Strength = Weakness & trusting your read

Both of these hands are from a Saturday $1/$2 (max $100 buy in) session at the Tulalip Casino. Same table, different villains.

Hand 1
Villain: CO, not there for too long (a couple hours tops), not involved in many pots - 2nd tightest player at the table, so I'd have to give him credit for a hand whenever he fires at a pot. $65 or so.

Hero: BB, likely seen as very loose, rather aggressive, makes many steal attempts (read: bluffs a lot), especially on ragged flops from the blinds, and from any position on the turn if the flop checks around. About $175

Bunch of limpers, Villain limps, SB completes, Hero (8h 10d) checks. Pot ~$14

FLOP: 8 6 10 rainbow

Hero: Bets $15
Folds to Villain: All-in for $65

While top 2 is typically an insta-call, when someone playing as tight as this guy has goes all in, I have to give some consideration to the possibility of being beat (I've only folded top 2 pair once in recent weeks, and was correct - my opponent showed his flopped bottom set when I folded top 2 face-up). I doubt 79 is in his range (too tight); 88, 66, and 10-10 are all in his range, 66 being the most likely (due to my hand).

I ask him if he flopped a set - he stares at the table.

I turn my hand over, Villain looks down at it, blinks, and then looks up and stares right at me without flinching. He looks strong. He's acting strong.

...which is exactly where he gave it away. He "acted" too strong. Most folks with a lock on a hand are going to be acting much, much more casually, relaxed, and care free. He was "displaying" strength to appear threatening and, thus, get me to NOT call.

After 5 seconds of him staring unflinchingly at me, I call. He tables AA, and my 2 pair hold up.

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Hand 2:
Villain (BB): I've played with him 4 times over the past 4 weeks, felting him once. He's a decent player who thinks he is a lot better than he is. Tends to overplay hands like TPTK and flushes on paired boards. He's observant enough to know I stab at a lot of pots with air. He's a nice guy, and a typical, standard tight-passive player.

Hero (Button): Seen as very loose, rather aggressive. Villain has called me down with bottom pair and 2nd pair when I've fired 3 bullets from the button (he was right once, wrong once). I've only shown big hands (sets / boats / straights / quads); I've shown very few of my many bluffs (if caught on the river I just say "good call" and muck after they show) but have recently told the table they need to start calling me more after stealing yet another pot. Villain knows I bluff often and semi-bluff regularly.

Hero: Raises to $8 with 4s 6s
SB: Calls
Villain: says "Yea, I know your button play, I'll give you some action."

FLOP:4c 6h 8s

SB: Check
Villain: Check
Hero: Bets $15
(SB: Folds)
Villain Raises to $30 (min raises are surprisingly standard at Tulalip).

I ask him how much he has left ($59). I decide to call (I'm mildly worried about a set and decide to re-evaluate on the turn).

Turn:[4c 6h 8s] 5c

Villain: All in
Hero: I ask if he has "one of my crazy hands like 79"; he doesn't say a word, he sits back and stares at the board (I don't think he's capable of semi-bluff-raising with the OESD here anyway).

I turn my hand over to show the two pair. He leans forward to look at my cards, then looks up and stares directly in my eyes, not moving.

This villain, again, gives it away right there, the same way the previous villain did. He was staring directly into my eyes as if to say "I'm stronger than you and if I look strong enough and confident enough I know you won't call."

I count out my chips, give him one more look (still staring at me, threateningly), and push my chips in.

He turns over KK and says, "I didn't put you on raising with crap like that." River is a 7, so the straight on the board chops the pot. But only 8 cards could've given him a win (and 4 gave him a tie), so when I made the decision I had him on the ropes.

Moral of the story:
1) Trust your read. If someone looks "too strong," then it's probably an act. With monster hands, players will typically act either relaxed or excited (shaking hands, trembling voice, etc); when a player looks strong they often are attempting to get you to fold
2) One-gappers are awesomely deceptive hands!

Funny

http://xkcd.com/386/

Weekends @ Tulalip

For the last 3 weekends, I've spent some time at the Tulalip: 6 hours the first Friday evening, 12 hours a week later from Sat-Sun, then this past weekend another 12 hours from Sat-Sun. I'm hoping to do this for the next 2-3 weeks as well, trying to cram in as much as I can before I start classes in April (Saturdays will be for homework, so this will cut into massive poker playing, though I do hope to still go up maybe once every other week or so - try to pay for my classes through poker). Incidentally, I've played nary a hand online since getting back into playing live. I'm much more fond of live play (though BBT3 will likely see me come back into online tournament action).

Basic stats:
Week 1, 6 hours: +$250
Week 2, 12 hours: + $500
Week 3, 12 hours: - $46

Not a bad start, though this past weekend I started off very very shakey.

First hand I sit down to JJ and raise. SB is short-stacked at ~$35 and re-raises about 1/2 his stack. I know him from last week, and he's quite aggressive, often re-raises light, and didn't appreciate re-pops. I should have thought a little closer, thogh, as if he puts in $18 pre he's not folding, but I hoped he was on AK/AQ and we'd race so I put him all-in. Of course, he has AA.

Being that the max buy-in at $1/$2 is $100, I already feel short at $65.

2 hands later, I run my QQ into a set of 3's and am crippled down to $20 and reload. Within the next 20 minutes my turned 2-pair runs into a rivered straight.

Within the first 2 hours, I've bought in for $300. Not a big deal, and nothing I'm not prepared for (mentally and cash-wise), just a little disheartening that I kept on getting 2nd-best hands. The only hand I feel I really misplayed was JJ. I could have easily folded to the re-raise and given up $6 instead of $35, but I also wanted the table to know I wasn't going to be bullied, and I'm willing to gambool a bit.

So I'm in for $300, and my stack has gone from a high of $150 to about $30 by 11pm (I started around 4). Over the next hour I double-up twice; then the fish sit down. Awesome. Over 3 hours I go from $30 to $360. No joke. Guys calling down with pocket 4's on a 3-heart AK-high board board; guys pushing all-in with bottom set on a 345 flop (thank you 67 :) ), and one big stack who didn't think I ever slow played (flopped broadway tyvm).

I ended down after I raised to $8 in position with As10s; bb called. BB check-called my $12 c-bet on the KQx flop. Ace on the turn gets check-called ($30). 8 on the river, BB checks and I'm not sure what he's check/calling with, so I check behind and say "I have an ace." He turns over Q8o for a rivered 2-pair. Yea, the guy calls with 2nd pair on the flop (not horrible, but not great), calls with 3rd pair on the turn (when is 3rd pair good here?!), and checks his 2 pair. Awesome.

This game is so damn soft. If I hadn't been run down at this point I'd have ended right around even., which after being down $270 is a good feeling.