Re: Stud hand for discussion

Comments inserted:

On Aug 29 2005 9:17 AM, Stephen Jacobs wrote:

> Amusing hand from Taj yesterday. $10/20 regular stud game; these people are
> supposed to have some slight knowledge of the game. I'll be missing most of
> the irrelevant cards, I'm afraid.
>
> Table of 8; $1 ante; $3 bring-in; $10/20 betting limits. No short stacks
> involved. Curly has taken some tough beats lately and may be on tilt. Moe
> (that's me) has been lucky a couple times lately and may also be on tilt.
>
> Curly holds (TT)T; Larry holds (57)7; Moe holds (KK)5. A 5 is dead; no aces
> are exposed.
>
> Curly calls the bring-in, Larry raises, Moe re-raises and everyone calls,
> losing the other five players.

Definitely a bad raise by Larry. With a dead small kicker, he is going to
be in trouble for the rest of the hand unless he catches really good
(which will also tip the strength of his hand)

> Fourth street: Curly catches a rag (TTTx), Larry a 7 (5777) and Moe a 5
> (KK55). Larry checks, Moe bets $10 and both others call.

Larry raises on 3rd, catches trips, then checks? Is there a bigger Tell
that he has trips? (Maybe the stutter-pause, then minimum bet on 4th).
Now, I don't know the player, but I would be highly suspicious of the
check. What do you really gain by betting? You will have to fold to a
checkraise, even with your Kings-up.

> Fifth street: all rags, although Moe gets an ace. Larry checks, Moe bets,
> Curly calls, Larry raises, Moe calls and Curly calls.

Same deal. He waited until 5th to raise... he he trips. Now, the pot is
somewhat larger, so I may tend to take a card off, especially if Larry is
tricky, and could pull this move with a worse hand than yours. If I am
Curly here... I 3-bet after the check-raise. I know Larry has trips, but
I have bigger trips, and the pot is getting big. Let's pump it for all it
is worth. If Larry thinks about this strange sequence of actions, he
should quickly realize that Curly has higher trips (assuming there is no
draw on board). Whether or not he should 4-bet it depends on if he thinks
you will call 2 more bets (obviously, you should fold here). This was
their only real chance to get you out of the hand.

> Sixth street: Curly (TTTxxx) and Larry (5777xx) rag, but Moe catches a K
> (KK55AK). Larry bets, Moe raises (saying "Let's see if you mean it"), both
> others call.

lol @ "Let's see if you mean it". With the AK on board, and the fact that
you cold called a raise on 3rd street, it becomes highly likely that you
have caught your boat (if one was thinking clearly). I admit, I would not
likely be folding either other hand at this point.

> River: Larry fills. Larry bets, Moe raises, Curly mucks (correctly
> identifying Moe's hand), Larry calls.

Very nice fold by Curly. Larry seems like a good player to play
against... playing his cards and not thinking too deeply about what the
other guys have.

> Curly and Larry bicker for the next five minutes about who should have done
> what to get Moe out before he filled.

As described above, they had only one shot.

> My excuse is that I didn't see anything unusual going on until the response
> to my fifth-street bet, calling that raise was pretty automatic, and I
> filled right afterward. I honestly thought that Curly had a pair of aces,
> not trip tens (I knew he had SOMETHING that he could have played faster).
> Larry knew that my paired door card wasn't trips because he held the case 5
> (I am well known to raise small pairs with a big live kicker on occasion, so
> it wasn't obvious otherwise).
>
> An added aside: the structure of the Taj $10/20 stud game favors tight play,
> and until this Summer that's what I always saw (in fact, play was often
> incorrectly TOO tight). Why have these games loosened up so much?

No answer for you there... but don't complain :)

Fell
--
Advice: Whatever Richie says to do... do the opposite.

Visit http://www.fellknight.com for strategy, blog, reviews and more!
(STILL IN BETA MODE)

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