My new table seemed to be delivering me absolutely perfect hole cards – for Razz. Completely dead for two entire orbits, I received one walk in the big blind but this table were savvy and would not let me steal. With my stack whittled down to t11,000 at the 500/1000 level one fairly tight player called a raise to 3,000 by a loose-aggressive player. I wasn’t “in position” so they wouldn’t put me on a steal but I “had” position on them so decided to attempt a squeeze with any suited connectors >89 or any ace. There was t7,500 in the pot and I was risking t11,000 to win it. The loose player would probably fold to an all-in with a player to act behind him and the original raiser was usually playing “raise or fold” poker so I deduced he had a slightly weak holding. I had Js-Ts and made the move.
The blinds folded. Good, that’s t1,500 locked up.
The loose raiser folded. Excellent.
The tight player looked at me (foldfoldfoldfoldfold) and looked at his cards (foldfoldfoldfoldfold). He looked at me again (foldfoldfoldfoldfold) and counted out the chips he’d need to put in (foldfoldfoldfoldfold). It was a hefty chunk of his stack but not enough to cripple him (foldfoldfoldfoldfold) and he looked at me again.
“I think I’ve got you,” he said. I was a statue, just staring at the table. Then I heard that awful word “I call.”
I showed my hand and he smiled grimly, tabling 77. It was a great call by him but I still stand by my play. At this point I had invested t11,000 in the pot and stood to win over three times that. He had the 7s and now PokerStove tells me it was actually as big a coinflip as you can get – I was 50.578% to win. Therefore I was even money getting 3-1 odds, making a far better play than I thought! It was still a great call by him – I read him right for his hand and he read me right for mine.
The flop was horrendous, throwing out a board of 7d-9c-2h. The turn was an equally sickening 3h and I stood up to leave before my opponent’s cry of dismay sat me back down as the dealer become my saviour on the 8h river. Luckbox? Moi?
I was showered with chips and glares, and my t31,500 stack was looking nice even when we moved to 600/1,200. The tables broke again soon after as the shorties fell like lemmings, and we were now down to two tables of nine.
Do I make the final table or do I crash and burn?
Find out tomorrow.
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