Thursday, May 05, 2005
More Critical Thinking
I've still been going over that last hand from the other night trying to decide if there's anything else I could pull from it to improve my game. In doing so, I think I've come to my ultimate conclusion, both Jack and I made bad plays. The decisions we each made are the difference between great play and mediocre play.
After Jack showed me his cards he offered up that he just didn't see how he could lay down a full house, and if I had fours full of Aces or better, well he was willing to lose to a hand like that.
My mistake:
There are three paths of thought on what I can do when that four hits the river and I see all that action in front of me.
Folding
This would be a phenomenal laydown. A professional laydown. There are two hands I can put Jack on after his bet: Ace high club flush or a full house. A full house is clearly a strong possibility given the board, so when he makes his raise over Rob he obviously isn't afraid of that hand. There is no full house that I can beat, I can only hope that he has 4's full of 8's as well and split the pot with him.
Calling
I'm not even considering this as a possible decision. Flat-calling Jack's $60 is tantamount to giving it away. If I think he has me beat I shouldn't bother with the $60, if I think I have the best hand, I need to get all my money to the middle and hope he has a hand that he can't see laying down.
Raising
If I don't have the best hand, I can most certainly represent it by going all-in. Jack has to know at that point that I have a full house and nothing else. There is only one full house on the board that he can beat (And yes, it was the one I was holding, dammit!).
So now we get to Jack's decision, which I also feel is on the same level as mine. He's applied a lot of pressure with his pot raise of Rob. After his bet there is $120 in the pot, after my raise there is $291.75. If he calls the pot goes to $403.50, of which he would have put in around half. He's basically investing $112 of his total of $180 with only one hand that he can beat. He's making a call into a re-raise and I just don't see how you make that call. The smart thing to do is to lay that hand down.
It's certainly not the easiest decision to make and I absolutely don't begrudge him for calling. It was a gamble that paid off but I think we both made poor decisions on how we finished our hands off. And even though I lost, I'm honestly beginning to think his decision may have been a little worse.
After Jack showed me his cards he offered up that he just didn't see how he could lay down a full house, and if I had fours full of Aces or better, well he was willing to lose to a hand like that.
My mistake:
There are three paths of thought on what I can do when that four hits the river and I see all that action in front of me.
Folding
This would be a phenomenal laydown. A professional laydown. There are two hands I can put Jack on after his bet: Ace high club flush or a full house. A full house is clearly a strong possibility given the board, so when he makes his raise over Rob he obviously isn't afraid of that hand. There is no full house that I can beat, I can only hope that he has 4's full of 8's as well and split the pot with him.
Calling
I'm not even considering this as a possible decision. Flat-calling Jack's $60 is tantamount to giving it away. If I think he has me beat I shouldn't bother with the $60, if I think I have the best hand, I need to get all my money to the middle and hope he has a hand that he can't see laying down.
Raising
If I don't have the best hand, I can most certainly represent it by going all-in. Jack has to know at that point that I have a full house and nothing else. There is only one full house on the board that he can beat (And yes, it was the one I was holding, dammit!).
So now we get to Jack's decision, which I also feel is on the same level as mine. He's applied a lot of pressure with his pot raise of Rob. After his bet there is $120 in the pot, after my raise there is $291.75. If he calls the pot goes to $403.50, of which he would have put in around half. He's basically investing $112 of his total of $180 with only one hand that he can beat. He's making a call into a re-raise and I just don't see how you make that call. The smart thing to do is to lay that hand down.
It's certainly not the easiest decision to make and I absolutely don't begrudge him for calling. It was a gamble that paid off but I think we both made poor decisions on how we finished our hands off. And even though I lost, I'm honestly beginning to think his decision may have been a little worse.
