Session No. 4 Tuesday Night (5/1) Part II

Well like I said before, a hand-history is in order so I'll post one where I had a lot of information going through my mind, I played it particularly well, and I got a little lucky on it too. The villain in seat 3 (Robert) had just sat down and seemed somewhat solid so far. I only watched him play two hands in a couple orbits however, so my read wasn't stellar. The villain in seat 4 (Jim) had been on an absolute tear all night and could have built me a little yellow house with all of the $1 chips he had in front of him (650 or so). Jim was a border-line-maniac and played most of his hands aggressively. The third villain is in seat 6 and was your basic calling station donkey. He had been paying me off a lot all night. Oh and for the record, I'm in seat one.

So we're 9-Handed and I'm in the CO with KQ of spades. Seat 6 open-limps from UTG+1, it gets folded to me (seat 1) where I raise it up. The Button (seat 2) folds, Robert in the SB flat calls (seat 3), Jim the Maniac (seat 4) three-bets it and seat 6 ends up capping it. Wow. What did I start here? I had seen seat 6 get frustrated before and cap with air. That is, he would want to limp in, but once it gets 3-Bet he figures he'll just cap. Anyway, even though Jim was a maniac, he hadn't played back at my LP raises at all so far. He'd call with just about anything, but he'd only re-raise me with a good hand, so I was a bit worried.

The flop was Q:d:7:h:4:c:

This was one of the few flops I could get a little excited about. After the pre-flop action, I thought that I might have to flop a couple of spades or a straight draw just to give myself a chance, but the Queen-High flop looked good to me.

Robert ends up leading out on the flop, which admittedly made me whince a little bit. What hand was strong enough that Robert could flat-call pre-flop with, but then lead out into three players after it was capped pre-flop? I was thinking AQ at the time, maybe a set (77,44) and then maybe he could have KQ or QJ. Not to mention the other two villains have yet to act....

Well to my pleasant suprise Jim only called the bet (absolutely reaked of AK or AJ-AT because he would have raised JJ or even TT here, not to mention AA-QQ) and then seat 6 also called. I figured now was the time to see where I was at, so I raised. All three villains just called.

The turn was a 2:c:

Beautiful card. All three villains check so I fire another bet out there. Robert made a somewhat painful looking call and Jim called fairly quickly, seat 6 ended up folding. At first I had Robert on AQ or a set, but after he just called the flop bet and then hesitated a little to call the turn here, I felt like I was either in a good spot or Robert was playing AQ like a nit. I wasn't sure what exactly Jim was doing, but I knew I had to be ahead of him...

The river was a 9:h:

Both players checked, I fired a final bet, and Robert takes another painfully long time to just call. I really was scared of AQ here, thinking that perhaps he could have put me on Aces or Kings. Jim folds face-up showing his AKos...thank goodness a King didn't flop :)

Anyway, I showdown my KQ and Robert kinda nods and says "nice hand" before showing his QT of hearts. Glad I was wrong about AQ or a set haha...

A long time ago I might have just called that flop either because I thought I was beat or because I figured I wouldn't raise anyone out of the pot. Such horrible thinking on both parts. I needed to raise this flop to see where I was at in the hand, not to mention getting more money in there in case I'm ahead. If the players simply call, well then I'm probably in good shape. If it gets 3-Bet or capped before it gets back to me, well then I can re-evaluate what I think everyone has and then play accordingly. Basically what I'm trying to say is: If you're not sure where you are, raise the flop. Because by the turn it might be too late...