Rocked In No Limit

Rocked In No Limit

BY: Ashley AdamsContact at: (Asha34@aol.com) Author of Winning 7-Card Stud (Order Now on Amazon.com)

I was rocked last night. It could have been different. But two errors blew a whole night of good work. Pay attention and avoid the same mistake yourself.
I was playing in a nearby poker club. It�s a great place with some very nice guys, some of whom know how to play this great game of no limit hold em. Thursday nights are $2/5 blind with a $1,000 maximum. I bought in for $500 � about average.
The game had about six typically passive, loose and sometimes timid players, a couple of solid players, and a very aggressive player who often plays much higher than this game. I rate him as a strong player � though much, much looser and wilder than my ultra tight and aggressive style. I frequently think about the efficacy of our respective styles in games like this.
I have an image that is extremely � extremely tight. I�m not really all that tight, but that�s my image.
I wait for very strong hands for the most part � though not always. And then I typically make my pot sized bets when I think I�m in the lead. Pre-flop I�ll raise whatever the latest �threshold� raise seems to be. That is I�ll raise by whatever has come to be considered the raise that people won�t call without strong hands. It starts at about $15 and moves upward, generally as the night progresses � frequently reaching $50 before the night is out.
My nemesis plays a very different game. He raises to $35 or $50 or whatever he feels like pre-flop regardless of position and often regardless of his hands. He�ll call nearly any raise pre-flop � unless it�s made by one of the more solid players � myself included. Even then he tends to call rather than fold � especially in late position.
He will bet and raise on the flop with nothing, sometimes, frequently winning the hand without competition as we mice fold, fearing potential strength. Since I�m rarely in the hand, and when I raise he tends to fold, we have few hands together. There were a few exceptions.
I had managed to win a few pots by raising his raise and raising after he called. On two occasions he called pre-flop when I raised to $35 after a bunch of calls. On each of those times I hit the flop. The first time he and another player checked and folded when I bet the pot. On the second time he bet about half the pot, I raised the size of the pot and he folded.
He had managed to win a few stacks, when other players went all-in against him and lost. He also picked up many pots with aggressive raises that weren�t called. He lost a few times when his large bet was called and it turned out he was bluffing. All totaled, by the hand in question he had about $2,000.
I had been playing, for lack of a better word, my typical brand of solid poker. I had raised a few times pre-flop when I had the right hand for my position. I had loosened up some as the night went on or after a long string of folds, winning with a couple of semi-bluff raises from late position. I was lucky a couple of times to improve on the flop and get called by a guy who also hit the flop, but not quite as well. I was up about $350 with a stack of nearly $850 by the time the hand in question came up.
I was dealt Ah9h on the button in this 10 person game. My opponent was in the five seat. The three seat, under the gun, raised to $35. My opponent and two others called as did I. All of the players after me folded, leaving my opponent second to act after the flop.
The flop came Ac8h5c. My opponent bet $100. He bet it quickly, just as he frequently did when he had nothing. I had learned to see him exhibiting the basic weak means strong tell � nothing particularly tricky about it -- just pretty obvious pausing when he had a monster and betting quickly and purposefully when he had nothing. I figured this was one of those times.
I also figured that if he had a strong Ace he would have raised pre-flop. He raised with much weaker hands, so I figured he had not hit the flop nearly as well as I.
The other players folded. I thought for a second. And I decided that I had the best hand. I raised by $300. The third player folded and my nemesis went all in � forcing me to call for my remaining $400 or fold. I quickly called � figuring that this wildly aggressive player was just trying to blow me off my hand.
I flipped over my cards as did he. He had the 8s and the 5s. The turn was the 3c. The River as a blank. His goofy two pair held up.
I played the hand poorly � and his style of play contributed to my mistake. I clearly misread his post flop bet, though I was correct that he didn�t have a bigger Ace. His aggressiveness, with little, convinced me that his bet on the flop meant little. I was wrong.
But my mistake was more than that. That misread might explain my mistaken raise to $300. But it didn�t explain my mistaken call of his all in re-raise. I think I was guilty of not wanting to back down from a fight. Had I paused longer and thought a bit more I would have realized that though my image was tight, it was also clear that I only bet high quality hands. A player wouldn�t raise me unless he thought that I was either misrepresenting my hand or that he was stronger than the strong hand I was representing. Given my style of play, and the fact that he was an observant player, it was highly unlikely that my opponent would think the former, so the latter meant made more sense. Hence, his re-raise of my bet of $300, into what he knew to be at least an Ace and probably a strong Ace, given my style of play, meant that I should have credited him with a hand that could beat my pair of Aces.
Had my hand more outs, the call of the additional $400 into a pot that was $1300 would have made sense. But I had only really five outs: Two Aces and three nines, plus some back door possibilities like pairing the turn or getting a couple of gut shots to fill the straight or the flush. Had the board given me a flush draw on the flop things would have been different. My call of the $400 re-raise would have been justified.
So what happened? I think the problem was one that I have been afflicted with before � and that I know afflicts other otherwise solid and tight players. I made my read, I had been playing very tightly, and by god, I wasn�t going to pushed off what was a strong hand. I had developed tunnel vision � focused only on the limited parameters of my initial decision making process � unwilling to step back and refocus on what was happening.
I was outfoxed by an aggressive player into thinking he was playing wildly � when he really had a stronger hand. He was the reason for my initial $400 mistake but I was completely responsible for the rest of my stack�s decline. Live and learn, no?