Poker Plays with PokerPeaker - Bet Your Monsters
Aug 19, 2008By: PokerPeaker THE SITUATION -
I am playing Pineapple with friends in a home game. I like to play this game on Ultimate Bet occasionally as well.
Pineapple is just like Hold 'Em, except you are dealt three cards in the beginning. You discard one before the flop.
I'm dealt K♦ - K♥ - 7♣.
So what do you think I pitched?
That's right. The K♦.
No, I'm just kidding. I pitched the 7, of course.
We are playing .10/.20, so I raise to $1. I would prefer to play my big pair heads up, and this is a home game, so I need to raise a pretty significant amount, as the beer's been flowing for a while.
I get two callers.
OK, fine.
The flop comes 6♣ - 8♠ - K♠.
Sweet.
I bet nearly the pot.
WHY?
Well, for two reasons. One is I'm trying to hide the strength of my hand. Obviously I love it here. But there haven't been a ton of pre-flop raises from me tonight, and so I know my raise put them on guard. If I just checked here, I think they'd be pretty suspicious.
But if I bet, I'm almost saying I have A-A here or maybe A-K. That's the hand I hope they put me on.
The second reason is easier. There are two spades out there, and in Pineapple, the chances are even higher that someone is on a good draw because of that third card, and so I want to make them pay for drawing against me.
Both call my pot-sized bet.
Interesting.
Both players are a little loose. In fact, one of the players is really loose. And it's a home game, so it's not like there's a ton of money on the line here, and both have been drinking.
So the call doesn't worry me as much as it normally would. Besides, I still have a really great hand here. So good, I welcome the call.
The turn brings the A♦. I think I'm still ahead. Nonetheless, I check.
WHY?
I decide that I'm going to go all the way with this hand. I have $5 left in my stack, this is the best hand I've seen all night, and if a third spade hits, so be it. I don't mind paying my friends off.
I believe I'm ahead because when I raised, I was not re-raised, and surely that would have happened if a player had A-A.
Given that, I decide to continue with my story that I've got A-K or A-A. That's what a check here means. It means, "please bet here, I just hit my monster."
I realize that all this second-level thinking might be lost on a couple of my drunk friends who play poker for fun, but I don't care.
The second player bets $2, and the third player calls. OK, fine, I'm just going to call here, with the full intention of shoving on the river regardless of what hits. The last player just calling these two bets worries me a bit, and I probably should just shove here, but I think that third player calls even if he only has a flush draw. He's that bad.
The river brings the 6♠.
Perfect. My slow-playing paid off. That card could have made that third player's flush, and yet it gives me a full house and the virtual nuts.
So I go all-in, as planned.
And both players call me.
Wow.
WHAT WAS THE RESULT?
OK, get this.
They both had a full house too.
The second player, the one who I believed had something all along, had a set of 8s, so that 6 boated him up.
And the third guy who I thought was on a draw was, sort of, and he hit it when that final 6 came down. He had A-6.
I scoop a huge pot.
WHAT LESSON CAN I LEARN FROM THIS?
Well, to be honest, I could have played this hand a number of ways and gotten paid off. But I think betting my monster here, even in the beginning, was the right thing to do because it was a little harder to put me on a hand.
One of the players remarked that, "I thought you had A-K or A-A because there's no way you'd bet top set there." He had a set of 8s anyway, so I was probably getting his stack regardless of what he thought, but I'm not positive I would have gotten all his chips had I checked there.
Plus I built a pot, which made my all-in river bet easier to call when we finally got there because it wasn't an over bet.
Sometimes betting is the most deceiving play when you have a monster, as more and more players understand slow-playing these days, especially online.
