High On Poker

A couple of hours after posting You Decide #71, I received a slew of emails informing me of comments. I must’ve missed a few, because it turns out that the second commentor got the answer correct, even though I said somewhere around comment #10 that no one hit it. My bad.

Without further adieu, congratulations to Poker Meister, who correctly answered that my opponent had KQ.

As you may recall, preflop, my opponent, UTG, raised 5x the BB (100) with his KQ and I called in position with J9s. He flopped an OESD on the JT3, two heart board, and bet 200, 30 less than the pot. I felt it was a continuation bet, and it turned out I was right. I called.

The turn was an 8, giving me a straight draw, and he bet 320, which now was slightly more than 1/2 the 630 pot. At the time, I was worried he may’ve been milking me with the small bet, but another part of me felt that it could’ve been a bet to control the hand (i.e., if he checks, then I will definitely bet and he loses control and has to fold; if he bets, I’m likely to just fold or call, so he gets to set his price to see the river). In hindsight, its clear that my opponent was trying to push me out or get a cheap river card, and I gave it to him. I called.

The river was a Queen, completely my Q-high straight. My opponent, having hit top pair on the river after stringing me along, pushes. This was a god aweful play by him, as he was only going to get called by a hand that beat him. It did, however, cause me a bit of concern that I let him get there on the river with AK. I was correct, in one sense, that I let him get there on the river. It just turned out that where he got wasn’t good enough, since I also hit my straight.

If I had to choose one mistake in the hand, it was really on the turn. I could’ve raised there and took down a nice pot, or conversely, been re-raised and know where I stood. Instead, I let my opponent control the hand and I didn’t do enough to extract information.

Congrats to Poker Meister for his accurate read. PM, hit me up with an email (highonpokr AT yahoo DOT com) or leave a comment with your email or your PokerStars screenname.

Thanks for playing!

Until next time, make mine poker!