Postfold Therapy: How Not to Play Pocket Jacks 🃏
Island underground NL100.
I am up almost 300 bb after flopping the boat and stacking two people.
After a limp and a call, I make it 12bb from MP with J♥️J♠️.
It gets folded to the big blind, who makes it 24.
Let’s have a look at the guy. His name is Victor, we’ve been playing at the same tables for a while and went to Manila in the same company.
During our first session together, he bet into me, I looked at him and said:
- Blond loose-aggressive guy in position on me, his name is Victor, he leads, what could possible go wrong? What are you up to, Isildur?
He seemed to be a bit funny about his new nickname until I mentioned that I love Isildur and even named my motorcycle after him.
- I won’t call someone I don’t like that way, - I said.
The guy loves to gamble, is capable of playing back at people, making sick moves and hero calls. When it goes wrong, it goes terribly wrong.
Victor is aware that I don’t fuck around, so I have never caught him messing with me preflop after I showed strength, especially when we are both deep stacked. He wasn’t playing too many hands in the session or being agro, I think he reloaded once but wasn’t tilted. Unless Isildur somehow lost his mind, his range consisted of mainly QQ++ and AK. AQ would more likely flat here, as well as 10 10 or 9 9.
Everyone out of the way, I call and the flop comes 10♣️9♣️3♦️.
I get really suspicious when he sees the flop and makes an upset duckface, knowing that I am watching him closely, and then c-bets for 24bb. There is absolutely no way he would make this face and then bet if he actually hated this board.
Despite all the action, I am not ready to fold an overpair to a C-bet, so I call.
The turn comes 7♦️ and he suddenly checks.
This is where I make a huge mistake by not checking back and trying to take the pot down with a 60 bb bet instead, giving him an opportunity to do exactly what he did. He shoves for 130 more.
The sets are more likely to be in my range, but I kind of excluded them by not raising the flop on such a wet board. From all he knows about me, I would almost always repop it here with two pair or a set. My perceived range, given that I did not 4-bet preflop, is JJ, QQ, 88, 77, AK, AQ, sometimes JQs. He would expect me to find a disciplined fold to the overshove - and would be totally capable of semi-bluffing here with a nut flush draw and two overs.
I look at Isildur, sitting with a serious face, rounded spine, leaning back on a chair, with his legs spread out. His feet are still, relaxed with the toes pointing out to the sides. Not sure how exactly to interpret that, just nothing obviously suspicious.
I fold, and the main reason I do so is his preflop reraise and Hollywood pouting on the turn. If weak is supposed to mean strong, he was as strong as he could be. Would he want to make that unhappy grimace with a nut flush draw and two overs? Tricky, because some people will signal strength with the strong draw. Is he capable of giving a reverse tell? 95% not.
- Buried an overpair, didn’t you? - he asked, kind of implying he didn’t have one. Which made me think he actually had aces or kings but wanted to tilt me into thinking he bluffed my tail 🦊
I really hate my bet on the turn, given the range I put Victor on and knowing that my hand is pretty much face up and he is capable of jaming with a draw (or even just two overcards).
I should have checked the turn for pot-control.
Had Victor been on tilt, had his feet been looking uncomfortable and had he not been pouting on the flop,
I might have at least folded less fast.
Jacks are trouble when facing a serous action pre.
That’s all from me for today, Doctor.