So I'm at Commerce today struggling to get through a session. One of the problems of playing poker for a living is that if you're sick, you simply don't get paid that day, or worse, you try to go play and make yourself sicker and spend time dickering around in a game that's pretty good but really isn't all that profitable given that you can't even read the board (in my post in hand today I donked a 753 flop with 62o because I thought I was open ended. Really Jesse? Really? I also played this gem which may or may not have been awful). So anyway I get moved into the main game like 90 minutes in and like 4 or 5 people limp in and the action is on me in the big blind and we have one of those "hurry up and check" dealers and I look at my hand and consider a raise but he's dragging the chips in and burning the card and meh I don't really need to raise A6 of spades here so whatever I check.....
Ah 7s 4s
And proceed to flop the joint. The sb checks and I bet right away. There is a fold and a guy raises which makes me kind of sad because I wanted like 3 people to call then a raise to happen but whatever. Everyone else folds and I 3-bet because he doesn't have a good ace (he'd have raised most of them preflop) and he doesn't have a set or 2 pair cause he'd never fast play those with 4 people left to act behind him so he's basically got a straight draw or a flush draw or something and I have him drawing stone ass dead already and there's no need to wait til the turn for my equity to spike because it already has. He 4 bets, and Jesse's Theory of the Free Card comes into play. The theory states, plainly, that for every opponent there is a number N whereby the Nth bet is always for a free card. The theory started out as "The 6 bet is always for a free card" but that version, while correct, was imperfect as it failed to describe the large class of opponents for whom a 5 bet or even 4 bet is always for a free card. Seeing as my opponent is trying to free card me I 5-bet him and he just calls declaring "I give up!". The turn is fine:
Ah 7s 4s - Kc
In that there is basically zero chance it changed who is winning the hand and since I've already concluded that that someone is me I am still pleased with the situation and bet. He calls.
Ah 7s 4s - Kc - 5c
That card, on the other hand, could change things. Remember my postulate that he was free-carding me on some sort of dumb-ass draw. The dumbest of dumb ass draws is the "two pair draw that looks like it has a straight draw also but really doesn't" and the 5 there really just filled in that portion of his range. So I check, he checks and declares "two pair" and I cringe. I table my hand (it is my turn) and he shows 75dd. Take Jesse's Theory of the Free Card to heart my friends, it's very seldom wrong.
3 comments:
If Commerce is L.A.'s friendliest, I'd hate to see what the other casinos are like.
With casinos like these, who needs enemies?
Dude gives you a gift of a whole big bet on the river and you're complaining about him. How's that for gratitude?
Yeah not to mention the 2 he gave me on the flop. I have to give him credit though, his free card play did sort of work. He had to pay 5 bets and wait two streets until he had already outdrawn me, but I did eventually check to him. He really showed me a thing or two.
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