The Art of the Information Bet

Set-over-set is alot more fun to watch than it is to be the guy w/ one out. Nice hand, @CaityCaity. Way to dodge the one-outer.

-- About 9:30PM EST; Posted @OnAFoldDraw (that's me!)

Katie limped in MP, she got a limper behind her, next player opened for a raise, I just called on the button.  Four of us to the flop for $8.

953 w/ two spades.  Check, check, Original raiser c-bets $30.  I got a feeling I could take him off the hand w/ a laise, but I'm worried about the snakes in the grass before him.  The fact that I have no-pair/no-draw w/ AQo is irrelevant.  I fold.

Katie c/r's to $90 and not long after, the player next to her moves all-in for over $100 more.  The guy that bet $30 had no trouble giving it up, but Katie had a decision to make.

She called, with middle set of fives.  The guy with the information bet had bottom set of threes and was drawing to one out.  Set of fives holds, Katie is happy.

Information Bet (n.) - moving all-in with less than the nut hand.  This is called an information bet because you learn that you're beat when you get called.

It was this hand that I tweeted about.  I was sitting on a nice win and my tumbly was a bit rumbly - so I headed over to the Deli near the @HarrahsPoker Room.  What a mess.  It was so bad I even asked the man with the manager badge for a chance at improvement.

After being gone from the table for nearly 40 minutes, I returned with food.  Some people think that players don't like to play anything but the best of hands while they're chowing down.  I was dealt complete garbage whilst nomming on my burger, I went a full dealer-down with a VP$IP = 0 and half of another one.  Even after I was done with the food, I still was pretty card dead.

We got a new player in the seat to my right.  I was tired of folding.  He limped, I laised.  Flop came out Q73r.  He bet $15 (into $25?, I think sb was in the pot, too.)

I raised.  He looked at the $850+ in front of me, the less than $200 in front of him, and decided he didn't want to tango.  Claims to have folded a queen.

Very next hand, I'm pretty sure... two limps to me, I open, five of us to the flop.  Couple of checks on a Td6d4h flop.  I bet $28 into $40.  Folds back to Katie.  She makes it $90.  Does this sound familiar from the hand where she flopped middle set before?

I looked around for the placement of the button/blinds.  She was in EP.  I could be wrong, but I think she would've opened wth pocket tens, not limped.  I knew she didn't have middle set... because... well, because I did.

There's $220 in the pot if I lost my mind and just called.  I raised another $130.  She moved in.  I called.  She knew she was in trouble when I called.  Turn was a diamond, river paired the tens.  She might've had a diamond with her pocket fours, I didn't see. 

She left to go up to the room.  One of the players at the table asked, "Hey, didn't you buy her a sandwich?  I think she's in the bathroom, throwing it up right about now."

Karma, Party of Two

I had pocket kings at least four times on Tuesday playing in the @HarrahsPoker Room, took down the blinds three times, got limp-raised the fourth.  Limp-raiser folded to my 4bet.  I had Aces, once that I can remember.  Ran into the monster that is ATo.  Flop, KJT.  He rivers two-outer.

Sounds like a bad day.  Incomplete stories can leave the reader with the wrong impression.

Folds to my cut-off.  I open, regular rock in small blind 3-bets to $35.  He only has AK/AQ(sooted) or TT+.  Only.  No other hand is in his range here.  I peel a flop.  T75r.  He leads $35 (half pot) into me heads up.  His range is now narrowed to one of two hands.  He either has a set of tens, or a set of tens.  I'm not sure which of the three remaining tens in the deck he does not hold.

I gave him a speech about how I'd play for $70, but not for $35.  We both babble back and forth about how he would've bet $70 if he had known that and I say he wouldn't have have a set of tens if he had bet $70...

Blah blah, this is only important, because later...

There's a raise from UTG, UTG+1 calls, as do I.  Gets to the small blind, he puts out a big 3bet.  We're both deep, almost $400 each before the hand was dealt.  I close the action and call heads-up.  Pot is about $100

Flop is queen high.  He measures out $60.  Then $85ish.  Then back to $60, matches it to itself.  He bets $120.  I'm a fish.  I assume, as fish do, that top pair = nutz.  I really read the guy completely wrong as having either AK air or a pair under the queen.  If he had bet less, I would've folded.

I shove, his instacall disheartens me.  I sheepishly admit, "I just have a Queen." 

Doesn't this mother fucker try to slow-roll me and say, "I just have an Ace."  For a nanosecond, I thought I had read his soul and he called with air out of spite.  Then, reality sets in.  He tries to finish his dickish move by saying, "With another Ace!"

The wind went out of his sails pretty quickly when I rivered a five-out Queen on his ass.

Send the Chili to Willy!

Friends of our Fathers

In AC, playing $1/$2 NL as I type. Got here Sun afternoon, played a coupla hours at Harrah's (http://twitter.com/HarrahsPoker). Floor person put me in the eight, nine was open, too. Grabbed some chips at the window and I didn't have 'em out the rack before my tool-dar pinged. Douchenozzle in the five with a fauxhawk was beligerant drunk and dying for attention.

Every word out of this guy's mouth was directed at the TV cameras, and most were disrespectful and borderline rule breaking.

Wasn't long before the nine was filled and the seven got a new face. Toolbox noticed, wondered where half the table went.

"They probably got tired of your mouth."

That didn't shut him up for long, but did elicit a couple laughs from fellow tablemates. Old man in the seven made a comment, kid started cutting into him. Not only did the guy just sit down, he hadn't even been dealt in yet and this kid was after him.

He eventually attacked his age, and he said, "What are you, friends with my father?"

I immediately came back with, "No, but he knows your mother pretty well, if ya know what I mean..."

Now, that... that shut him up.