Set on a Flush Board

Last night, I decided to make the 45 minute drive over to Tunica and play for a few hours. (I really need to remember to take some photos for the blog, it makes it much more interesting than just a wall of text. My friend Mojo does this very well for his blog posts! You'd think I would remember since I am a freelance photographer and all..sheesh!)

Anyway, I arrive at Harrah's and am sent to a new 1/3 table they are opening. One of the guys who bought in for the max, $500, is antsy to play, so we start 4 handed with 1 blind. Since I hadn't played in over a month, I was planning to 'acclimate' a minute; sit back, watch and fold for awhile first. Nope, since it was 4 handed, I had to jump right in. Fine.

I played badly in the beginning, it was awful. I called bets when I knew I was behind, barreled bluffs in bad spots when I knew they wouldn't fold etc. What are you doing?! Snap out of it!, I thought to myself. Play well or just leave! 

After the talking to I gave myself, things turned around and I won back my losses and ended with a nice profit for the night. Plus my image was not completely ruined, because the table had filled and it was like a new table after that. As you know, image is really important at the tables! Mine sucked at first lol.

I had one interesting hand I'll share. We were 9 handed and I had just got back to a little over my starting stack due to my my Aces holding up against 2 players. My image was back to good/winning by this time. I opened 10h-10d UTG to $11 and got 2 callers, the blinds folded. Effective stack $220 (mine), they cover.

The flop was: 8c 4s 6c

I c-bet for about half pot; $16. First guy folds, other guy calls. This guy will call anything preflop (he's the one who bought in for the max so he could play lots of hands), he likes to see flops, but he doesn't continue without a piece. So now I'm thinking he's probably on the flush draw and I should've bet more...

The turn is the 10c

Yay and boo at the same time! It's never easy is it??

So if he was on the flush draw, thar she blows. Fantastic. I can't check, because it has been my experience as a female player (this does not seem to apply for men at all), that when I check for pot control, they will bomb it every time. This comes in handy when I'm slow playing the nuts, but it never works when I'm trying to keep the pot small. So, I've had to get used to the bet/fold approach to avoid getting bluffed off of my hands. Since he's got about $600 behind, I know he will fire a big bet if I check, so I barrel again for $25. It's a decent sized bet, but small enough that I can fold if I get raised and not be too sad.

He just calls...

Really? Just call? Ok. I am fairly confident he would've raised with a flush there. Now, I have a glimmer of hope he doesn't have the flush, so what does he have? Big pairs would've 3 bet pre to take the lead. 2 pair hands don't make sense. 5-7 is unlikely and would've raised the flop with the flush draw out there. 9-7 doubtful. Hmmm...

River: Jd

At this point, I'm thinking I may have the best hand, but I'm still pretty concerned about the flush, likely a small flush, but again I can't check or I'll have to face a large river bet when my hand is basically a bluff catcher. I bet really small; $35 and hated it inside, fully expecting a raise.

He snap just called and said, "I gotta set. " and flipped 6-6.

"Me too." :)

Thank you, Mr. Passive Man! Thank you for not raising the flop, turn or river with your flopped set! Because, I could've been raised off of that hand soooo easily. He realized it, too, after he saw my hand. I heard him comment to his neighbor about it while shaking his head.

So even though I didn't get max value from a set over set hand, it was a decent pot. One that I was not expecting to win..and that makes it even better. :)