Talk Too Much...

Tampa 2/5 I sat with $100 and four rebuys ready. I folded every hand and topped up to 100 after my BB and SB. On the button I got AT and it was raised to 15 and I called, flopped two pair, and raised AI and won against AK, getting to 240. I was never down.

So I had an interesting situation come up. Preceding the interesting hand I had AK and with one limper in early I raised to 20. The guy in the 10-seat was a soldier who was a pretty basic player. He min-raised to 40 and I immediately think aces. Then the limper flats him and I went into the tank. The limper was the guy who I won my first hand against when he had AK and he had me covered (I had about 350) while Army guy had just over 100 before his min-raise. I tanked and seriously considered folding. I actually almost said all-in and caught myself since I was covered by a limp-caller who probably had a pair and the best I can do is “isolate” myself against a guy who might have aces. But I didn’t fold and called 20 more. Flop came 9-high and the 10-seat led AI and the limper flatted, which I thought was an extremely strong call given the min-raise-lead and the fact I was the initial raiser and had a lot of chips. I folded. Ten seat had aces and the limper had 9s for a flopped set.

So a little later the ten seat asked me something about “saving you money.” Ironically I had thought after 30 minutes at the table that everyone talked too much – about their hands and why they played it a certain way, and talking shit. Several of guys smack-talked as bad as you, but they sucked. One guy made a comment about “small loans with a high interest rate” after losing a pot. Another after getting caught for like the third time said “advertising, just advertising.” You know, as if you can advertise while announcing that’s what you’re doing. But despite that I answered him and said actually the other guy’s call probably saved me money, and that I almost folded pre-flop when he min-raised.

So a half hour later I pick up queens and I have about 400. I raised and got called by two people including another big stack who had me slightly covered. He had been a big stack when I showed up at the table and in the entire time I was there I hadn’t seen one piece of evidence to suggest he was something other than lucky. He was the guy who made the “small loans” comment, plenty of jewelry, very full of himself. Flop came 6-high with two hearts. I bet 50 and Small Loans raised to 100, the other caller folded. Small Loans was in the 9-seat, right next to the guy who asked me about the earlier hand and I was sure he heard me say I almost folded. I was also fairly sure I had way the best hand – I put him either on a flush-draw or a set since he flatted pre-flop and let someone else come along with his call. Would he min-raise a set? Some people certainly will do that but I had a feeling he heard what I said earlier and thought a min-raise would scare me off.

I moved in and he tanked, which I didn’t expect (on that board he had a set or flush draw with two overs which he insta-calls, or air which shouldn't take long to fold). I actually had difficulty not swallowing hard – for some reason that happened to me several times this weekend. I was happy to take it down there – I didn’t want to see hours of work flushed away when he hit. He finally called – and showed 56o for a pair of sixes and only one heart so a little back-door draw. I honestly don’t remember but I think one of my queens was a heart leaving him five outs. A black nine paired the board leaving him two outs and he whiffed the river. That pot was over $800.