Laying down aces

i saw a really sick hand while playing in the 5-200 spread limit game at garden city this past weekend.

a loose-passive player (player A) raised it under the gun to $25. i called in the cutoff with AhTh. the small blind, a REALLY loose aggressive player with no ability to lay a hand down, thought for a while and then just called (SB). now at this point, as i looked back to player A, and saw him exuding enough confidence to topple the world, and thought about SB’s “wait-and-call”, i knew i was pretty much done with the hand unless AT, two T’s, or 2+ hearts flopped. the hand really isn’t about me, but the passive player A definitely had AK, AA, KK, and SB definitely had some hand in the range of (77-QQ, AQ, AJ, AT, KQ). goodbye, hand!

the flop came T64, with two diamonds. SB checked and player A, bet out $100, a really large bet into a $65 pot. before he even finished counting out the chips, my cards were in the muck; i couldn’t see him firing out $100 into a $65 pot with AK. SB thought a while and coolly called the $100. at this point i started getting interested: SB must have a bit of a large hand. my thoughts were TT, JJ, QQ, or maybe AdTd ?

the turn came with a complete black blank and SB checks. player A, starting to look nervous now (”please get out of my pot!”), fired out the max bet of $200. now SB goes into the tank, which causes (i think) everyone else to go into the tank and start thinking things like “holy crap, did this guy just call from the SB with QQ or KK? i mean, player A clearly has AA or KK.”

finally SB calls and player A stands up, clearly frustrated and praying for a blank on the river. he doesn’t get his wish, as it hits 9d and SB puts player A all-in with a $200 max bet. SICK. player A immediately starts yelling, “j**** c*****, did you just hit your f***ing flush on me?!” and, as if to show how large his penis is, he stands up and throws his $200 into the middle and flips up his AA angrily.

SB, ever the reverse-justifying pay-off artist, says, “no, but i did river you,” and flips up 99 for a rivered set. player A grabs his cards and flings them across the table at SB, stomping out angrily.

============

now i think everyone can see what a complete moron SB is. he tried to explain himself by saying, “well, i put him on a lower pair than me.” oh really? he pumped it to $25 preflop and fired two huge bullets into a T-high board with 88 or 77? i don’t think his poor play is up for debate (note: any time you’re trying to justify your play in a hand while you’re stacking chips, it probably means you’re coming up with that justification on the fly). but the really terrible play in the hand is the last call by player A.

if you look at it objectively, what possible hand could SB have played that way that is worse than a single pair of aces? KK or QQ could not possibly fired on the river after thinking so hard on the turn. a busted flush would be insane to bluff at the pot with player A obviously so committed.

basically player A made the terrible sin of the angry call. the “see? i had friggin aces. this guy totally sucked out on me.” basically he paid $200 to show everyone his great preflop hand and not get shown a crazy bluff. you end up seeing this a lot in these crazy action games; players that think no one has any right to ever run down their aces. it’s a sick game and if you can’t dissociate your ego from your play, you’ll never play well.

like doyle said, “this is poker, not solitaire.”