Semi Bluff- A New Definition and a Few Interesting Hands

So last night I was at a final table for Aruba super sat on UB and the following hand arose. I raise button (4 way) with 10-7 sp. BB calls - bad player, bluffs way too much, and we take flop HU. Flop is Q J 7, with two hearts. He checks, I check. Turn is a rag. he checks, I bet, he calls. River is 8c, making board Q J 7 x 8. He bets 1300. Pot is 3200. I know he is bluffing and this is something I don't do often enough. I should raise there to get him to fold a hand like pkt 99 or an 8, or even a J, just in case he is bluffing with the best hand. On the other side of that argument is that my hand has showdown value and why raise when I most likely have the best hand if all he had is draw? I call. He turns over 10-8, for better pair on river. Puke. But, I digress. The fascinating thing about this hand is that in the chatbox, I wrote, nice bluff. It was obv you had nothing, but you were able to turn ur bluff into a value bet. And he says, no I had the best hand. I responded, come on you can admit your bluffing it is part of poker. And his response- the best of all is "WELL I was semi bluffing". LMAO. I was like, well if semi bluffing is betting when you are uncertain what to do, then that's right. And his response is "right." Oh my god, I almost fell of the chair laughing, I didnt even care about the hand.

FOLDING AA AND KK

On another note, I spoke to Dragon in AC yesterday. He had two very interesting hands, both in the same session where he was able to get AA and KK, to fold during post flop action. The surprise element to this conversation is that in the past, we have discussed the times when AA and KK, or any over pair needs to fold after the flop, but in today's state of 'unbluffable' poker, especially in a cash game where money has become seeemingly meaningless to an increasing # of players/gamblers, it is extremely hard to get those hands to fold, and is it really worth it? However, Dragon told me two scenarios, once when the board paired top card on the turn and a guy had slo played AA in a multi way (8 way I believe) pot (good job dude, seriously- you are the reason we make money) and Dragon raised when top card pair, and dude AA had to fold. Duh.

KK V. AJ in POSITION

A semi-tight guy at Dragon's table (5/10nl) raised to 50 on button and Dragon informed me he was sure the guy had a strong hand. Dragon is in bb with AJ. Dragon, decided, in order to get hu and isolate, to reraise, and see if, even though this guy had a strong hand, it might not be strong enuf to call a reraise. So Dragon re-raised to 225$. All folded and guy called pretty quick. Flop was QJx. Before Dragon saw flop, based upon the fact that this guy called so quick, Dragon decided he was probably done with the hand. However, on that flop, if his opponent has AA, KK or AK, he doesnt really beat many hands that Dragon couldve reraised with and he was a good enough player to fold to a big bet with a hand like KK or AA on that flop. So Dragon modified his plan and made a decent size bet. The guy folded KK face up after thinking about it for a long time. Whew. lol. Gooo dragon. Twice in one session, like a miracle worker.

Interesting PS $100 Tournament Hand

3 way in sng, Jon has 4000 chips in sb, button has big stack with 7500 and bb is short with 2500. B raises to 600 with blinds 100-200. Jon has 77. Jon decided to just call because he had reraised big stack a few times already. Another upside is if bb pushes and b calls, jon can call 1/2 his stack and then fold, or checking it down, in an opportunity to move up in the money. BB shoves, and then the button reshoves. What do you do with 77 here in sb? Factors to consider:

1. First inclination is to fold and let these two battle, however the outcomes to the hand lend itself to make a different decision;

2. If jon folds, he is either dominated in chips by big stack, or becomes short stack in 3 way sng;

3. If jon calls and wins, he has a monster stack hu;

4. If jon calls and big stack wins, jon gets second place money; and

5. If jon calls and short stack wins, but jon beats big stack, jon wins a big side pot and now big stack is short; chip pos doesnt change, he is still in second place; or

6. this is the bad scenario- if jon calls all in and comes in third where the short stack wins, and big stack beats jon.

Out of all of these scenarios, six(listed above) is the only one jon is worried about. But 4 out of 5 scenarios makes sense. Additionally 77s should be best or 2nd best. 77s rates to be usually better than the big stack's hand, but almost always better than the short stacks hand, so the likelihood of the short stack coming in first, the big stack coming in second and jon coming in third is slim. Consequently, Jon calls all in. Big stack has JJ, SB has 22. On the river, 22 hit a gutshot on the river and jon gets knocked out in the unlikely scenario that jon reasoned out. I thought this was a very interesting hand.

Comments/questions/concerns?

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and her sidekick Ace.