Project 10K Session #9 - The Dismemberment of Seat 4

I put in five and a half hours on Friday night, but the action against one player in particular was the main driver of my results.

He is young guy who normally wears basketball shorts and a t-shirt, is a little chubby and I've played against him a few times. He's very loose and fairly aggressive, but not in a measured or controlled way. He just spews chips all over the place. On Friday he was sitting in Seat 4 and had about $1,200 in front of him when I sat down. I played 6 hands where he was the key villain over the course of about 45 minutes.

On the first big hand against him, he straddled for $10, I raised to $40 with KJ and he was my only caller. The flop came down 9 8 4 with two diamonds and I bet out $55. This was an extremely draw heavy board and I was not at all surprised to see him call. This was actually kind of a tricky spot as I expected him to call preflop with just about anything and expected him to call the flop with just about anything. I had no idea what he had. I could probably rule out the total garbage hands like 23, 25, 73 and others like that, but other than that I was flying blind with not much of a hand. Happily the turn was a J and I bet out $100. As expected he called. The river was an A which wasn't a great card, but there was really no reason to think he had an A. I decided to check hoping he'd bluff with a missed draw and also to save myself some money if he happened to be calling along with a monster. He bet out $100, I quickly called, and he showed me K9.

A little later Seat 4 opened for $20 and after 2 other callers I called out of the big blind with KJ. The flop came down K Q 5. The way to beat loose aggressive players is to let them bet into your made hands, so I checked. Seat 4 bet out $65, the others folded and I just called even though I was very likely to have the best hand. The turn was another K making me trips. Now I was almost certain to have the best of it. I checked again hoping he'd continue to fire, but sadly he checked behind me. The river was a 6 and I considered betting, but decided it would look so weak to check again that I'd be very likely to see a bet no matter what he had. Seat 4 didn't disappoint this time putting $200 into the pot. I considered raising, but I couldn't think of any hands he could have that could call a raise and still lose to my trips. I figured 95% of the time I'd be looking at a fold and 5% of the time I'd get stacked. I called and he folded his hand face down.

I picked up $300 on those hands with some smart river checks and felt really satisfied about it.

I had two other hands where I raised, he was the only caller, I bet the flop and he folded. Not exciting, but good for momentum.

On the next one I had J4 on the button and with 5 of us in there the flop came down 8 8 4. Seat 4 bet $20 into the $20 pot and I called. I didn't think there was any way he'd bet out with an 8 and if he had a 4 it could literally be anything for 42 on up to A4. I was little worried about a hand like 55 or 66, but not enough to fold. The turn was a 7 and he checked reinforcing my read that he had a 4. I bet $55 and he called. The river was an A, we both checked and I beat 94.

On the last hand I played against Seat 4 I raised to $20 with K9 suited and he was the only caller out of the big blind. The flop came down K 8 4 and he checked to me. Thinking back on those two hands where he folded to my continuation bets and seeing a very dry board I took a non standard line and checked it back. The turn was a J. He checked, I bet $25 hoping it looked like a desperate bluff, and he called. The river was a 3 which didn't change anything, and he bet out $55. I figured this was either desperation or two pair, so I had to call thinking I'd win at least half the time. He turned over QQ! Yowza!

Within the next few minutes he spewed off his last couple hundred to someone else and headed for the door. After this run I was ahead about $800 and having a great time.

I had one really tough spot come up later in the session. There were two wild players to my left who had been in almost every pot and just behind them was a tight, fairly straightforward player. I opened for $25 with JJ, both the wild guys called and the tight player made it $100 to go. I felt like about 90% of his range was QQ, KK, AA or AK, and the rest was JJ, TT, AQ with some very tiny chance of random others. If you look at the AA-QQ and AK part there are 6 two card combinations to make each of the pairs and 16 combinations that make AK so if I assume that he has one of those 4 hands it's actually pretty close to even money that he has AK vs a pair even though there are 3 paired hands and one non pair hand in that range. Anyway, I called the $100 and one of the wild guys came along too. The flop came down 9 6 4 with no flush draws possible. I checked and Mr. Tight made it $150 to go. I figured he would do this with AK or an over pair so I called still holding out hope it was AK. The turn paired the 4 and I checked again. Now he bet $250. Normally 9 6 4 4 is a great board for JJ, but this time it was not. If that $250 was all he had left I might have called him, but he had another $500 behind so I let it go.

Other than that one hand, the rest of the night went mostly smoothly and I ended up winning $794 on the night! My $10,000 bankroll is at $11,881 after 43.5 hours of play.