Post-Fold Therapy: Lost & Sandwiched! 🥪
This hand happened at the NL200 table of the Master’s Poker Club in Manila.
Wasn’t a huge pot, but he river happeninf got me so confused and pissed off, that it’s worth breaking the hand down.
I open 3x from the CO with pocket tens and get a 3-bet from a Taiwanese boy Cola (or is it Kola?) on the button.
I have been playing with him enough to know: this is always a solid hand. Considering that I have tens myself, he’s s got JJ++, AJ/AQ/AK.
An old Japanese man overcalls from the small blind. He recently just sat at the table and I don’t have too many notes or live reads on this man. He already accumulated big stack by hitting big and getting paid by a fish.
He is definitely not a classic Old Man Coffee but don’t know him enough to say what he is doing with AK here, whether he is flatting with QQ, whether he is capable of slowplaying aces or kings against two agro opponents, like some old Asian man love to do, whether he is capable of coldcalling a 3-bet out of position with suited connectors.
Anyway, I call with my tens and the pot is 37 bb.
Flop comes K J J rainbow.
An old man checks and again I don’t know whether or not he is one of those who always lead when they have a big piece of the flop or whether he knows he is supposed to check to the raiser.
I do my thing and check.
Cola checks behind which most likely means he missed completely with AQ, has QQ and hates his life, or has KK/JJ. Caped range, hello again! He would always bet with AA, AK or AJ here.
Turn is a 8, still rainbow, and it checks through.
Cola might be still slowplaying but my read is that he has nothing with exactly Ace-Queen. When the old man and me check the turn, it becomes even less likely for us to have any jack or king but yet he chooses not to stab. Should I have bet on the turn? I think it would be suicidal because all the worse hands will fold, all the better hands, except maybe QQ, will give me action.
River is a 3 and an old man leads for 20 bb.
This is where I really struggle to put him on a hand.
If he had jack(s) or king(s) or pocket aces, would he not have lead the turn? That would only be logical, because both Cola and me had a tight/solid table image. He should not have expected us to stab with a lot of air too often.
Would he try to valuebet QQ? If so, just like me with my tens, what would he be hoping to get called by?
He might have pocket eights or even threes, these are the only hands that make any sense in my head. Although the eights would have led the turn too, trying to get value from a jack or a king.
I only beat a bluff, but if that is a bluff, what did he call the 3-bet on the BB with that is now a complete airball, with which he is bluffing? I would say Ace-Queen, but how likely is that, if I also put Cola on Ace-Queen?
Ace-ten suited? Wait, we’ve got two tens.
9-10 suited? Same, we block it.
Even worse suited ace? Queen-ten suited? I don’t really see anybody in Manila cold-call three-bets from the blind with hands like these.
8-7 suited? But an eight makes a pair, with which you are supposed to check, hoping for a free showdown or trying to bluffcatch.
Not to forget, we still have Cola behind, I think he has nothing but I might be wrong.
After some agony and failing to get any live read, I fold and Cola insta-folds Ace-Queen.
The old guy smiles and shows us 4♦️5♦️.
Cola and me look like we want to stab him because we do.
He turns out to be a bluff addict and pushes Cola of another big pot later on and shows the air.
Cola and me take it personal and bluff him back time after time after time. The old man ends up losing all his chips, sadly, not all of them to us.
CONCLUSION/ NOTE TO SELF
I hate this fold. I make a lot of more questionable calls, so I don’t even know what my problem was.
Had I been aware of whom I am up against, I would definitely snap.
If you can’t put your opponent on a hand, that is probably because he has none, so you should call (or raise if you have nothing yourself).