Won my biggest poker pot ever!

A

alwayssplitaces

Well-Known Member
#1
#1
I was playing 1/2 NL this evening. Bought in for $150 and sat for hours winning and losing some. I doubled up going all-in one hand to get about $400, then covered an all-in to increase my stack to about $700. It was a loose, wild game with a standard opening raise between $15 and $25 and frequent all-ins with marginal hands and lots of blind raises (like a straddle except without the option to raise if checked to).

So, here's the big hand, I get pocket aces in mid position and raise $25 preflop. My stack was a little over 700. Get 3 callers, and one person right before me reraises me to $75. I reraise to $150. I know that player was a donk who had gotten lucky 3 times to build up a big stack: (once bluffed $50 with Q-J with queen high, no pairs and no draws, hit a queen on the river. Then he had aces vs kings and went all in and won. Then he had A-Q and someone else had pocket queens. There was an A and Q on the flop, so both went all in. The river was an ace.)

The $25 limpers folded. The $75 raiser calls. Flop is A-J-4 offsuit. I get checked to, then bet $15 to slowplay my set, and get raised to $80. I figured he was bluffing and wanted to extract value from the bluff. I reraise to $160, low enough to not discourage a call. To my surprise, he pushed all in, and I snap-called the all-in. Turn is a 6 and river is the last ace. He flipped over pocket jacks and I flipped over my quad aces and won the $1100+ pot! I only bought in for $150 and so I made about $1300 in one night of poker! I was hoping the bad beat jackpot would hit, I was one jack away from hitting it (one of the players said that they had that jack and folded it preflop).

Karma must have rewarded me for my charity last week with this huge pot! Last Saturday I did a Relay For Life event, and a neighborhood cleanup both in the same day and was exhausted at the end of the day. Variance was definitely on my side today. I was lucky to be in the hand with a donk who couldn't realize he was beat considering all the raising. Another player at the table said after the hand that he knew I had aces at the flop. I like how I trapped him in the hand, forcing him to push all in because he had so much already invested in the pot.

This is definitely more exciting to me than winning 5 max bets in a row in blackjack, probably because I've been playing blackjack so long I don't feel any emotions about each hand. The table was happy for me to bust out the lucky donk who sucked out on 3 people. I had to get 3 chip racks to hold my money. And it was nice for once to have casino security escort me to my car after a big win, instead of being kicked out by security.
 
S

Sucker

Well-Known Member
#4
#4
alwayssplitaces said:
I was lucky to be in the hand with a donk who couldn't realize he was beat considering all the raising.
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And I suppose that YOU would have FOLDED a set of jacks on the flop??? Fact is; the guy played his hand PERFECTLY, and got very unlucky. That's poker!

Very nice win, and something to gloat about; of course. But don't make the mistake of thinking that YOU skillfully tricked him out of his money, or that YOU did anything to cause this; other than just being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.
 
B

blackjacktilt

Well-Known Member
#5
#5
Sucker said:
And I suppose that YOU would have FOLDED a set of jacks on the flop??? Fact is; the guy played his hand PERFECTLY, and got very unlucky. That's poker!

Very nice win, and something to gloat about; of course. But don't make the mistake of thinking that YOU skillfully tricked him out of his money, or that YOU did anything to cause this; other than just being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.
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Yeah, good hand but I don't know many who would fold middle set.
Bottom set... maybe if you know the player.
Congrats on the win.
 
1

1357111317

Well-Known Member
#7
#7
tedsuxs said:
You played the hand terrible , I would call the 15$ and check fold the turn if I miss quads
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What ted said. The only way you could have made it more obvious you had aces would be to flip your hand over. You are lucky you hit your ace because any half decent player is going to check fold the flop if he misses his set.
 
I

itrack

Well-Known Member
#8
#8
and get raised to $80. I figured he was bluffing and wanted to extract value from the bluff. I reraise to $160
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I don't know a lot about poker,but this logic just does not make sense to me. :laugh: If you did think he was bluffing, wouldn't you want to just call and let him bluff at you again after the turn?
 
N

NightStalker

Well-Known Member
#9
#9
I've lost with pocket jacks many times

alwayssplitaces said:
I was playing 1/2 NL this evening. Bought in for $150 and sat for hours winning and losing some. I doubled up going all-in one hand to get about $400, then covered an all-in to increase my stack to about $700. It was a loose, wild game with a standard opening raise between $15 and $25 and frequent all-ins with marginal hands and lots of blind raises (like a straddle except without the option to raise if checked to).

So, here's the big hand, I get pocket aces in mid position and raise $25 preflop. My stack was a little over 700. Get 3 callers, and one person right before me reraises me to $75. I reraise to $150. I know that player was a donk who had gotten lucky 3 times to build up a big stack: (once bluffed $50 with Q-J with queen high, no pairs and no draws, hit a queen on the river. Then he had aces vs kings and went all in and won. Then he had A-Q and someone else had pocket queens. There was an A and Q on the flop, so both went all in. The river was an ace.)

The $25 limpers folded. The $75 raiser calls. Flop is A-J-4 offsuit. I get checked to, then bet $15 to slowplay my set, and get raised to $80. I figured he was bluffing and wanted to extract value from the bluff. I reraise to $160, low enough to not discourage a call. To my surprise, he pushed all in, and I snap-called the all-in. Turn is a 6 and river is the last ace. He flipped over pocket jacks and I flipped over my quad aces and won the $1100+ pot! I only bought in for $150 and so I made about $1300 in one night of poker! I was hoping the bad beat jackpot would hit, I was one jack away from hitting it (one of the players said that they had that jack and folded it preflop).

Karma must have rewarded me for my charity last week with this huge pot! Last Saturday I did a Relay For Life event, and a neighborhood cleanup both in the same day and was exhausted at the end of the day. Variance was definitely on my side today. I was lucky to be in the hand with a donk who couldn't realize he was beat considering all the raising. Another player at the table said after the hand that he knew I had aces at the flop. I like how I trapped him in the hand, forcing him to push all in because he had so much already invested in the pot.

This is definitely more exciting to me than winning 5 max bets in a row in blackjack, probably because I've been playing blackjack so long I don't feel any emotions about each hand. The table was happy for me to bust out the lucky donk who sucked out on 3 people. I had to get 3 chip racks to hold my money. And it was nice for once to have casino security escort me to my car after a big win, instead of being kicked out by security.
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As you mentioned your image was of loose player. I would have pushed pre-flop only with my pocket jacks.
 
M

MangoJ

Well-Known Member
#10
#10
tedsuxs said:
You played the hand terrible , I would call the 15$ and check fold the turn if I miss quads
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Hero was the one betting $15, on a pot of $325.
I'm no expert in poker, but just betting $15 is poor play, you give your opponent odds of 23 which is quite generous and gives him pot odds to call (you don't want that) for flush or straight draw.
 
moo321

moo321

Well-Known Member
#11
#11
MangoJ said:
Hero was the one betting $15, on a pot of $325.
I'm no expert in poker, but just betting $15 is poor play, you give your opponent odds of 23 which is quite generous and gives him pot odds to call (you don't want that) for flush or straight draw.
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The only reason for it is to MAKE him come back over the top.

I think it's best to bet more. Charge them for draws, even if they're dead.
 
R

RG1

Active Member
#12
#12
moo321 said:
The only reason for it is to MAKE him come back over the top.

I think it's best to bet more. Charge them for draws, even if they're dead.
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The draws aren't dead.

Opponent's range, assuming he's a normal not good player, is probably 88+, Suited Aces, and most broadway.

A somewhat likely hand in KQ is getting 26 to 1 odds for an 11 to 1 draw. The same with a less likely KT or QT. Likely hands like KK, QQ and TT are even getting odds to chase runner/runner straights. Expressed odds without even thinking about implied odds. And none of them are reraising. You should bet $100-$300 against this range.

Hands like AT suited are getting odds to chase runner/runner flushes if they flopped a 3 flush. You should bet around $200 against suited A's.

JJ is getting the implied odds to call even if they know he has three AA's. But they are at least calling everything.

The only hands it might make sense to bet $15 against are the truely dead ones which are probably 99 and 88. They will probably call $15 to try to hit a set and then you will break them.

The point is, you should bet about 1/2 the pot to look like a continuation bet at a loose table.

But I'm happy you won.
 
A

alwayssplitaces

Well-Known Member
#13
#13
The player was the type who would check-raise often, even if it was a bluff. He would almost always try to steal the blinds if he's on the button and everyone folded to him. He was what you'd call a maniac, always inciting aggression but folding under pressure. He either folded to a large c-bet before him, check-raised if faced with a small c-bet, or made a large bluff. As I observed earlier, he would fold to a $50 c-bet no matter the pot size if he didn't have a hand. So my $15 bet was the bait to get him to bluff, hiding the strength of my hand. I pretty much knew he was going to bluff to take a shot at the pot, so I just let him bet for me. I expected him to just call my reraise since the pot was so big and then fold on later bets if he didn't hit anything on the turn. When he pushed, I put him on a strong hand like a set or 2 pairs, and I had flopped the nuts so it was an easy call. If his 2 pair became a boat at the river, I'd have a bigger full house. And if his set became quads, oh well, just another case of a donk getting lucky.

The player saw about half the flops. He built his stack by bluffing often and winning small pots when people folded, and simply getting lucky when someone called his bluff and when he wasn't bluffing, hitting a 2 outer on the river. I had the image of a tight player at this loose table, so a big bet by me would signify that I had a hand.

I realize it was mostly luck that I got aces and he got jacks, but it felt nice to turn the tables on someone who had been getting lucky all night.

I'll also mention that I seemed to attract pocket queens all night, getting them 7 times in 4 hours. My only other pocket pair was pocket deuces which flopped a set. So maybe he thought I just had pocket queens again.

And I really did ask for a security escort ever since I saw a beggar roaming around the parking lot late at night at that casino. I had way more in my pocket than just the poker winnings.
 
B

blackjacktilt

Well-Known Member
#14
#14
alwayssplitaces said:
The player was the type who would check-raise often, even if it was a bluff. He would almost always try to steal the blinds if he's on the button and everyone folded to him. He was what you'd call a maniac, always inciting aggression but folding under pressure. He either folded to a large c-bet before him, check-raised if faced with a small c-bet, or made a large bluff. As I observed earlier, he would fold to a $50 c-bet no matter the pot size if he didn't have a hand. So my $15 bet was the bait to get him to bluff, hiding the strength of my hand. I pretty much knew he was going to bluff to take a shot at the pot, so I just let him bet for me. I expected him to just call my reraise since the pot was so big and then fold on later bets if he didn't hit anything on the turn. When he pushed, I put him on a strong hand like a set or 2 pairs, and I had flopped the nuts so it was an easy call. If his 2 pair became a boat at the river, I'd have a bigger full house. And if his set became quads, oh well, just another case of a donk getting lucky.

The player saw about half the flops. He built his stack by bluffing often and winning small pots when people folded, and simply getting lucky when someone called his bluff and when he wasn't bluffing, hitting a 2 outer on the river. I had the image of a tight player at this loose table, so a big bet by me would signify that I had a hand.

I realize it was mostly luck that I got aces and he got jacks, but it felt nice to turn the tables on someone who had been getting lucky all night.

I'll also mention that I seemed to attract pocket queens all night, getting them 7 times in 4 hours. My only other pocket pair was pocket deuces which flopped a set. So maybe he thought I just had pocket queens again.

And I really did ask for a security escort ever since I saw a beggar roaming around the parking lot late at night at that casino. I had way more in my pocket than just the poker winnings.
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No need to explain your play for anyone. You're always going to learn from the game.
 
A

alwayssplitaces

Well-Known Member
#16
#16
Thunder said:
Damn, I wish I could have tables like that in AC. The last several tables I've had they've all been tightwads!
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Try the Borgata. There are always drunk, loose players there.

Or follow the bad beat jackpot and play where it's highest. People like to gamble for the bad beat, so they'll play hands they shouldn't play for far too long. And if the bad beat actually does hit for your table, it's great for you. Last year when the Taj Mahal's bad beat was at record levels, it was a donkfest at 1/2 NL 24/7. There was a long list for every game, and people played for over a day straight trying to hit it. Lots of tired and drunk people.

Just remember beer goggles makes people of the opposite sex and poker hands look better than they are.
 
T

Thunder

Well-Known Member
#17
#17
Weird. Every time I've played 1/2NL recently at the Borgata, I've run into really good tables where the majority of them gave you little action. If you don't mind me asking, when and what time were you playing?
 
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