Nanowrimo Begins

I have a little over 2.6K words done, or a little over 5%. Not bad, given that you need to average about a thousand less than that per day, but I wanted to get a big headstart on it.

I've played less poker this week, but there's a hand I wanted to write about, because I love the way I played it. In fact, I think that I played the hand so badly that (given my opponent) it was genius.

Hand #35086003-3538 at Virginia Beach (No Limit Hold'em)
Started at 27/Oct/06 17:50:15

AAPONYAA is at seat 0 with $21.
themffulton is at seat 1 with $126.80.
CobberABC is at seat 2 with $97.75.
Harpoon is at seat 3 with $53.95.
aar0nh is at seat 4 with $62.80.
jiff1014 is at seat 5 with $43.15.
The button is at seat 4.

jiff1014 posts the small blind of $.50.
AAPONYAA posts the big blind of $1.

AAPONYAA: -- --
themffulton: Ac Th
CobberABC: -- --
Harpoon: -- --
aar0nh: -- --
jiff1014: -- --

Pre-flop:

themffulton raises to $3.50. CobberABC folds.
Harpoon folds. aar0nh re-raises to $6. jiff1014
folds. AAPONYAA folds. themffulton calls.

Flop (board: 4s Qs Jh):

themffulton bets $1. aar0nh calls.

Turn (board: 4s Qs Jh Kh):

themffulton checks. aar0nh bets $5. themffulton
raises to $15. aar0nh calls.

River (board: 4s Qs Jh Kh 2h):

themffulton bets $45.50. aar0nh goes all-in for
$40.80. themffulton is returned $4.70 (uncalled).



Showdown:

themffulton shows Ac Th.
themffulton has Ac Th Qs Jh Kh: straight, ace high.
aar0nh shows As Kc.
aar0nh has As Kc Qs Jh Kh: a pair of kings.


Hand #35086003-3538 Summary:

$3 is raked from a pot of $127.10.
themffulton wins $124.10 with straight, ace high.
----------------------------------------------------------------

The PF raise is standard. After his reraise, I'm aware that I most likely don't have the best hand, but his raise was so small (the minimum) I feel bad just letting him have it.

The flop is the most interesting part of the hand. I flop a gutshot. If I check it to him, I know for a fact that he's gonna bet something like ten dollars at the pot as a continuation bet. I'm out of position, and don't feel like guessing if that's a bet with 99, AK, AQ, or a set. So I lead out the minimum, what would normally be a terrible play, because if I had a big hand like a set, I'd want to build a big pot and protect my hand because the board has a lot of straight draws available, as well as the flush draw.

I also figure that unless he's got AQ, KK or AA, he's probably gonna smooth call here. AK will call because of the price he's being given, and it's unlikely for him to assume he has the best hand at the moment, so he's not likely going to raise here. A hand like QQ or JJ is likely to play it slow, because... well, I think that's clearly the wrong move, but I see it all the time. And AJ is probably going to want to play a small pot.

The turn is my gin card. I planned on him betting pretty large when I checked to him. Besides an underpair, any hand that reraised me preflop is going to have hit that flop pretty decently. I was hoping that he'd bet big, and I could check-raise him all-in and that he'd feel committed and call. So I really didn't like his small bet. I raised him to 15, so that when the river came, there would be more in the pot than in his stack, which increases the chance I get a call.

The river comes, and I move in. Something not shown in the HH is the chat box. He thought for a pretty long time about this. I thought it was actually pretty likely he'd fold, and I also thought that a lot of the time he was spending was trying to put me on a hand, which would be difficult given the weird way I played it. So I gave him a hand to put me on. In the chatbox, I typed "missed spades?" as if I were asking him what he was thinking about, but in reality, I think that my saying this made him think "THAT'S what he's got" because as soon as I said that, he called almost right away.

Alright, that's all for now. More updates on poker and the novel soon.