Playing against an unpredictable calling station

Author

Updated

9/12/2020

1289

After a nice eventual double up from the small blind after a pre flop call with 8-9 off suit of 20c raised by an aggressive player from the big blind, now knowing my implied odds were worth the call, I hit top pair on a flop of 9-6-3. Then using Sklansky & Melmuth's recommendation of calling on the flop and going for the check raise on fourth street, a strategy I will explain in greater detail in my next post, I was heads up in late position against this aggressive opponent before betting almost all the rest on the river after he checked. I ended up winning against A ♠️ 6 ♣️ .

Q ♣️ Q ♠️ v K ♥️ K ♣️

After this excellent start, the rest of the session saw me fall prey to a weird kind of player who was in almost every hand. He seemed to 'never' raise and showed top notch hands out of nowhere like QQ, KK, A ♠️ Q ♠️ almost every time. For example, after my double up, I held QQ in late position, and raised before the flop 8 times the calling amount of 5c to 40c and two players after me called.

The flop came (seemingly harmlessly) 7-8-2

I checked as a flush draw was possible after the other two players to my right and left checked before me. I decided to raise the turn when another 7 hit and the weird player to my right called and the first player in folded. The river was a 5, but I felt I was definitely winning with my big pocket pair so raised two thirds of the pot only to be called by K-K!

A ♣️ Q ♥️ (fold) v A ♠️ 7 ♥️ v A 💎 J 💎

Couldn't believe he had that. Later on, and slightly unsure about this guy, I actually folded AQ from LP. Turns out I was actually in the lead against two players, me in late position, but was unsure now what the action before me meant me on a flop of A-2-3 and then a 6 on the turn. I was about to re raise the early position raiser when the 'weird' player re raised the minimum to about $2.00 with me still to act. In the end, after I folded on the turn, the first played showed A7o and the 'weird' player after both going all in, and revealed A 💎 J 💎. As a 3 hit on the river I would have won!

A 💎 7 💎 (EP) v A ♠️ Q ♠️

This gave me more of an idea of the kind of player he was...and I needed to be careful. I lost again to him when I held A 💎 7 💎 EP and he held A ♠️ Q ♠️ and I called his bet on the end only to lose with my A high, thinking he was bluffing me. (Once again he had just been calling my raises).

I managed to win a good chunk of money back off him when I raised with A ❤️ J ♣️ and hit a flop of J-4-5. I wasn't messing about and raised three quarters of the pot knowing he would call. The turn was a 6. I checked, he raised smallish and I re raised to $1. The river was 2, which was a scary-ish card, but considering he had just called on the turn, I figured he might have had something like 6-7. He bet the pot $2.67 and I called him quickly down to win with my AJ versus his total K7o bluff.

AK v 99

However, there was more to come (before I left the table.) I held AKo from LP and decided to raise big again to 40c knowing he would call. He did, after initially just limping in. The flop came J-10-9 giving me the gut shot straight and 6 over cards so I raised on the flop. He called. The turn was 2. I raised again and he called. Hmmmm. The river was 10. He checked, so did I, figuring I was beat and guess what...he had full house 999-1010...this guy! I promptly left the crazy-hitting-everything-calling station to it.

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FOOTBALL ACTION

I won't do too many of these because I want my blog on cardmates.net to be mainly focused on poker. However, with top level football returning to action today for many countries, I would like to treat it as a small celebration and share with you my football bet for the day; Premier League and Championship action. Feel free to use this 6 game accumulator for your bet as well if you fancy it. I will let you know if I win or not.

The odds are 60:1 and I placed £1.48 on the bet giving me a chance to win £89.72