a big hand. He was even more drunk, not slurring his words, but just being stupid. When the action was raise to $20, with one caller, V would raise to $250 and he kept getting away with it. He did that almost every hand.

I bring $3K to play this game and was down $2200 before I won a big bomb pot that brought me to close to even and included about $800 of V's stack.

V kept drinking and getting more tilty. He lost his entire stack but sadly no more to me. He went to his car, came back with 50 blacks and lost those. Went to his car again produced 50 more blacks. He was so tilted he started betting $1000 blind so it didn't take him long to bust out again. Poker justice was served. I think he lost $12 - 15K in a 2/5 game. That takes effort. I went home $2400 to the good.

I enjoyed this short thread.

Once you’ve played a couple years , and after a couple years experience stops mattering compared to how hard you’ve studied/know the game but still once you’ve played a couple years and also understand the game you’re playing in then you can make folds like these. Sometimes I play in games where I think to myself “ I don’t understand why so and so is betting this way” and obviously that’s a problem for me. I also play in games where I understand everyone. Once you understand your game, and obviously you did, then if you’re reasonably perceptive, and obviously you are, then almost all your “I knew it!” Hands will be correct.