POKER HAND #39

SCOTT GOLDBERG: Mr. Goldberg is perhaps my favorite opponent, and after he tells you about his experience as the chip leader at the Phil Ivey Classic, you may see why.

Let me begin by saying that Alex tends to glorify my play way too much. He usually uses adjectives like impressive to describe my play, but I think words like impulsive would be more fitting. But nevertheless, at the Phil Ivey classic I played tight and aggressive poker. Seeing good cards allowed me to play this way while making a good deal of money. Some times I will play looser, but against loose-passive players I only get involved with the best hands. I think I only showed down the worst hand once, so here are three hands which were somewhat critical.

First, I pick up 6-6 under the gun. I limped with this hand hoping to get in for cheap. Sometimes I will raise with this hand, and almost any pair, but Alex had been raising almost every pot he entered. Fortunately, it was limped around. The flop came down 6-9-3. Even with straight possibilities out there, I decide to check. Taking my chances that I wont be drawn out, I choose to disguise my hand.

Gideon is last to act and bets, I just call. The turn comes an A. I bet out hoping to represent the A and maybe even get played back at. Gideon calls the $4. The river card is the ultimate money shot - 6. I have crippled the deck with my quads. So I bet out $10. It was a slight overbet that I hoped Gideon would see as weak and raise. But he didn't call and it probably would have been better to bet small, like $5.

Second, I pick up J-J. Nick Horton raises preflop, like $3, Alex calls and I raise it up on the big blind to $10. With this hand, I like to take it down then. Both Nick and Alex fold. I was even more relieved to see that once the cards were chased I would have been beat by both of their hands. I think this play demonstrates how you want to play a hand like JJ or QQ with a few callers. You wish to shut out others and potentially take it down then or go heads up with just one other person.

Lastly, sometimes you just have to get lucky. Early in the night, Alex raises up to $6 with 9-9 and I look down at A-K. He had been betting big with junk thus far, and so I pushed all my chips in. We both had about $20. He quickly calls and I am a little pissed to see he is actually favored here. The flop comes 3-4-8 putting me deeper in the hole. The turn comes a 2, giving me four more outs. On the river, I'm looking for an A,K, or a 5. As the river card is slowly dealt out, I see that it is a miracle, a 5. I am elated, but know that I have just sucked out Alex on a very fine play he made preflop. I like Alex's play there a lot, he was representing junk with the big raise and got a call from an inferior hand, my A-K.

It's one thing if an A or K hits the flop, but the fact that you hit the wheel with the A-K was just a little too much for me on that night.