Getting a kicking from AQ

One of my drinking buddies from my youth was a guy known as “Hard Man Dennis”. An interesting night was normally in store, in and around Watford/London, with Dennis in tow. He was an intimidating presence to have in your drinking group, but invariably any trouble he got you out of, was trouble he had instigated in the first place.

If Dennis was a poker player, he’d never fold. If he raised with AQ and someone went over the top, he’d be all in irrespective of the odds.

Flash back to New Year’s Eve 1997, and Hard Man Dennis is seething. Myself, Dennis and Big Nick are stumbling around at 2am after a night out in Fulham, and Dennis is mentally unstable on 3 fronts. He’s drunk, his subtle attempts at pulling the ladies have come up dry and on top of that, he realises that “some f*cker” has stolen his jacket.

There are 3 skinheads standing next to a bus on the other side of the road and, before I can stop him, Dennis has started the verbals. (Dennis raises the pot
with AQ)

Suddenly, the bus pulls away revealing…another 8-10 skinheads. Nice one Dennis. They start to cross the road. (Skinheads re-raise with AA)

Surely it’s time to do a runner here, but the fold button in Dennis’ brain doesn’t exist, so he bellows and goes into full war mode (Hard Man Dennis is all-in)

Dennis goes into a frenzy, but we are obviously outnumbered and soon my head is getting pounded from side to side. We are backed into a wall and reverse through a small opening into somebody’s front garden. I bizarrely remember the arch to the garden doorway being tastefully decked with holly around the trellis, and make a mental note to perhaps put that up at the house.

We think we are safe from the onslaught, but Team Skinhead go single file and march through the opening like a well oiled machine. They reform the umbrella formation to continue administering our kicking, but thankfully leave us in a heap without causing any permanent damage.

It was a joy to wake up on 1st January, and have my pillow stuck to the side of my face with blood, and with 2 loose front teeth to boot. I could tell it was going to be a great 1998. Hard Man Dennis decided that morning to join the army to curb his aggression. That idea lasted about 12 hours until the booze wore off. He is now a fully qualified solicitor :) .

Anyhow, I think AQ cost me a fortune in chips in the City 100 last night, and half the time I didn’t see a flop. It’s one of those hands that has to be played, but it can’t stand too much heat. Only 25 runners - I played pretty well and placed 7th, which was a pain when they only paid down to 5. I will keep an ” AQ body count ” as I go through the tournament so I can see how much the cursed hand cost me.

4500 starting stack, 25 minute clock, 25 runners.

I start steadily and inch up to 5000 by the end of level 1, but then loose a few speculative hands and am down to about 4000.

Hand1
Blinds are 50/100, late position raiser to 500 (very aggressive player, almost bordering on being a maniac). I flat call with 99 in the big blind. Sonny and Bo both call their early position limps.

Flop Q, 9, 4

I check, because I know maniac will bet. Sure enough he fires 750 into the 2050 pot. I think the pot is big enough here for me to check-raise all in for 3000 more, as there are flush and straight draws out there. Everyone folds.

Hand2
I raise 300 with AQ . I get 2 callers.

Flop 10, 8, 5

I bet 500, and am called.

I give up on the hand (body count 800 chips)

Hand3
One big blind of 200 following an elimination. I raise with K♦9♦ in mid position, but just to 400. I want to make my hand look huge, and since there is no small blind, there is little point raising to 600 only to get re-raised and have to lay down.

Sonny and Bo call, as does the BB.

Flop Q, 5, 5

I bet 1100 and take the pot down

Hand4
Bo raises to 600 in early position. I call in the BB with 77.

Flop 6, 3, 3

I check, Bo bets 1000, I raise to 2500 and Bo passes. Not sure what I do if he puts me in there as I am pretty pot committed, but would have clearly been drawing to 2 outs.

Hand5
3 limpers, I raise to 1100 with JJ. The only limper to call is Sir Mike Conway.

Flop A, K, 4

Now this flop is a problem for JJ against most players, but against Mike it is a total disaster, because he tends to play big cards only if he is in a raised pot.

Check, Check. I know I need a Jack on the turn or I am done, and it doesn’t come so I fold to Mike’s bet. I’d put him on a AJ/KQ type hand here I think.

Hand6
Sonny asked me not to disclose details of this hand, but my duty is to entertain the troops so here it comes…

Sonny raises to 600 UTG. Called by maniac down the far end. Tom re-raises from the BB to 2100. Sonny calls as does maniac

Flop: K♠ 6♦ 3♠

Check, Check, Maniac goes all in for about 4k.
Tom calls his last 3k.
Sonny calls the 4k which is about half his stack.

Tom: Set of Kings
Maniac: 6♠8♠
Sonny:…7♠2♠ :)

“Red, Red” urges Tom, and sure enough out pops a heart and a diamond and Tom takes down a 15k pot.

When I do the Christmas awards, this hand is likely to make the 10 best hands of the year :)

Hand7
Blinds 200-400

I raise to 1100 with AQ. One caller and then maniac (who has rebuilt his stack) raises to 3500. If no-one else is behind I push here, but I have to pass. (Body
count now 1900 chips)

Hand8
I find AK UTG and raise to 1100. Maniac calls.

Flop K, 10, 4 with 2 clubs

I bet 1800 and Maniac pushes for 4k (finally I’ve got him).

I call (as my hand is good here against such an aggressive player 99% of the time) and he has J10 and doesn’t suck out.

Final Table

Hand9
Sonny limps for 400, Tom makes it 1600. I call with QQ in mid position. Sonny calls

Flop K, K, 4

Tom leads for 1600 which is a kind of weird bet, so I decide to re-raise to 3800 and be pretty much done with the hand if I get anyone pushing back at me (as I still have about 9k left). Tom gets a count, but folds JJ.

There is one huge stack of about 35k in seat 1 (I am in seat 10). I haven’t seen him play, so I am unsure at the moment if he is lucky or a strong player.

Hand10
Blind 300-600

One limper, I raise to 2k with AQ. Monster stack re-raises to 12k! Having since played with this guy for a while, I reckon there was a decent chance he had AJ, A10 here, so I should have taken my chances, but I pass. (Body count 3900
chips)

Hand10
I raise to 1600 with AQ and monster stack calls.

Flop 3, 5, 9

I continuation bet 2500 and monster stack pushes all in. :( Fold. (Body count
8000 chips)

I then lose about 4k defending my big blind and bluffing, when the original raiser doesn’t seem to want the pot.

So I’m down to 8k and the blinds rise to 400-800. I get pocket 9s in early position. Now, there are not a lot of flops I am going to like with my reasonably strong hole cards, so I decide to push, as at least the blinds will buy me a little time. However, monster stack (who else) pushes over the top of me and he has AK. Ace on the flop, goodnight Irene.

I’m pretty pleased with the way I played - I only had one showdown (apart from the end) and my money went in good most of the time, so hopefully a good result is just around the corner.

The cash games were pretty thin tonight - I made £70 on the Omaha and lost about £20 on the Holdem.

It’s the League tonight. If I get AQ tonight, I’ll either limp, or put all my chips on the line adopting the Hard Man Dennis mentality!