Foxwoods, ½, 2:30 AM on a Sunday (1.29.17)

V1 (350) Just came from a broken game, folded his first 3 hands. Late 20s Dominican guy, hasn’t said a word yet.

V2 (300) Young 20s kid who looks and acts like a poker pro but has a surprisingly limited understanding about some key concepts based on some comments he has made over the last 5 hours. Have seen him call down river bets light (TPTK hands) , once successful and once was when he got stacked.

Hero (400) Late Position, holding Black Kings

PreFlop: V1 makes it $7, 2 callers, hero pops it up to $35, V1 calls, one fold, and V2 calls.

FLOP ($115ish in pot): 8x6h5h

Action: V1 donks 40, V2 calls.

Hero?

With 115 in the pot and 315 behind for one V, 265 behind for the other, I'm committed on any non-ace high flop. There are almost no good turn cards (other than the king of diamond) so I shove here. Basically a PSB, and can get called by pair + draw, hearts and weaker overpairs.

Puke inducing situation. With the donk your options are give up or shove and really nothing better then a superficial read at the table to go by. After the donk and call there is something around $195 in pot and villains both have under $300 left. Any raise that will apply pressure leaves you committed. Either you think they have enough draws in their range or you don't. The anemic action seems like a draw or testing the water but you can't be sure and are going to be shoving into a straight/set some of the time.

My feelings is that shove is best in abstract but I could talk myself out of it at the table if I read either villain as trapping. V1 may have flopped a straight or big draw and is trying to get you to raise. V2 is even harder to read here because he can be doing something stupid with both 99 and 88, let alone real hands.

Meh, shove.

Raise to $140-$160 and GII.

Ship the nickels homie

Ok pretty overwhelming response to ship so I'll post results below. Thanks Guys!

Nice hand. What a god awful fold by V2. I don't think there's any hand you 3-bet that he isn't getting the odds to call with.

Who folds a straight flush draw???

Remember that kids face and sit with him every chance you get.

This really is the worst fold ever. If H has 9h7x, V still has 38.3% equity and is calling a slightly less than PSB. V has 44.5% equity against top set and 65.6% equity against our actual hand.

The best was how he didn't understand when I explained to him after the fact that he was ahead. I should not have said this admittedly, but I as I was picking up I said "If you look up the math on that one I am pretty sure you were technically ahead." He did not understand so I said "If you call there then you get to see 2 more cards." He was like "Yeah, but then it might not hit or you could get another king and the board pairs...." I realized at this point that I had gone too far and just said "Yes, that is a good point." as I walked to the cage.

Explaining equity out loud at the table is a huge huge leak.

Alot of people say the games have gotten tougher but that is not true. They are no tougher than they were in 2010. However, the fish are losing alot less now and it is because they have learned simple concepts like this.

This is different from online for example which has gotten significantly tougher wrt good villains while at the same time has a similar (but much larger) no-more-dumb-fish problem.

It's pretty much end-game now so it really doesn't matter but why smother out the last bit of flame of fish ignorance?

You can be honest with folks and not treat them like idiots by pandering to them but still not give anything away.

"Buddy, sometimes you just gotta gamble"

Pro Tip #1: Don't show your cards if you don't have to.
Pro Tip #2: Don't educate your villains at the table.

I guess better late than never, but somebody at the table understood what you said and learned something.

"You're lucky. I almost had 2 pair"

That's classic.

Nice hand, but I agree with both of the points Venice brought up. Always keep 'me guessing if you don't have to show and don't educate another player. The last one somewhat irks me, like in all honesty why would you want to help another player get better if he's an opponent?

Last Sunday I was watching a pot unfold where this old Chinese man with over $1k at 1/3 was pushing the whole table around. I'm talking $40 open raises, $200 bets into $30 pots, the whole thing was crazy. This hand came up where this older gentleman with $500 raised to 12, Chinese man calls in SB and a limper calls. Flop comes J45r and they check to btn who bets 15, Chinese man raises to 30, other guy folds and button calls. Turn is a 2 and idk if the Chinese man knew the other player's stack or not because they were seat 1 and seat 10 but he announces "all in." The button player proudly folds his 44 face up and goes "I know you hit your straight!"

Sometime later after apparently sulking about not getting the Chinese player's money this "pro" starts berating the guy who folded and telling him how terrible a play it was. It ended with the guy clamming up and tightening up for the rest of the night until he left. I can understand being envious of being in a position like that vs the guy throwing the money around but trying to educate him on his mistake and argue with him about why he probably never has a straight there is just ignorant.

Agree 100%. Momentary lapse of reason, it will not happen again.