Message Board : AA from BB at lively table - just a story

another hand from the weekend … 2/5 live. This one is just a story.

Previous hand, BB reraises 3 limpers to $105.  1 caller.  The callers (44) flops a 4 to beat BB's AA.  They get all in for $700 pot.

This hand, as BB, I ( $245 ) have AA.  2 limpers, CO ( $250 ) raises to $45.  I seriously think about raising to $105 too, but settle to reraise to $100.  fold, fold.  CO reraises all-in.  I call.

I totally forget the board, but no flushed, no straights, only QT as high cards.  Since he was looking at me, but he had to show first, I ask him if he has a set, he says no and mucks his cards.  Somebody snickers.  He asks what I have.  I say “I've got a pair.”  “Of what?”  The dealer is already pushing the pot to me.  “Doesn't now I say”.  He starts flipping out.  “What do you have?”.  Oh, there was a 2 on the board … I say “Could be a pair of 2's, but it doesn't matter now.”  He can't understand why, even with the dealer and some other players trying to explain it to him.

He picks up his remaining 5 or 6 x $1 chips and hucks them at me.  A couple hit the dealer in the chest, one goes off the SB forehead.  He swears and leaves.

I think he might have had AQ and thought he was good.  But who knows …  There was lots of discussion about what I might have had, what he had, and how much of an idiot he was.

Your story reminds me of a hand I played about two years ago. 2/5 live. Villain was, quite frankly, a jerk. Socially inept. He's also the kind of guy who, if he's losing in the first half hour, just racks up and leaves, but if he's winning will stay all night. Tough to win off of. On top of that, he's hyper aggressive; so much so that air would have to be a large part of his range on any given hand.

I had decided that I was going to play a pot with him and, if I caught even the smallest piece of the flop, I was just going to hang on for dear life.

I'm in the BB with J2. It folds to him, and he raises small. Folds back to me, and I call. Flop comes with a 2. I check, he bets about the pot. Going with my plan, I call. (As asinine as my plan is, it's important to note that this player loves to trap. Basically, if he bets, he probably doesn't have it; if he checks, look out.)

The turn is…well, it's the turn. Doesn't matter. I have a pair of deuces. I check, he bets, I call. River comes. I check, he bets, I call. And here comes the shouting.

He doesn't want to show. I sure as hell am not going to show until I have to. I paid to see his hand, and I'll be damned if I'm going to cheat myself out of that. “What do you have?” I ask him. “What do you have?” he asks me. I say, “I called you. You can either turn your hand up, or you can muck it. But there is no way I'm showing you my hand first.”

So he mucks. The pot starts getting pushed my way, and he freaks out. “What do you have?” I tell him I'm not going to show him. He says that's bullshit. I politely remind him that he mucked his hand, forfeiting any claim to the pot and that I, the only person still holding a live hand, win the pot. He goes ballistic. I call the floor, who quickly agrees with me.

It wasn't the biggest pot I ever played, but probably one of the most satisfying.

Wow. Love it.

The Ken ruling was 100% correct.   You must show down a complete hand or have the last live hand to win at showdown.   Yung was sort of a dumbass and paid the price for his lack of knowledge of B&M poker.

The OP and mbuss' story both involve technically correct behavior by the protagonists.   If your lone opponent mucks at showdown, you have the last live hand and (barring weird house rules) don't need to show down to claim the pot.

However, it's important to consider what you're trying to accomplish.   The OP induced an apparently terrible player (if he 4-bet a tight opponent with AQ!) to rack up and leave the game.   Is making the game tougher in exchange for withholding the precious information that AA is in your preflop 3-betting range really a good trade?

In the mbuss story it may be a little different because clearly Hero wanted to get revenge on the guy who was a jerk.   We don't know if he stayed or left.    Pissing him off could be +EV if he continued to donk off more money trying to get back at mbuss.   It could be -EV if he racked up and left, or played better as a result.

(For that matter, I personally don't choose to TRY to get people to tilt.   But a case like this, where I'm just following the rules to the letter and my opponent CHOOSES to tilt, wouldn't bother me the same way.)

And IMO don't be the person who bluffs and then mucks when called.   Your ace-high might beat the caller's king-high.    Just show your bluff proudly and adjust to your new table image as appropriate.