#OOPS365 #Part3
We've been playing this hand throughout the week and now we've got a real decision to make !!
if you like my post can you click like to help me to the next round, thanks :)
Here is the hand:
You are at the Venetian, Macao.
You’re surrounded by rich and rather unfunny Chinese businessmen. And honestly, it’s a bit scary.
What a relief when you suddenly catch a glimpse of a familiar face across the room: your friend, Ray.
You don’t pay attention to the dealer giving you the cards while you’re on the Button. You don’t even follow the action when a ninja in early position opens 3 BB. A samurai in middle position calls.
You just shout “Hey Ray!” to your friend.
“Raise, how much Sir?” says the dealer with a strong Chinese accent.
You try to explain that no, you didn’t raise. You were just calling a friend… but you realize that the ninja and the samuraï are staring at you, with a sardonic smile. The dealer looks at them, then at you: “You said you raise. Too late Sir” he says, looking sorry for you.
You look at your cards and see 7♥5♥.
You try hard not to moan out loud… And your consternation becomes even deeper when you realize that the man you saw passing by… was not even Ray...
You have no choice. You must bet.
You have 90 BB.
You raise 9 BB.
The ninja does a few chip tricks, and before you know it, he reraises to 18BB.
The samurai calls, and so do you.
The Flop
7♣A♠A♥
Both of your opponents check.
The pot is now 55BB. You have 78BB left.
You bet 18
Ninja folds and disappears in a cloud of smoke.
Samurai stares at you. Then with a huge smile he pushes all his chips in the middle.
“Well, little guy, do you have the guts to fight me? A poker table is the only place where you might beat me,” he says with a deep voice
Now you DO have a choice: fold or put all of your stack in.
What’s your move?
OMG This guy is seriously starting to get my ...
First he's trying to intimidate the whole table with his sword swaggering about on his back... and now... now... he has the audacity to laugh at me and start trash talking me on the table. I can't contain myself anymore!!!!!! ARGHHH
Before I know what's happening...
I JUMP OUT OUT OF MY SEAT AND TELL HIM WHAT I THINK!
Suddenly I have a split second realization and see myself outside of myself. No not outside of myself literally, that would be freaky wouldn't it. I mean you know, when you just see what you're doing for a split second. As if you are not the person doing it. That moment of space between your actions. Well in that split second I realised how angry I was. I also remembered that anger at the table is a bad thing. Anger makes you stupid!
I'm already stupid =( I don't want to be more stupid.
I take a deep breath and think back to what I've learnt out of that book I was reading on the flight over here.
Negative / Angry emotions over-ride our logic, they come from a more primative part of the brain than our thinking brain and they saved us thousands of years ago when we got mad and killed something to stay alive... but now... now they aren't great. They get in the way! So I take a drink of water, sit back into my chair and start to calm myself down.
As I'm sinking back into the chair the dealer says he's calling the floor that my outburst was contrary to the etiquette in this place and I should be penalized.. what the hell?
The floor manager comes over he's looking kind of tired he's had some very big pots to officiate just recently here at the Venetian. As he gets to our table he suddenly realises the Samurai. He says to him, wasn't it your friend who nearly killed me with that ninja star chip trick earlier? The samurai laughs and says "YES BOSS IT WAS MY FRIEND HAHAHA" - The dealer then tells the floor manager of my outburst and the floor manager smiles at me and then at the Samurai.
He thinks for a few moments and then says "Play on" before walking briskly away to a table just out of sight.
Phewww. OK so i'm still in the hand and there's no penalty.
Let's think about this.
The original hand range I put the Samurai on has now tightened. Preflop we decided his range would look something like this.
Reasonable if he was loose giving he was facing a 4bet but probabally fancied his chances of getting into a multiway pot. As we are making a decision for chips here when estimating his range it's best to start assuming he is reasonablly wide. If at the end of the analysis the decision is to call we can take a few seconds to re-evaluate how accurate our ranging might have been, if it's a fold - then tighteneing his range will only make it more of a fold - so it's good to start out assuming a reasonably wider range, as we don't know how loose this guy plays.
Now he's shoved over our tiny bet. Why I bet so tiny I don't know - i broke that rule I learnt from watching Jason Sommerville streams!! =(
"Only bet if you think you can get a better hand to fold or a weaker hand to call" AHHH anyway. I did it.
So his range will have tightened up given this action and his shove. I don't know what this villian is cabable of shoving, BUT the stack:pot ratio is very small. He could be doing this with alot of hands but when the stack:pot ratio is this slim, his bet looks strong. As does his confident talking at the table. Usually when people talk at you like this in a hand they are strong.
I even tried to look weak in a hand once, but couldn't help myself by speaking out to someone in a hand when they were tanking! I guess that's why it's called a tell right? :P
Here is what a reasonablaly tightend up range from his preflop range looks like after his shove.
I say reasonable, but some players would not be shoving the smaller pairs here. This guy might not be a believer so lets keep them in his range to play our ranging safe. If we took them out his equity in the hand would be even stronger.
This flop is dry. REAAAAAAALY DRY.
Just thinking about it makes me want to take another drink of water. So I do.
So we can discount bluffs for hands that might be semi-bluffing, he also must realise his fold equity versus made hands on this flop isn't very great given the stack to pot ratio, and this is a cash game so people aren't worrying about their tourney life - which affects his fold equity.
So for these reasons I think the range we have him on is a fairly reasonable one and if anything a little on the wide side.
I remember back to my years of daily study with equilab. As if by some miracle I recall this exact same situation.
Useful this photographic memory when you're sat at a high stakes live cash table ;)
So we have just 8% equity here against this guy! OUCH!!!!
The pot was 55b and I bet 18bbs, leaving me with 60bbs in my stack
The samurai shoved meaning this is the pot I'm now faced with
55+18+60 = 128bbs (we only count 60bbs for his shove as this is the effective stack, how much we have left behind as the shorter of the two stacks).
So we have to call 60bbs to win 128 - so we are getting a little over 2:1 on the call.
But our equity in the hand is just...
8%!!
"I fold dealer" I say kicking back in my chair and getting ready for a long session.
It's just a matter of time. I'm too good for these guys!!
;)
