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- 31 May 2006
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I know its a matter of how you play them but sometimes the beats are pretty painful.
I had pocket kings on the button - everyone folded before me so I decided to slow play them and just call because I wanted action and didn't want to scare the big blind out of the pot. (blinds were high and small blind folded, big blind checked of course).
Flop came 4 10 8 rainbow - a small bet came in - put it as possible straight draw - or maybe they've paired one of the cards and are testing to see if I come back at them - I checked to represent a weak hand. Turn came out a Jack - got a bigger bet back - size of the pot - either backing their pair from the flop more confidently due to my check or possibly paired the jack - either way no challenge for the kings. Still no paint - possible straight but unlikely I thought, so I checked again thinking they were happily digging their own grave on top pair while putting me on A high. River came in another 4. So now there's two 4's and a jack. And their hand of course was ... J-4 giving them a boat. I guess the lesson is you've got to be careful with the big blind because their hand is always a bit of a wildcard.
I know I should have heavily raised on the flop and cut it off but I wanted to extract as much as I could out of them. Should not be so greedy in future. But whats the odds on someone starting with J-4 against pocket kings flopping a boat by the river - has to be slim.
You do see these sorts of bad beats in live play as well though.
Anyway - lesson learned - defend the pair and take the small win if you can and at least you'll get paid the right odds if they call your large bet.
If I'd bet pre-flop all I would have won were the blinds - it would have pushed them out (though they might have thought I was trying to buy the blinds and put in a one re-raise I suppose). Raising heavily post flop would likely have cut it off because all they had was a pair of 4's on the flop. But a weaker pair is exactly what I put them on - never expecting their weak pair would improve to trips and they would also pair their other hole card to get the boat.
Its always interesting how the cards fall anyway ... frustrating as it can be sometimes. I guess the other lessson is to always expect the unexpected but if you were always second guessing the most freakish possible outcome you'd fold every hand.
