Big Hands are Fun

The other day I had a genuine heater that contained a couple of hands worth mentioning.

I bought into the 1-3 game for $300 and had "invested" $30-$40 in hands that didn't produce a return when the first big hand came up. Let me tell you about the other players involved. V1 can only go by the name "Cash Machine". He was a big fan of things like calling to the river with gutters regardless of bets, calling raises with offsuit gappers, and showing down second pair weak kicker in hands with lots of action. Once he'd used up his chips in front of him, he'd consistently go into his wallet, pull out a couple more hundreds and get more chips. I have to say, Cash Machine was without a doubt my favorite player at the table. V2 had just recently sat down and hadn't done anything especially remarkable at the table. We'll refer to him as "Average Joe". I start the hand with about $260 - $270, Cash Machine had a little over $200 and Average Joe had a bit under $150.

Cash Machine limps UTG, Average Joe limps UTG +1, it folds to me in the hijack and I look down to discover AcAs. I raise (to $13 I believe) and it folds back to Cash Machine who calls, Average Joe also calls. The dealer puts out an AKx flop with the A and K being hearts. Nice flop for me. I'm thinking about what my bet should be as Cash Machine checks when Average Joe fires out about $20. This made me pause a bit. Generally I'm not a fan of slow-playing without a true monster and by that I mean better than top set on a board with two to a flush and two broadway cards on it. However, this seemed to be a good time to deviate from that approach since I knew Cash Machine would come along with lots weaker hands. I wanted to keep him in the pot, so I just smooth called. I also suspected Average Joe had the case ace and I was happy to let him keep thinking that was good. I was pretty confident that Average Joe wasn't leading out with the draw. Cash Machine calls as well.

The turn is the oh so beautiful king of diamonds, giving me the second nuts in a situation where it was highly doubtful that either of these guys are playing kings. Cash Machine checks again and Average Joe keeps the lead putting out about $60 leaving a little over $50 behind. Now his hand looks a lot like AK or AQ, so I'm getting his stack and now I don't care if Cash Machine catches up so I just call again. The River is the 6 of hearts completing the flush draw - I hope Cash Machine got there. He checks again, Average Joe goes all in and I just call one more time in the hopes that Cash Machine comes over the top. Cash Machine takes his time an appears to be really struggling with his decision which means he doesn't have hearts. He finally just calls.

I immediately turn my hand over so as not to come anywhere near a slow roll and sure enough Average Joe had AK for kings full, no good against aces full. Cash Machine kind of shakes his head and finally flashes the case king before mucking.

It struck me a few minutes later that the hand bore a lot of similarities to the first scene in Rounders. One player flops aces up while the other flops a set of aces, they both fill up on the turn, flush card hitting the river. I can just say that I like Teddy KGB's seat in that hand much more than I like the other. It also really struck me how many different events have to come together to win a really big pot when you have players playing reasonably. This was definitely the Perfect Storm of poker for me. For example - how often is it that between three players and the board do you have all four aces and all four kings in play?

After that hand, the other big one seems almost trivial by comparison: Early position player raises up to around $13, Cash Machine is still around and calls. I'm in the small blind with KK and three-bet to around $45. Both Vs call. The flop is K67 rainbow and I find myself in the position of slow-playing top set twice in the course of an hour. The original raiser led at the pot, Cash Machine called and I called. An A came on the turn and I led with a small be wanting it to look like I floated an A on the flop. The original raiser goes all in which finally gets Cash Machine to fold. I snap call and roll my hand. The original raiser had AK, so yeah, don't be bringing that AK nonsense up against me!

That was enough for more than a double up and so I decided to go ahead and cash out. Just to show what a heater it was, as I'm racking up the dealer asks if I want to look at one more and I do and look down at QQ. I raise, the V from the KK against AK hand calls saying he wants to get some back. There's an A on the flop, I lead, he calls, I check fold the turn still more than doubled up. It'd been quite a while since I had a heater like that. I'd forgotten how fun it can be.