Saturday, November 10, 2012

Caught in a Bluff

Today I was at the final table with about 8 players left in a tournament at the Palace in Hayward.  My stack was getting short, about 3x the big blind, so I had to get brave.

I got an A-10 and went all in and stole the blinds.
Then I got an A-7 and did it again.
Then I got pocket 10's and stole the blinds for a third time.  Now I had a stack of about 8BB and was feeling a little better.  My table image was looking good.

About 10 minutes later I got an A-4 of spades and decided to limp in from the small blind, still thinking I had to get it some hands or I would soon be blinded off.   It was just me and the big blind, who was a guy who had been playing crazy and unpredictable all day, but he had a pretty big stack to show for it.

The flop comes 9 - 2 - 3, with the 2 being a spade.  I see a possible straight if a 5 comes, but I check, and he checked too.  Thank god I would get to see another card.

The turn comes a Queen of spades.  I check again and he bets 4000 (double the big blind, and about a third of my stack).

I see that I now have a nut flush draw and a straight draw, for a total of 13 outs.  That's looking pretty good, so I call.

The river is a 3 of clubs.  No good to me, but it did pair the board.

So, time for my bluff.  I quickly push all in for around 6000.  I took the guy off guard.   He expected a check and that he could bet and I would fold.

I tried to look cocky, as if I'd hit a set of 3's, but he didn't buy it.  "You wouldn't have called my turn bet with a pair of threes and a Queen on the board.  There's no way you hit the set of 3's.  I call."

Dang.  I turn over my nothing A-4 and he turns over Q-10 and my tournament is over.

It was fun though.


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