Set Up City

I arrived too late to play in the London Pub Open at the Loose Cannon on Saturday afternoon, so instead settled in for a 10 your cash session on the upstairs table. The table only had blinds of £1/£2, but easily played the biggest in the house due to sizeable stack sizes, and a smattering of very aggressive players.

I finished the session £550 in profit (which of course means I’ll get hammered in my next game according to my “one step forward, one step back” strategy this year). One feature of the sitting, was a few real set up hands, where money is flying in on the flop, and the hands in question played themselves.

Hand1
I have £350 after a decent start, Dave Emery has £250, Baron has £150. Pre-flop action is multi limped, several calls including myself on the button with J♣2♣.

Flop is 3c4c9c (kerching!)

Checked round to Emery, who bets the pot of £12, I raise to £40 to prevent being drawn on by Ac/Kc/Qc. Baron check raise shoves for £150! Emery shoves for £250!

Sigh…I think Baron very likely has the bare Ace here given his stack size and the £70ish already in the pot. Emery doesn’t have the made Ace flush as he’d have flat called to get me in, but he could have a King or Queen flush if the deck was being completely cold. I decide I can’t fold, as there is too big a chance he has a lower flush than mine with suited connectors so I make the call.

Me: J♣2♣
Baron: Bare Ace of clubs
Emery: K♣Q♣

That’ll be me drawing dead then. Baron’s Ace scoops the main pot when a fourth club comes immediately.

Hand2
I have rebought and made some extra money since the last hand. I raise a a few limpers to £15 with QQ, and Baron and one other call.

Flop Q92

Baron bets out strong for £75. I shove for £300 total and Baron insta-calls. It’s set over set, as Baron has 99, and no miracle arrives for him. With our aggressive history, as soon as there is a set over set situation, all the money will go in, as middle/bottom set is so far ahead of what the other one could potentially be shoving with.

Other hands of note, include:

• bluffing off £300 to Tony Enigma on the turn when I thought he was worried about the Ace on the board when he checked twice, but in true cock up style he had a full house.
• winning another big hand against the Baron in Omaha - my 6678 getting a favourable board of 69Q. Baron had all the bigger straight draws but the ten, which gave me my small straight, wasn’t one of his outs.
• making a tough call against Devski, with a set of tens in holdem on an AKJT board. Dev bet big, so probably has a fairly polarised range here of Queen or nothing. Fortunately (and probably rarely) here, Dev had nothing.

Next week I will endeavour to play more tournaments, as I am aware I haven’t been dedicating enough time to them. Next up, is the Sporting Index Invitational on Wednesday.