Interesting Hand, Interesting Session, Biggest Pot I've Dragged in 2-5 Limit

For those who don't know, the state of Colorado limits its bets to $5.00. Therefore, limit games are either 2-5 spread or 5-5. Most of the time I spend time playing 2-5 limit in various rooms.

On this occasion, I decided to play 2-5 limit at Ameristar Casino on Friday April 27. My session began at 7:45 pm and ended at 12:35 am, so approximately 5 hours of play. I bought in with $100 and I ended the session up $280. I sat at seat 4 the entire night.

The session began with its usual mix of players at the table. 3-4 players played 80-90% of their hands (loose-passive); 3-4 played 60% of their hands (loose-passive); and 1 80 year old rock (tight-aggressive). The rock was predictable as usual. Two of the first tier of loose-passive players had several hundred in front of them when I first sat down. Within two hours, their money was all gone, spread around the table, including in my stack.

I hand that still puzzles me occurred about 3 hours into my session. I was in the blind ($2) and the 4th player off the blind raises and makes it $7. One caller in late position and I look down at AK suited. I call the raise. Now, I would normally re-raise in this situation, but the original raiser had been playing decently strong over the last 45 minutes or so, seemingly raising on most occasions when entering pots, showing down big hands, utilizing check raises, and consistently making continuation bets following the flop. The late position player was a player that called at least 75% of his hands and thus had a huge leak in his game, so I didn't put him on much of a hand.

Flop comes 8 (H) 5 (C) 2(D). I decide to check awaiting what happens behind me. As predicted, the preflop makes a continuation bet of $5. The late position caller folds. At this point, while heads up, I decide to play my hand one of two ways: either fold or take a shot at a check-raise and take control of the hand. Given the original raiser's proclivity to making continuation bets, I decided to take a shot and check-raise figuring that if he missed as well I might be in the lead with a Ace better kicker. Preflop raiser calls. Next card is the 5(H). I fire out a fourth street bet of $5. Preflop raiser instantly calls. This did not necessarily scare me since I knew that if this type of player had a big overpair after the flop he would have re-raised my check raise. I decide that no matter what the next card that comes, I'm making a final bet at the river. I made this decision given that my table image at that point remained strong and that most attentive players recognized that a check-raise from me usually meant that I had a hand that I was trying to protect.

So, back to the hand. Fifth street brings the 8(D). As planned I take a third shot at betting at this pot, continuing my aggression since the check raise. With this card falling, I had no doubt about betting, especially because I could not put the pre-flop raiser on an 8 or a 5. As discussed above, I did not believe that he could be holding an overpair either. Thus, I figured at best he had a pair of deuces, threes, or fours OR he had to big cards such as myself. To my surprise, the pre-flop raiser decides to call my river bet. At this point, I say to myself "crap" and turn over my unimproved AK expecting my opponent to have something worth calling my check-raise on the flop and two following bets on the turn and river. My opponent turns over A-10 offsuit and we end up splitting the pot with two pair 8s and 5s with A high.

Now, the thing that puzzled me was my opponent's call on the river. I've thought about this hand a bunch lately and still can't figure out what he was thinking in making the call. While two pair existed on the board, I understand the thought process that maybe his A was good to win the pot. This I could understand if I had not check-raised him on the flop. But I had been showing down strong hands for the past couple of hours and check-raised on various occasions showing down my winners. While I'm assuming that my check-raise represented strength, it is true that in these games a check-raise is utilized to represent that strength. So I've questioned why he think he might win the pot with just A high. Unless he slowed down playing an overpair (which i discounted appropriately), with a holding of just A high, the only hands he could beat are: 1) a random bluff; 2) K high (pretty much a bluff as well); or 3) a pair of twos, threes, or fours. Given my continued aggression throughout the hand, I found it difficult to understand how he could put me on any of those groups of hands, especially since I had not pursued such digressive plays earlier in the session with such bluffs or weak hands.

So while I did split the pot, this is a hand that I've desperately attempted to get into the mind of my opponent in understanding his thought process and utilize that knowledge for my benefit not just against him in the future, but players like him.

Session post to be continued.......

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Welcome to my blog focusing specifically on playing poker in and around Blackhawk, CO. My goal with this blog is to create an open forum to discuss news, strategy, and hand histories for players like myself often playing in Blackhawk.

If anything, my hope is that this blog will allow myself to become a better overall player by putting my recent session notes, results, and thoughts, thereby categorizing and analyzing my play for not only myself but anyone else who plays in tournaments or limit-games in these card rooms.

So I welcome anyone to contribute to the blog with general poker discussion in addition to specific discussions involving Blackhawk play.