Champion of Poker

Hand 8: Small Blind, Kh-7h, UTG player raises to £15 and everyone folds including me. Stack size £448

Hand 9: Button, 3c-2c Folded to me and I raise to £20, both blinds fold. Stack size £455

Hand 10: Cut-off, 8c-3c, folded around to me and I also fold. Stack size £455

Hand 11: 8s-3s, UTG calls and I fold. Stack size £455

Hand 12: UTG, A-3, I fold. Stack size £455. I tend to find that American players like bad aces like these but they are just trouble spelt with a capital T, better to fold and stay out of trouble as that is never a bad online poker strategy.

Hand 13: Big Blind, J-7, two callers and small blind calls, I check. Flop 9-5-3, SB bets the pot and I fold. Stack size £450

Hand 14: Small blind, 7-2, folded around to me and I fold. (must not let the big blind think that I want to grab every last penny). Stack size £448

Hand 15: Button, 8-5, Folded around to me and I raise to £15, SB folds and BB calls. Flop comes 6-4-K giving me a gutshot draw but a chance to represent the king as I am the raiser. I bet £20 and they call (there is no flush draw). Turn card is the 2c. BB checks and I bet £50 ( I do not back off just because my flop bet gets called, my image is aggressive so this player could be testing to see that I am serious….well I am). the big blind calls this bet as well.

Oh dear…. looks like he may have a hand as the chances of them having exactly 7-5 for a straight draw are slim and especially as they called my pre-flop raise. The river card is the 7d making my straight….aw come on, I AM ALLOWED TO GET LUCKY YOU KNOW!! I am quickly trying to work out the correct thing to do, I feel that they have some sort of hand because they called two consecutive bets from the flop onwards.

I have half a mind to go all in and put them to a serious test for their entire stack, it was still very early in the session and I had no real information on this player as yet. I would hate to go all in only to then see him fold. Quickly running out of time I bet £75, my opponent quickly calls and I take the pot not getting to see their poker hand. Stack size £607. Now the entire table has seen me raise with an 8-5 and continue firing, TIME TO CHANGE GEARS AND SLOW DOWN!!

Let me just go over my thoughts at this stage, I have an aggressive image and this has almost certainly led to me taking down an inflated pot. Unless they had trips or two pair then they were prepared to call me down with something marginal. The most likely scenario was that my opponent had top pair and simply did not believe my aggression… and they were right. But this is what makes aggression so rewarding, they call you and then you hit your hand.

I am over a hundred pound ahead in a very short time period and the table knows that I am playing fast. True, they may have missed it because they are watching TV or playing multiple tables but I cannot assume that. The game plan has now changed, I slow down for two or three rounds or so and hope that I get dealt a premium hand or two which may get more action than it normally would because of how I have been playing.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Play all sorts of poker games on bwin poker.