A Trip to the Borgata
I usually get pretty excited when I feel that I have come up with a good idea to write a poker blog on. I generally wait until something strikes me as being a good topic instead of trying to force something down on paper (I mean computer). Sometimes those good ideas in my opinion turn out to be just “okay” ideas and I end up scraping that blog. I recently did that with a couple of ideas so I had to figure out a way to come up with a new good topic without forcing it. Where else should I go for that inspiration but to the poker table!
I recently was down in Atlantic City attending a conference and I had a few hours of down time so figured that I would play a small cash game at the Borgata. The max buy in for the game was $400 so I went to the cage and got $400 in red ($5) chips to put on the table and 6 black ($100) chips to put in my pocket so I could easily reload my stack if needed or potentially sell them to a tilted player at the table if they go broke to keep them in the game.
I pretty quickly got seated at a 1/3 table where I noticed the guy to my right. He is an older gentleman who has been around the poker scene for many years. I didn’t recognize else anyone else at the table but quietly paid attention to the discussions going on and quickly realized that there were what seemed like a few other small stakes regulars. Being a regular doesn’t necessarily make someone a better player, but it’s always good to try to assess everyone’s general knowledge as quickly as possible when first sitting down in a cash game. This way you will know how to play against him/her when you get involved in a hand together.
I didn’t play too many hands early on as I usually try to set a solid tight image to those that may be paying attention. I lost a few smallish pots here and there and was down a little over a $100 so I took one of my black chips out of my pocket and added it to my stack. I eventually dropped approximately another $100 and again added another black chip to my stack. I was able to gradually work my way up to even then won a couple of small pots and was up about $50 when the following hand came up.
Two players limped in from early position and it was on me in middle position and I looked down at pocket 7s. I mix it up here by sometimes raising and sometimes limping in but based off of the dynamics of the table and the stack sizes, I decided to limp in to try to pretty much hit a set. One player in position after me limped in as did the small blind. The big blind then raised to $22. The big blind seemed like one of the more competent players at the table and he had just lost a few decent sized pots and seemed to be a little bit on tilt. That being said, I didn’t think he was raising with pure garbage here and I had a great hand to bust a big hand if I did hit. The 2 initial limpers called the $22 so I called as did the player after me and the small blind.
We went 6 ways to the flop with $132 in the pot. I generally watch the players that are first to act for their reaction to the flop instead of watching the flop as it comes out. The flop will still be there but the players initial reaction won’t still be there. The small blind pretty quickly led out for $35 and the big blind even more quickly raised to $95. The next 2 players folded then I took my first look at the flop of K73 with 2 diamonds. Obviously, this was a tremendous flop for me, but now I had to figure out my best strategy on how to proceed.
The most important thing in these situations is to take your time to make the best possible decision. Of course, I wasn’t going to fold, but I had to decide if I was calling or raising. I looked at the small blind’s stack and he had about $200 total. He had already bluffed a bunch of chips off to me earlier in the session and he rebought into the game twice. That along with the fact that he had led out small into a bunch of people led me to believe that he was most likely on a flush draw. He may have had a weak King but the flush draw made more sense since there were no other draws on the board. I felt that if he did have the flush draw, based off of his previous play and how much money he was down, he would just go all in with the remainder of his stack. I felt that since the big blind raised so incredibly fast after the flop that he had a hand like AK, AA or possibly KQ. I figured that if he KK and had hit a set of Kings that he would have at least thought about it for a minute before choosing his action. If he somehow did have a set of Kings then he was just going to get all of my chips. We had similar stacks of about $650 total.
I felt that it was very likely that if I just called his $95 raise that the small blind would then shove with (what I was assuming was) a flush draw. I felt the that the big blind would then reraise to try to shut me out of the pot if I had a hand like KQ or KJ not knowing that I was trapping with a set. After all of this consideration, I called. As scripted, the small blind went all in and the big blind followed with an all in as well. I of course snap called. I immediately saw the look on the big blind’s face as he now realized that he was in bad shape once I called so quickly as he showed his AK. The board ran out with 2 blanks and the small blind shook his head and said he missed his flushed draw. I then tabled my set of 7’s to scoop a nice pot.
There are several morals to this story:
- Pay attention to players’ actions and the timing of their actions. Sometimes the speed of them gives away valuable information.
- Know the mindset of the players at your table. Understanding the fact that both of the players that were in the hand with me were stuck money and trying to win a big pot helping me to come to the best decision.
- Take your time and use all of the information available to you when you have a decision to make. Sometimes your first thought is a solid play but there may be a second option that is a better play in a given situation.
Comments and questions are ALWAYS welcome.
Best of luck on the Poker Tables!
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Frank L. DiRe
Twitter: @FLD15
Nerdthusiast Content Writer
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