You are a professed "beginner", and you are playing 50 cent limit .. there are
more than 2 fish at the table !!

On Jan 31 2008 8:03 AM, the big dog wrote:

This post probably qualifies as bragging, so if you don't want to see
it, tune out now. ;)

I'm a beginner, more or less breaking even playing 25c/50c limit poker
online. I jumped into a table tonight which looked good from the
statistics (45% of players seeing the flop... not incredibly loose,
but definitely loose enough I could probably play profitably. I
didn't know the half of it)

turns out theres two fish at the table, one with a seriously large
stack (I'll call this guy moneybags) by the standards of a 25c/50c
table, the other with a standard stack but who appeared to be winning
fairly steadily (I'll call this guy maniac).

When I got pocket tens in my second hand, I bet preflop only to be
raised and re raised by moneybags and maniac. When I called I was
raised one more time. This was the pattern of play right to the river
and I wound up folding to a bet and a raise worried about a straight
or a two pair (no overcards came)

turns out moneybags didn't have anything better than maniacs pair of
sixes.

At this point, I'm wondering about collusion. I'm now pretty sure
they weren't colluding though as if they were, they were really REALLY
bad at it.

So I'm watching for more evidence of collusion and I notice that not
only does maniac almost never fold, he almost never calls either. He
was winning the odd showdown here and there, but mostly he was winning
by sheer bare faced bluff. I think I saw him fold preflop maybe three
times in about 40 hands or so, nearly every action being a raise.

With a solid read on the guy, and fairly clearly no one else has
figured out the guys game (cause they're calling him preflop then
folding to his meaningless post flop raises, sometimes making bets
postflop then folding to his inevitable re raise) I wait for a nice
hand. I get AS QH and call another players bet then re re raise
maniacs re raise. long story short, we hit the cap pre flop, flop 7C
AD 10D and the betting on the flop is a repeat of the preflop action.

There are still 5 people in the pot, 1 player having folded postflop
without adding more money to the pot. Perhaps the other players are a
wakeup to maniac after all, but I think I've got the cards this hand.

In any case, with 6 people hitting the betting cap preflop and 5
hitting the cap postflop, this is a seriously deep pot and I've got
top pair, big kicker. The possibility of a set worries me a little,
but I figure between me and maniac, even a set might fold. I'm not
disappointed.

turn comes 10H.

Another player bets (Based on her betting I'm pretty sure she was
holding a pair of diamonds, drawing to a flush) I call, Maniac raises,
miss flush draw and I both call and two players fold, the paired board
is making me nervous but there's no way I'm folding to "any two cards
maniac" in this hand.

River is 10C

Yikes! I've got tens full of aces but that missing ten has me
worried. Miss flush draw checks, as you would if you were holding an
incomplete flush. I bet, maniac raises (yawn) Miss Flush Draw folds
(no kidding, I think she played this hand better than either me OR
maniac: no shame in chasing a strong draw and there's absolutely no
point in trying to bluff the two wildly betting fools still in the pot
with her) and I call.

the board is: 7c Ad 10d 10h 10c
maniac shows: 7c Ad 10d 10h 10c
That's right. maniac, with 2D 3S plays the board.

Thank you mr maniac, for a monstrous pot by the standards of 25c/50c
limit poker.

now, if only I could get that kind of opponent more often :) I could
make a living at this playing against opponents of this calibre.
Unfortunately, I didn't get another nice hand before maniacs stack got
drained by the other players who by now are very much awake to his
style.

how can you really classify players at a 25 CENT table?

turns out theres two fish at the table, one with a seriously large
stack (I'll call this guy moneybags) by the standards of a 25c/50c