Calling With Nothing On The River

So how did it end – did he muck or did you lose a big pot with T high?

/j.

It doesn’t matter, you are being results oriented

I’m curious too, did he muck?

Ed if you make calls like that online with 10 high and win the hand, people are going to suspect that you are NioNio in disguise…

Have you had any similar hands come up at the small stakes and micros online, Ed?

Sweet call
I would like to post a hand I player yesterday online. I had to fold jacks in a board xAAK between two maniacs getting all-in with 78 (on the button) and 9T (this one being the pf raiser on UTG+1), both calling my 3bet pf… lol that’s definitly not Ed’s case but… whatever.

Ed’s case? Those two are HEAD cases… Hate those guys, really.

I’ve never actually considered the “bluff-mucking effect,” but after some recent live play, I’ll definitely be on the look out. Thanks Ed!

Read this hand for a good laugh and some good advice:

I was playing at Caesar’s last week in AC, $2/5 NL. Very soft table missing two players, and I was determined to set my image this day rather than get too much respect like the night before. I was raising many hands and had just gotten caught bluff-raising a river, and I made sure to showdown.

The player to my left, moved from across the table to try and get position on me; he was the second most active player. Details are a little fuzzy, but UTG limps and it folds to me in SB. I isolate to $25 with 9/5 ss (which I do not recommend), but I figure to pick the pot up most times HU since these guys are limp/calling with any two suited. BB defends however, and UTG comes along. Three-way to A/2/3 ss flop with about $75 in the pot.

I c-bet $50 and figure to pick it up most times, but I have plenty of outs to back me up. These spots are wonderful, too, when I can get guys to start flatting me with high cards intending to call down my bluffs. However, they don’t seem to recognize when I’m putting most of my money in. Anyway, BB calls fast and UTG folds. IMO, BB never has that big of a hand here because he would have either 3 bet me preflop, or raised me on this drawy flop. I think he has any PP, weaker aces like A/4-A/T at best, and some hands like 3/5, 3/4, etc. He’s loose, and he thinks I’m crazy. At the same time, I know he’s looking to make plays at me because 1. he just moved across the table to get position on me, and 2. he just 4 bet my 3 bet after I was cold-called behind, and was showing his friends his hand and smirking (though I still had mixed feelings about that).

Turn is offsuit Queen and I decide to fire because I believe I have a reasonable amount of fold-equity coupled with my draws. I decide to bet big in this case, because my bluff-raise against him was kind of smallish, something like $125 total when he donked $45 on the river on a board of Q/6/4/6/4, when I raised PF, c bet flop, check behind turn, and bluff-raise river. I believed he was very likely making a blocking bet with a Queen, and he called me with K/Q. I also decide that if I’m going to bet here, I might as well bet enough to commit, even if I am completely wrong about his hand strength and my FE, I will have a snap call, and I will simply get to showdown if I miss, reload and play very solid. I decide to bet $225. When I was deciding on my bet size, it seemed to be about the size of the pot, so maybe the numbers are a little off preflop and on the flop, but it was about a pot-sized bet, and I had $300 behind which would be leaving me with something like 3.25 to 1 on my call or so, if he shoved, and he had me covered.

Anyway, he thought and thought for a while, almost mucking a few times, then shoved. I snap called as planned, river was an offsuit 7, and I started reaching for my wallet. He kept his hand concealed and moved towards the muck and said “nice hand, you got me.” When I saw that, I picked up my hand like I was getting ready to showdown, as I was waiting for him to muck. I figured there was definitely a chance he could have like A/T and just think my snap call meant I had him crushed. He mucked! I tried to slowly and quietly muck too, because I didn’t want to make a fool of the guy, but the dealer made me showdown my hand. So the table saw my 9/5 ss for 9 high.

It was quiet for a while as we were all thinking about what just happened. He was a good sport though because he knew the rule. Eventually, I couldn’t resist when I heard someone start to laugh and I started laughing. I asked him what he had and he said, “You’re never going to believe this, I had 9/5 cc. I thought you either had it or were bluffing, and that you would fold often.” I don’t agree, but it was probably the funniest hand I’ve played. He said my snap call made him think I had a monster, so he just threw it in.

So, take these valuable lessons with you: Never auto-muck. Look for the bluff-muckers. Snap call when you’ve made up your mind to commit.

I wish I had time to tell my hero story about picking a guy off on 3 streets with Ten high, but this is long enough, and I doubt anyone will read it.