A Laydown and a Bluff

Quiet night last night.Mrs A read her book while I played on my PSP and read some blogs on the net.

Hit the tables around 22.30 and played at Pokerrooms $1 nl.Finished down $8 after 45mins but felt I'd played well ( folded well mostly!). Hadn't seen a hand at all when I pick up Ad Kh on the button and raise to $3. I get 3 callers and the flop comes 5d Kd Js.Check,Check,check and with one player to play I'm rapidly working out how much it will take to win the pot there and then as the board is far too scary to give any free or cheap cards.

JabbaTheNut ( or something like that) suddenly raises it up to $30 and I'm left asking myself what the hell he could have.All ideas of a pot size bet vanish as my brain whirrs.He was fairly new to the table so no real read on wether he was solid or likely to be making a move but I did remember seeing his name before and as I've got such a terrible memory I thought that I probably wouldn't have remembered him if I hadn't seen him at $1nl a few times.On that basis I ruled out him being a loose goose .25 player taking a chance and put him on KJ and folded.A set of fives was my other thought but he showed K5 before folding and I was pleased I'd managed to get away from my hand.

So pleased I wrote AK in the chat box and immediately regretted it as I left myself open to huge reraise steals as the table knew I could lay down a hand and they would probably also assume that if I was betting hard I really had the goods.Afterall if your not happy with TPTK at that level what must you have to put your money in?

Went from being happy with my laydown to annoyed at myself for stroking my own ego by writing AK in the box.

Left $8 down and decided to hit Interpokers 6 max $1 tables for a short while before bed.
I bought in for $80 and set about sussing out my opponents.Its much easier to get reads in 6 max due to the all action style of the games and within a few orbits I had a rough idea how the table was playing.

Before I write about my bluff I should say that I never really value overcards very much and
don't often chase with them hoping to hit.That's possibly a leak in my game as but I much prefer to be the one with the hand making the chumps pay to draw rather than the other way round and in the cash games you have forever and can afford to wait wait wait for when it suits before getting too excited.

I say a leak because it struck me whilst playing this hand that aswell as having 6 outs to my overcards there will always be potential bluffing opportunities too.

I get KdQd and call for $1 from late position.Flop comes 8d 4c 9h and it goes check,$4 bet then its on me. Usually I would fold here but thinking about what the villan could have I decide he wouldn't be that agressive with 2 pair but is likely to have a hand like A9.If I hit either K or Q I'm fairly sure that would give me the lead in the hand and if I get some luck I may be able to bluff and scare the villan off.

Turn is 10c and he bets $7 into a pot of aprox $10.Looks like a weak bet to me.Not even pot sized so I wonder if the 10 has slowed him down as he thinks I'm drawing to the straight with JQ.River is an 8h and again he bets $7 and this time it really does feel like a weak "I don't want to bet but I'm in the pot now" kind of bet.I consider for a second or two and raise it to $25.He folds and I leave a few minutes later $16 up.

It just shows how much confidence affects my game though.If I'd been running badly I would probably have folded to his river bet and in my AK hand I may well have called or raised the $30 bet.I hope not but its a thin line between success and failure.

Been reading about Garyc's ( http://www.gcox25.blogspot.com/) downswing and his ideas about taking more breaks and not chasing profits late at night and its sensible stuff.From reading his blog over the months I've no doubt Mr Cox is a winning player and has the patience to pull through a tough spell.

Before I went on on my break I felt obliged to play every night and report on it.Maybe thats down to having a poker blog and while my blog has maybe not been quite as poker filled as it used to be having more balance in my life has helped me enjoy my game more.


Here's a couple of Herald diary snippets that made me smile today:

AN Edinburgh bus halted on Gorgie Road at the traffic lights outside a shop which is Auld Reekie's answer to Ann Summers, called Leather and Lace. Fellow passengers could feel the chap's embarrassment as a girl about eight jumped up and down pointing at the extreme fashions on display shouting: "Daddy, daddy! That's the Catwoman outfit I want for Hallowe'en!".

Time to leave cuckolded country and western singer Chris Cagel alone, but we end with a suggestion from John Dunlop in Gaithersburg, Maryland, who tells us: "One of my favourite country titles is from the group Banjo and Sullivan who recorded I'm Home Getting Hammered (While She's Out Getting Nailed).

This one went round the net a few years back but in tribute to the late Ronnie Barker who wrote it in the 70's here it is for your pleasure....

This is the story of Rindercella and her sugly isters.

Rindercella and her sugly isters lived in a marge lansion. Rindercella worked very hard frubbing sloors, emptying poss pits, and shivelling shot. At the end of the day, she was knucking fackered.

The sugly isters were right bugly astards. One was called Mary Hinge,and the other was called Betty Swallocks; they were really forrible huckers; they had fetty sweet and fetty swannies. The sugly isters had tickets to go to the ball, but the cotton runts would not let Rindercella go.

Suddenly there was a bucking fang, and her gairy fodmother appeared. Her name was Shairy Hithole and she was a light rucking fesbian. She turned a pumpkin and six mite wice into a hucking cuge farriage with six dandyronkeys who had buge hollocks and dig bicks.

The gairy fodmother told Rindercella to be back by dimnlight otherwise,there would be a cucking falamity.

At the ball, Rindercella was dancing with the prandsome hince when suddenly the clock struck twelve. "Mist all chucking frighty!!!" saidRindercella, and she ran out tripping barse over ollocks, so dropping her slass glipper.

The very next day the prandsome hince knocked on Rindercella's door and the sugly isters let him in. Suddenly, Betty Swallocks lifted her leg and let off a fig bart. "Who's fust jarted??" asked the prandsome hince."Blame that fugly ucker over there!!" said Mary Hinge. When the stinking brown cloud had lifted, he tried the slass glipper on both the suglyisters without success and their feet stucking funk.

Betty Swallocks was ducking fisgusted and gave the prandsome hince a knack in the kickers. This was not difficult as he had bucking fuge halls and a hig bard on.He tried the slass glipper on Rindercella and it fitted pucking ferfectly.Rindercella and the prandsome hince were married. The pransome hince lived his life in lucking fuxury, and Rindercella lived hers with a follen swanny.