Comedy iPoker - A Lesson Applied Well

Here is a funny hand from a recent session. At first it might seem I played it terribly post-flop, but there was method to my madness....

Seat 1: Iceage12122 ($89.85 in chips)
Seat 2: jimboyo ($20.81 in chips)
Seat 4: snipxx ($162.65 in chips)
Seat 5: sigge79 ($138.03 in chips)
Seat 6: VILLAIN ($142.58 in chips)
Seat 7: FRIDENISFRI ($49.40 in chips) DEALER
Seat 9: HERO ($95.00 in chips)
Seat 10: oakesee ($98.70 in chips)
HERO: Post SB $0.50
oakesee: Post BB $1.00
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO

Iceage12122: Fold
jimboyo: Call $1.00
snipxx: Call $1.00
sigge79: Raise $4.00
VILLAIN: Call $4.00
FRIDENISFRI: Fold
HERO: Raise $20.00
oakesee: Fold
jimboyo: Fold
snipxx: Fold
sigge79: Fold
VILLAIN: Call $16.50
*** FLOP ***

HERO: Check
VILLAIN: Check
*** TURN ***

HERO: Check
VILLAIN: Check
*** RIVER ***

HERO: Check
VILLAIN: Check
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $45.60 Rake $2.40
VILLAIN shows

VILLAIN: wins $45.60

The Villain is an ex-Tribeca player I've spent many hours at the table with. He's not the worst I've ever seen, but he does struggle to put down any sort of half decent hand.

The raise from the other player pre-flop looked suspiciously small, and I didn't want to play an out-of-position pot against four or five players, so I re-popped it more than usual, hoping the other guy had KK or QQ and would move in on my apparent AK.

I was somewhat surprised when everyone folded to the Villain who took an eternity to call. Based on our previous history, I immediately put him on an upper middling pair.

When he called, if I had to stake my life on it, I'd have said he had Jacks. AA/KK/AK and probably QQ I reckon he reraises. Middle pairs down he folds. He's not the sort of loon who turns up with KQo in these situations.

All said, it's not a bad spot to get over 1/5 of my chips in pre-flop. Until the damn flop comes J high. I actually swore out loud at this point.

Any meaningfully sized bet from me here pretty much pot commits me, so checking seems the lesser of two evils.

When he checks behind and the turn brings the Q I mentally give it up, as I am convinced he has either a set or an open ended straight draw and there's no way of telling which.

The river is a laugh out loud moment. By now I'm sure he must be seriously considering I've got AK, which would mean I've backdoored my way to the nuts against what I am absolutely convinced is a set.

The thought of representing AK does cross my mind. But recall my earlier words - 'he does struggle to put down any sort of half decent hand'.

Is he 'good' enough to fold a set here? No. Is he cautious enough to take a free showdown? Yes.

In retrospect a flop bet might have taken down the pot, or at least scrambled the RNG enough to bring about a different card sequence, but based on my read I'm not unhappy with how I played it. Especially resisting the temptation to bet my 'straight' into an unfoldable set on the river.