Sports Articles Johnson

Hand of the week

I was playing online last night and there was a crazy hand that happened that I wanted to tell you about. The game was $1-$2 no limit and it was a pretty loose table. There was a lot of action pre-flop and playing solidly could net you a lot of money. I had bought in for $200 and had built up my stack to $550 before this hand occurred.

I was in the Big Blind with pocket 8’s. I like to see flops with any pair in the hopes of flopping a set and taking down a huge pot. A couple of early position players called as did the cutoff seat. The button then made a raise of $17. The small blind called, I called as did both limpers. Then the action got to the cutoff and the action went bananas. The cutoff re-raised all in! Very strange play considering he had just limped in after 2 early limpers. This made me rule out a very big hand.

Then, the button called his all-in which put him all in himself and the big blind also called putting him all in as well. I was faced with a tough decision. Just calling was out of the question because I would be pricing the remaining two limpers into the pot and I wanted them out if I played. As for the all-in players, they didn’t seem like strong players and I had a nagging feeling the only one with a pair might be the cutoff. But how big could his pair actually be in this spot? I decided he had a smallish pair and I was really hoping I was good here. So I pushed my $500+ into the middle to kill any action behind me which I did. So there was over $400 in the pot and we saw the flop.

Cutoff – 9s9c
Button – AJ Hearts
Small Blind – AK of Diamonds

As you can see, I was wrong in my assessment and I was behind. The flop was good for me however. Jc-8c-3c. I had outflopped everyone with my set but I needed to avoid another club. Wouldn’t you know it, the turn was the 5 of clubs and I was now behind. Then the river was the case 8 and I hit my quads to win the big pot. Don’t you love online poker sometimes?

Until next time, may the chips fall your way.


by Johnson