Scary Dog, Scary Hand

I played the following hand with my good friend Brian (Watchdog26). It was interesting because I was simply trying to single up against the ultra short-stack and steal the blinds (and change) with a likely coin-flip-or-better situation. Unfortunately for me - or rather: eventually fortunately for me, Brian had a pretty significant hand and decided to call my raise pre-flop. I found myself in another possible implied collusion situation. However my pre-flop raise created a large side pot that offered lucrative odds if I could grab it from Brian. So I decided to bet out with my sixes and hope that Brian had a big Ace and decided to fold it. It all worked out well for me, as I would have lost the hand outright to the short-stack, but instead I collected a bigger side pot.

Full Tilt Poker Game #11868700621: The Poker Pod Home Game (85237044), Table 3 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:27:28 ET - 2009/04/25
Seat 2: xycroma_zone (525)
Seat 3: watchdog26 (1,575)
Seat 4: CgCook38 (1,850)
Seat 5: Jens73 (6,190)
Seat 6: Mothura (3,885)
Seat 7: HouCowboy (85)
Seat 8: given68 (1,560)
Seat 9: garden42 (845)
Jens73 posts the small blind of 25
Mothura posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CgCook38 [6s 6c]
Mothura: nh
CgCook38: nh
xycroma_zone: nh
HouCowboy raises to 85, and is all in
Jens73: ty
given68 folds
garden42 folds
Mothura: and I hade 3's
xycroma_zone folds
watchdog26 calls 85
xycroma_zone: should not have shoved
CgCook38 raises to 450
Jens73 folds
Mothura folds
watchdog26 calls 365
*** FLOP *** [3s 4h 8d]
watchdog26 checks
CgCook38 has 15 seconds left to act
CgCook38 bets 400
watchdog26 has 15 seconds left to act
watchdog26 folds
CgCook38 shows [6s 6c]
HouCowboy shows [Ts Qh]
Uncalled bet of 400 returned to CgCook38
*** TURN *** [3s 4h 8d] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [3s 4h 8d Td] [4d]
CgCook38 wins the side pot (730)
CgCook38 shows two pair, Sixes and Fours
HouCowboy shows two pair, Tens and Fours
HouCowboy wins the main pot (330) with two pair, Tens and Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,060 Main pot 330. Side pot 730. | Rake 0
Board: [3s 4h 8d Td 4d]
Seat 2: xycroma_zone didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: watchdog26 folded on the Flop
Seat 4: CgCook38 (button) showed [6s 6c] and won (730) with two pair, Sixes and Fours
Seat 5: Jens73 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Mothura (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: HouCowboy showed [Ts Qh] and won (330) with two pair, Tens and Fours
Seat 8: given68 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: garden42 didn't bet (folded)

Giving and Taking

A response to a fellow Railbird's post about hitting top pair after raising pre-flop and betting every street only to be drowned by a river flush card:

I know it's been pounded into my head since I started playing that you can't give free cards.

However I think this is a place where you want to do just that. You only have a pair and you KNOW you won't get rid of a flush draw with any reasonable bet. So check. Then if the turn is safe, fire off the 2/3 pot bet, giving the player his 9 outs only once, thereby reducing his odds of winning by nearly half.

This is a helpful tactic in smallish buy-in loose-passive tournaments. Of course, you're basically losing chips by not betting on every street when you are ahead. But in a tournament you can only rarely win the thing with a single hand; you can always lose it.