Tonight I went out to an American Legion game with Ben, and after being ripped off by a taxi driver who went quite the roundabout way to get to the legion, we played some poker. The game was a $40 freezeout (no rebuys), and after the taxi ride ($30) I was looking to climb out of my $70 hole. I played the tournament for a good two and half hours until busting with A8 to 22, his third duece the door card on the flop. I didn’t mind so much though, it was time for the side games! And that is where the real money is anyway.
Anyway, I sit down at a new table $1/$2 NL, a game I have avoided my entire live-ring game career, but I’ve been playing really well lately and was looking to get in a juicy game, and this game was juicyyyyy! I ended the ring game in two hours up $80 for a total night’s profit of $10, wahoo, but it was a lot of fun, especially finding out I could rock some $1/$2 NL players, haha. A few of the bigger hands in the game were:
I was flucuating a bit up and down and was playing with my chips, rolling them from one hand to the next. Anyway, I was under-the-gun next and accidentally rolled two chips into the middle of the table. I apologized and said I would just call blind since I had rolled them into the middle. I said “I have a feeling about this hand” and looked down at 97 offsuit…modest at best, but we’ll see a flop. A total of 5 people went to the flop: 8 5 6, oh a thing of beauty.
Two spades were also on the flop and the one person that took me for $40 early with a rivered straight bet out at me $2! I raised it to $8 right away, not wanting spades to stay in the pot, and we went heads up when he called.
The turn was an offsuit 3 making the board 3 5 6 8 and my opponent bet into me again, this time $5. I knew now he didn’t have spades, and he might think I had the spades. I raised him up to $20, $15 more and he thought about it. I said “You really have 47? Because that would just be sick.”
I was 70% certain he must have 47, 25% that he had flopped two pair, and left 5% in case this guy was nuts. The river brought the 4 of spades, completing the spade draw and making the board 3 4 5 6 8. He checked and I decided to bet for max value and bet $15. He said call, I made sure I heard him correctly, and told him I had flopped the high straight and he showed … 47! That one hand’s pot was over $100 and put me over the edge that I never looked back on.
It is always very important in a cash game to make sure you’re on the winning side of a hand like that, which usually means you have the nuts, but it isn’t always so cut and dry. Oftentimes when someone goes on big rushes and makes a lot of money they have to be put it great situations. If I hadn’t accidentally rolled two chips into the pot I might have never played 97o in the first place, and of course it helps to flop the nuts versus the second nuts, usually guarentees you a good payday.
Good luck in your cash games – if you have any stories of rushes you’ve been on feel free to comment below and tell us about it!
