When Not To Slow Play

After a topsy turvy night at the Inter tables and a steady, break even night at Poker Room, want to talk about a hand and how it was played.

Before, a little background. Having a pretty bad night after AA got taken down by lower pockets 4 times in about 20 mins, so my Inter stack was about 50-60$ down. One hand at Poker Room cost me 50$ after flopping a set of Kings and losing to a flush on the river. Then, was invited to a few SNG's with Rosie, Acorn Man and The Edge, which ws enjoyable, if a little strange playing with a few people you know. Broke even after a second place finish in one, and nothing in the other two, but enjoyed the chat and banter that went with it.

Clawed myself back to even at Poker Room, and was in the process of doing so at Inter, when the following hand happened.

1$ PL Table
On the button, dealt Ah Kh. Raise to 5$ and get three callers (ouch, I thought at the time)

Flop is As Ks 4s. Good and bad at the same time, 2 pair but with three spades. It's checked to me so I bet 7$ and get 2 callers, one folds.
Trying to think what the other players may have, it's been a pretty steady table with no maniac raises or overbets, and I hadn't seen any stupid calls with 72s or anything to indicate fishes or poor standard players.
As the A and K of spades are on the table, the best (or worse for me) hand he can have is Qs Js - and maybe he would call a 5$ raise with that? I wouldn't, but he's not me.

Turn is a 2h, bet another 7$ and again both flat call.

Starting to get worried now, has someone hit their flush and are slow playing to the river? If I had one and seen the bet on the flop, I would have called the flop but put a big raise in on the turn, to scare him away in case he had something like pocket Q's (one spade) and therefore the nuts if another spade hits the river. Also, I'm only (!!) betting 7$ into a pot of 36$ after the turn, are they correct to call if maybe AQ or maybe one has pocket 4s and have hit a set? But 7$ to call on a 50$ buy in table, is still a big bet?

So pot is now $57 and my memory is a bit hazy on the next bit as all I saw was the Kd hit the river. Now I'm praying that they both have flushes, or flopped a set, as, apart from AA - I have the nuts.

I bet 5$ this time, hoping that my opponents pick up this lower bet as a sign of weakness. Player 1 raises to 15$ and then I was amazed to see player 2 move all in. I re-raise, as player 1 has more chips than me, and he calls. Player 1 turns Qs 7s, player 2 did have pocket 4s - also a full house, but mine was the bigger and I take the 140$ or so pot.

It got a bit manic after this, player one pointed out (in a very unfriendly manner) how lucky I was, and got a bit angry when I corrected him by telling him HE got lucky, calling a 5$ raise with Q7, and the river just evened up the luck in the favour of the strongest hand pre-flop. He got quite abusive and other players also joined in my 'lol' when he said the words we love to hear from the fish. It wasn't Q7 m8, it was Q7 suited'. I sypathised with the other player, he took his bad luck well and wished me 'gl' before leaving.

The guy got lucky on the flop, played the hand badly, in my opinion, not re-raising the flop or certainly the turn, and then paid the consequences of giving two opponents' free' cards, allowing us both to hit our full houses.

So a bad night evened itself out and a quick check, the Poker Room account sits at 599$, The Titan account at $198 and the Inter account $186. Think this is about what I started at, so happy to finish about the same after my poor start.

See you later at the tables maybe?