POKER STARS $3/$6 NO LIMIT HOLDEM – 9 PLAYERS
This hand is an example of how reads can have a huge effect on what line you should take. Dusty had 3-bet the cutoff in 5 consecutive orbits. After check/folding the first couple flops, the cutoff check/raised the next two. It seemed that he was taking the re-raises personally and had decided to fight back. What better time to pick up aces?
A player in Dusty’s shoes, getting check/raised on three consecutive flops, will often get fed up and do something stupid in return. So after this guy’s tiny flop raise, Dusty makes a tiny raise of his own, feigning irritation. This gives the cutoff another chance to try to run Dusty over. He takes the bait and puts in another min-raise.
After putting in the 4-bet, it’s unlikely that the cutoff has much of anything. People rarely play monsters this way, and any moderately strong hand would be better off letting Dusty keep the lead. It’s worth considering clicking it back one more time (putting in another min-raise), but Dusty decides it’s highly unlikely that this guy will 6-bet with air, so he jams in the rest of the chips. There’s no sense in letting him draw for free, since it seems he’s unlikely to bluff at the pot again.
While making a min-re-raise often looks like a stupid play, sometimes it’s those stupid-looking plays that can push your opponents over the edge. When you see someone tilting and spewing off chips, don’t let them off the hook too easily. It would be easy to jam over this guy’s flop check/raise, but it’s worth it to give him one more chance to do something stupid. The antagonistic and weird-looking line probably earned Dusty an extra $146 on this hand alone, and quite possibly set the guy off for further losses.
