I just couldn’t get a hand. It was the kind of outing where A-3 seemed very strong. When I did have decent hands, they weren’t working out. I had 6-6. The bet was raised, I called. The big blind pushed it another 3x. Everyone else called. I was getting 8-1 on my money, so I called too. The flop didn’t have a 6 so I folded. It was the right play, but that was a good 25% of my stack.
On my right was Klaus. Klaus is ignorant. He understand the order of hands, but he doesn’t know when the action is on him, doesn’t understand the blinds, bets under the minimum, etc. But Klaus is lucky, and near impossible to read (if he doesn’t know what he has, how can you figure it out?). In a 3-way showdown he had a straight and didn’t know it.
I have been very conservative all night. That’s easy when you aren’t getting good cards. It felt like it was time to bluff. With K-8, I raised big pre-flop. Klaus and one other stayed in. The flop was A-9-5. Both of them checked to me. I got a little subtle, and made a big show out of staring at the first player, as if trying to decide what he had. I was trying to represent that I had A with a small kicker and was scared he was checking with an A and a higher kicker. I checked. The turn was another A. They both checked to me, and I confidently went all-in. It felt like a perfect bluff. The good player folded. Klaus didn’t think hard before calling me. He flipped over… J-5. Jack Five! You’re calling me with J-5!!? What the hell are you doing? I was still seething when a gratuitous 5 came up on the river.
Now that is being Hellmuth’d. Getting Hellmuth’d isn’t getting bad cards. Getting Hellmuth’d isn’t getting a bad beat. Getting Hellmuth’d is when the other player is too stupid to play the hand correctly, and that someone screws you. He had no business in that hand. Bottom pair with a bad kicker, two other players in, one guy raises big then goes all-in, you’re not pot-committed, the table talk is telling you that the raiser is a good player who wins all the time… why on earth are you in that pot? Garggghh!!
Not to mention that my table rep has been wounded, by going all-in and having to show a naked bluff.
I rebought. And lost the next hand to give up 20% of it. Nyyyarrgghh!! Just not my night.
Or was it? First, Klaus goes nuts. In two successive hands, he knocks out three players. He mortally wounds a fourth on the next hand. That gets us to five people. I’m thinking might limp into third if I just stay out of his way.
Then my luck starts turning. I get playable hands.
And, I’m playing very aggressive when I do go in. No one sees cards for free.
And I’m bluffing. I stole the blinds with 3-5, did it again later with 8-3.
I climb back. Chips start flowing my way. Klaus loses a lot of chips – all five cards are out on the board, his opponent goes all-in, he calls with nothing. He had four hearts, he may have gotten confused and thought there was another card coming. I get my revenge when my all-in 9-9 holds up against his Q-5. Bye bye Klaus*, I’ve made the final three.
We are now down to three-handed. I have a slight chip lead. I’ve pushed all-in six hands in a row. As dealer with K-9, I should play the hand, but I have to sit one out. It’s mentally fatiguing to be involved in that many hands.
It’s a long slog, but 30 minutes later I have a significant chip lead. We up the blinds, and I continue to push-push-push. I suddenly realize I’m going to win this thing. I now have 26K in chips, there are 32.5K in play.
I go all-in with K-J and get called by A-x. The flop is A-10-x. I am behind, but the queen comes up and the straight knocks him out. Second place!
The next hand I go all in with J-10, I’m called by K-x. The flop is K-9-x. Again I get my queen and the straight knocks him out. First place baby!
This was a big win for me. It’s the first time I’ve rebought in months, the first time a naked bluff has been exposed in months, the first time I was playing from behind, and I somehow pulled it out. The chatter is a huge ego-boost, they seem to accept that I’ll get first place most weeks. I’m starting to believe my own hype also. This is an amazing streak.
Tonight: $90
Running Total: $418
*Klaus is not his real name. He’s a nice guy and will probably be a good player when he gets through paying his dues. I intend to be his dues in the meantime.
I am 100% positive that Klaus did not know I was bluffing. I say that because no one else at the table has a read on me, and if the regulars can’t tell, there’s no way that he can. Nor did he seem happy when he saw my cards or even seem to understand whether he had made a good play or not.
He may have suspected, but it’s hard to believe that I was giving anything away.
Have you thought of the possibility that Klaus knew you were bluffing and called you with a low pair? Not that I play much, but when I play in poker rooms where I don’t know anyone, I’m pretty much don’t play that much as people who play in poker rooms, but I do know how to play, so when I sit at a table, I purposely act like I’m more foolish than I really am, and that weak table image actually helps me. And I always talk about how lucky I am when win…
To your first point, you seem to be agreeing that I got Hellmuth’d but shouldn’t be surprised because I should have known the guy was an idiot. So yeah, i got Hellmuth’d.
To your second point, I perhaps should have bet after the flop. In hindsight that seems obvious. But I think that is very likely how I would have played A-x. And the good player confirmed for me afterwards he read the hand exactly how I wanted him to.
Look, it’s a naked bluff. You’re right, the only thing I can beat is another bluff. It’s a gamble. But I expect someone to call my bluff only if they have something. That’s the point of the bluff, to make it so expensive for them to call that only in the unlikely case of having premium hands is it worth it. If you have a 9 or a 5, you would be foolish to call an all-in bet. In fact, you had no right to call the pre-flop raise, you shouldn’t even be in the hand with a 9 or a 5 unless you have a pair of them or an Ace to go with it.
BTW, one other thing I liked about the turn… the only hand I was afraid of was A-x – that they had caught the pair on the flop. By the time it was my bet on the turn, both of them had checked twice, and now there were only two other aces in the deck instead of three.
I dunno. I still think it was a stupid call by Klaus, and I’m not sure that anything would have changed the way he played it, but it’s hard to say. Maybe I should have fired the post-flop bullet.
I don’t agree that you got Hellmuth’d on that hand, necessarily. No, he should not have been in that hand to begin with (calling a pre-flop raise with J-5??), and NO, he should never have called an all-in either. However, there are a couple of things wrong with this hand that I can see.
#1. You bet all-in on a guy who doesn’t know how to play. You are just *asking* for trouble there. Unless you did not know “Klaus” at all and this was the first hand you had seen him play, then I would never have done that with the way he was playing. Didn’t know he had a straight, you say? No way am I putting in all my money against a guy who might fold a full house or call with nothing (like he ended up doing!).
#2. No matter who you are playing, I don’t like that play. The only thing you beat is a bluff, and you’re putting all your money on that bet that no one calls you because of a turn-all-in? Let’s say I had a 9 in my hand, so I’ve got 2nd pair. But you check the flop, which I never would have done if I had a baby-Ace (or was pretending to)…you’ve just got to bet a little on that at least to see what the other guy does. But then you go from checking the flop to betting all-in on the turn, implying that you have an Ace, right? That kind of bet actually telegraphs that you actually have nothing. You wouldn’t bet all in with a 9, in case someone was slow playing. And you certainly wouldn’t go all in with a 5. Only someone who is bluffing would make the bet that you did on the turn after checking the flop. At least that’s how I would have read that. I totally see what you were trying to do, but I just think that it is just too much to risk all of your chips here on a bluff.
It just seems like you got a little too fancy and overplayed this hand a bit — you know the first rule of tells is that *strength* implies *weakness* and vice versa, right? And yet you “made a big show out of staring at the first player”? Hmm…right there, I’m thinking bluff and that’s before you even started betting.
I’m glad you won, but think there were too many ways to read that you had nothing on that hand, and if you take Klaus out of it, then you’re lucky the other guy who saw the flop didn’t have an Ace, 9, or a 5 also.