My favorite phrase, lol

[frob23]

The other night I was hanging out with a friend and he decided to play an 18 person sit and go (I think it was $5 but I wasn't paying attention). We're just hanging out and talking... and I am giving him pointers when it gets short handed because he's a weak short-handed player. Then the following hand came up 4 handed.

He has A-7 in the SB. His image is fairly aggressive but not crazy, he's raising and taking about 1.5-2 hands per rotation without a fight.

It's 200/400 and I forget how much he had in his stack but it wasn't very deep. He had maybe 5-6k. The BB was the table chip leader with over 10k. And the UTG player was very short for the blinds but not desperate... something like 3.5k. I was watching this live so I don't know the real numbers.

UTG limps, button folds. I tell my friend to pop it to 4xBB. He's been routinely punishing limpers like this and the UTG player has shown he can fold to bets like this. In short, the UTG player is insanely weak. With all the raising people were doing when he limped, he never once reraised and almost always folded -- I want him on my table every time.

So my buddy makes it 1,600 to go. . . and the BB tanks. He sits there and takes like 40 seconds before acting. This player isn't crazy but he's not one to bother thinking hard in this spot and usually just folds -- content to steal without a fight later on -- or calls/raises quickly. As he's thinking I comment, "He should not be thinking," to my friend.

The BB eventually calls and the UTG player folds (did I mention he was weak?). The flop comes:

Flop: 6-J-J

Which is not a great flop for us. I've encouraged my friend to avoid big confrontations with the big stack... and he looks at me and I tell him to just check. He checks, the BB checks.

Turn: 6-J-J-J

My friend looks at me again and I tell him to check again. The BB bets 1,200 which is less than 1/3rd of the pot. My friend starts to mouse towards the call button. "No, fold!" I insist.

"What?!"

"Fold, you're beat. He's full."

"No way."

"Then shove... one or the other, But he's already got the full house. Your only hope is that his pocket pair is small enough that he's able to fold to your shove here."

Now my friend tanks... he's trying to put it all together... but he doesn't see it. I ask him what the BB thinks we have. He says probably 2 high cards (which is what I would bet) or a pair. He can't say how big our pair might be... but I don't think the BB would buy the pair argument after we checked the flop.

Finally, my friend folds and the BB shows 3-3.

"You were right," he says. [This is my favorite phrase.]

I asked him what sort of hands the BB would need to think hard about before calling pre-flop. A big pair, he's raising pre-flop... or at least calling fairly quick to trap. Two big cards... same deal... call or raise quickly pre-flop. Medium cards or hands like 6-7... he's folding quickly in that spot. Even A-x he's probably calling quickly. The only real hands he's thinking about (and then calling) are small and medium pairs. He knows we're raising with a lot of hands and his pair is probably best but they're hard to play on the flop especially if high cards come.

Note: I also pointed out that, if I knew it was 3-3 and not 8-8 or even 5-5... I would have suggested shoving. I really don't think the BB can call a shove all that often with 3-3 in that spot. At the same time, I don't think he could fold higher pairs.

[LyndaNova]

Good post, Frob!

Maybe your friend will become a better poker player with your instruction!

Best of Luck at the tables!