Saturday, May 20, 2006

Was this slowplay justifiable?

On-line and live, I see AA slow-played poorly, in a fashion that comes back to haunt the slow-player, and I have no sympathy for cracked slow-played aces. Having said that, check out the circumstance in this single table tourney.

*********** # 31 **************
PokerStars Game #4997209828: Tournament #25074570, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) -
2006/05/20 - 15:57:01 (ET)
Table '25074570 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 4: LittleBeauty (2815 in chips)
Seat 5: FrankNagaiJr (1965 in chips)
Seat 6: Hank01 (1850 in chips)
Seat 8: ll sLiNk ll (3950 in chips)
Seat 9: Snafu58 (2920 in chips)
LittleBeauty: posts small blind 25
FrankNagaiJr: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FrankNagaiJr [Ah Ac]

FNJ - You can see there are five of us left, and I am now the short stack, but I do have room to breathe for at least two more levels. I have just been given an early x-mas present of AA in the BB. How can I extract the max dollars?

Hank01: folds
ll sLiNk ll: raises 100 to 150

FNJ - This is good news, because this player has made more than a statistically reasonable share of 3BB raises, so he could have damn near anything, but I will give him credit for having something playable.

Snafu58: folds
LittleBeauty: folds
FrankNagaiJr: calls 100

FNJ - No sense tipping off my hand yet. If I reraise, he might actually think I've got something and go away, since I've been very passive about my blinds so far, but he might interpret this as my way of standing up to the thief.

*** FLOP *** [Td 7s 8c]

FNJ - This flop could be called mildly dangerous. If he raised w/J9, TT, 77, 88 I am toast, but let's give him a little more rope if he's simply trying to buy it.

FrankNagaiJr: checks
ll sLiNk ll: bets 150
FrankNagaiJr: calls 150
*** TURN *** [Td 7s 8c] [5c]
FrankNagaiJr: checks
ll sLiNk ll: bets 400

FNJ - The turn was innocuous, I cannot believe he improved on it, unless he had 55 and hit his miracle. However, I'd like to figure out where he's at, and possibly get all of my chips in the middle if I'm still ahead.

FrankNagaiJr: raises 500 to 900
ll sLiNk ll: calls 500

FNJ - If he had been slow-playing ME, then I would have expected an all-in raise here, and I could have walked away with 900 in chips if I chose to fold. I liked his call, which says he's either very patient, or can't tell what I've got.

*** RIVER *** [Td 7s 8c 5c] [4c]

FNJ - Another innocuous card. There are now 2125 chips in the pot, so if he's got a pair, it's an almost obligatory call. If I'm beat, I got what I deserved.

FrankNagaiJr: bets 765 and is all-in
ll sLiNk ll: calls 765
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FrankNagaiJr: shows [Ah Ac] (a pair of Aces)
ll sLiNk ll: shows [Ts Jd] (a pair of Tens)
FrankNagaiJr collected 3955 from pot
ll sLiNk ll said, "very nice play sir"
FrankNagaiJr said, "ty"
FrankNagaiJr said, "I was hoping you wouldn't two pair on me :-)"
ll sLiNk ll said, "i figured you were slowokayin me"
FrankNagaiJr said, "guilty as charged"