An Almost Awesome Bluff

Last night was a lot of fun and I had the pleasure of playing at one of the more interesting tables I've encountered in the last several months. My buddy Ben and I went to Ceasar's at 5pm to play in the PLO tourney. We were both knocked out fairly early so I ended up playing 2-5 No Limit. The game was reasonably tough when I sat down with a few decent players, so I played tight the first hour or so to get my bearings. Around that time people started leaving and the fabric of the game changed dramtically. It got softer by the hour. We had a visit from some famous basketball player (wasted on me) and I ran into three old friends. I cashed out up $1100 so it was a good night overall. I'd like to share one really interesting hand that I watched:

I wasn't able to get the names of the two players involved (I'll do better next time), so we'll just call them Small Blind Boy and Button Man.

The table folded around to Button Man who limped in. Small Blind Boy put in a decent size raise, I think he made it $40 to go. The big blind mucked and Button Man called. The flop came down Q 9 7 rainbow. Small Blind Boy bet out $100. Button Man thought about it for a moment and then called. The turn came another queen. At this point, I was putting Small Blind Boy on something like AK or AJ and figured that he had made a continuation bet on the flop. I didn't see how he could continue bluffing at it at this point, so I wasn't surprised to see him check. Button Man was evidentaly waiting for this as he promptly bet $250. I should note here, that I didn't put Button Man on a Queen at this point, as I think he would have slowplayed the turn with no draws on board and hoped that Small Blind Boy hit something on the river. I wasn't sure exactly what Button Man might have but I was almost certain he didn't have a Queen. Apparently Small Blind Boy must have been thinking the same thing becasue he called for time to contemplate his options. Finally, after looking like he was going to muck, he moved all in. I was surprised and so was Button Man as he let out an involuntary cry of "Man...I know you have the queen." He finished this thought with, "but I have to call you now." With this exclamation, Button Man put his remaining chips (only about $180) into the pot. Now, before you go any further, care to speculate on what both of them had?

I doubt you guessed it. Small Blind Boy turned over a J 5 offsuit for a whopping jack high. And...believe it or not...he was the dominant favorite in the pot at that point! Button Man flipped over a 6 8...he had flopped the open ended straight draw. The river was suitably dramatic as a 6 came off giving Button Man the pot.

I was super impressed with the read and the chutzpah of Small Blind Boy in attempting to steal the pot on the turn with a check raise holding Jack high. And it would have worked...if only Button Man had had more chips. As it happened, it was a great reminder that you always need to have your opponents stack in mind when you bet. Pushing all in when his opponent was pot comitted turned Small Blind Boy's brilliant read into a donkey play. He admitted that he didn't put Button Boy on an 8 high, he just felt that he didn't have a Queen and, as such, he might be able to push him off of his hand. I think he would have succeeded, but he neglected to notice that Button Man was almost out of chips.