What Would You Do? - Part II

Thanks to everyone who responded to my question in the blog comments and those who responded on Twitter (Iron Mike Sharpe, Jim Hathaway and Jason Simon) to my tweet announcing the post

On my five night trip to Las Vegas, I played many hands of poker. So many, in fact, that quasi-professional VP button masher Pete P Peters texted me while in Las Vegas and chided me about the amount of poker I was playing this trip. Well ... he was generally correct. I love playing poker live and, at home, have to drive at 90 miles to get to the nearest legal poker room and more like 120 miles to get to a decent one. With this in mind, I try to get in as much bang for the buck as I can while in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, my memory isn't great and I rarely write down hand details. However, theses two hand stood out for a few reasons.

I generally feel pretty confident in my decisions, but in both cases, I had just entered into the game and, frankly, was probably not prepared to be making big decisions about my stack yet. The games were in Planet Hollywood, where I usually win. However, I seldom feel really comfortable in that poker room for some reason.

Anyway, here is what I was thinking and what I did.

#1
I bought into a $1/$2 NL game with $200. I often buy in for that amount while I am sizing up the table. Most people at the table have apparently been there for some time of have stacks around $500. The table captain is a somewhat large man with an accent that sound Jamaican to me. I had played at the same table with him at for a short time at Bally's in the past 24 hours. He was aggressive and a tad cocky. In the first orbit or two he had raised several times and blown people off hands. My thought was to trap him the first chance I got.

That chance came pretty quickly. I was in early position and looked down at A-Qos. I decided limp in to hide the strength of my hand. The villain, as expected, raised to $15. Everyone else folded, and I called. The flop provided a dry board of rag-Ace-rag. I decided to check. The villain then bet $30 - about a pot-sized bet. What would you do?

I usually am able to not let players get under my skin, but this villain did, for some reason. Something about his cockiness from the earlier time he played at my table and hearing his b.s. again just made me want to stick him good -- either felt him or make him back down. I can't really explain it -- maybe just the old competitive juices flowing from my younger days of playing sports. Looking back, I probably should have just called his $30 flop bet and then maybe looked to check raise all in after he bet after the turn. Instead, I monkey shoved my stack all in after his $30 post-flop bet. He thought for a short time and then called.

So ... what do you think he had and how did the hand turn out?

#2
The two villains that are important to this hand are on the button and in early position. They each had stacks bigger than mine - maybe $400-$500.I was in late position with my customary $200 initial buy in. I lost a hand in my first orbit when I looked down to see the The Dreaded Pocket Kings! I raised to $15 and got two callers. The flop brought, of course, u see, an Ace. I placed a continuation bet . One player folded. The other called. I ended up losing about $40 to a villain who had A-J. Unfortunate. A few hands later, I was dealt A-Qos. The guy who beat me with A-J earlier raised to $15. I called. The button also called. Approximately $47 in the pot.The flop was rag-Q-rag with two spades. I either had one or no spades. I bet $25 and was called by the button. The guy who earlier had A-J raised to $60. What would you do?

In this hand, I felt like I was trapped. I had $135 left and the pot was already $157. I was feeling pretty confident that I was ahead of the initial raiser who had  re-raised me after my flop bet. I had no idea what the button might have had. If either had a spade draw, I wasn't going to play the hand like a wuss and have to make a decision after the turn in case a spade came. I wish I had isolated one player and didn't like it that there were two players in the hand. Using this information and then factoring in that this was likely my last poker session of the trip (and I was up for the trip, u see), I once again decided to monkey shove my remaining stack -- $135. The button thought for a short time and called. The player in early position waited a few seconds and announced that he was all in. The button tanked for a few minutes and then called.

So ... what do you think the initial raiser had? How about the button? And -- how did the hand turn out?

I'll give a day or so for responses (I'm heading to Chicago for a funeral Wednesday morning) before I let you know the results of these hands.

Thanks for reading!