I wanna be a cowboy

I was invited to a 1-2 cash game Saturday night by a guy I know casually from running into at a few local games. I poured myself a nice tall Ketel & Tonic and settled in for the 30 minute ride to the game. When I showed up there was a diverse smattering of players seated at the table. John, heretofore known as "Mr. Positive" was there, along with Ludey, some guy from LA, a motormouth, 1 fish, a cardrack, and a donkey. Alright, I figured I'd stay for 4 or 5 hours, make a couple hundred, and go home. Well, Mr. Positive, a great friend of mine who I play alot with kept lamenting his inability to win any pots with Ace/King. Just as I was about to admonish Mr. Positive on the value of betting no matter what the flop hit, I noticed the cardrack and the donkey had called down to the river on at least 8 of the last 10 hands. I refrained from giving my friend the bad advice of betting into the two biggest calling stations this side of the Microsoft Customer Service Help desk. Cardrack hit a set just about every deal and the donkey kept winning big pots with 2-3, usually suited. I'd normally say that calling in early position with 2-3 is bad business, but hey! they were usually suited!

It was becoming a slaughter. A steady diet of 5-2, interspersed with the occasional 6-6 in the small blind after the pot had been raised, re-raised, and called for $60, and I'm really thinking I could have been home watching re-runs of "Matlock". 5 hours and $150 later (lost in an interminable series of uncontested pots), I was begging for any of Positive's big slicks just to push in and hope for the best. 5-2 and Q-4 just wasn't cutting it. After rebuying another $100 my day had finally arrived. 2 off the button and an open pot, I look down at Kings, the cowboys, the Marlboro Men. I reached for my lasso and fired 12 into the pot. Ludey, mistaking my miserable run of cards for a guy who only plays the nuts, hadn't called a raise of mine all night, and commented as such numerous times.

Truth is, he's more of a squeezer than I am and must be dealth with accordingly. He often agonizes over every decision, lamenting his inability to catch Aces at least once every round. He (appropriately) takes his time with every decision, weighing the value of calling, folding, or raising. This time he looked at his cards and quickly smoothed called, no hesitation whatsoever, no grumbling about his shitty run of luck. The warning bells that should have been going off in my head were silenced by my overwhelming joy of riding the range, punchin' them dogies, and being the most wanted outlaw in the land.

Flop comes 3-4-7 offsuit. Perfect, right? I'm gonna check to him and then blast in for the rest of his chips on any bet he makes. Boom! Hand over, money's mine. You'd think..... I check, he calmly slides his remaining $50 across the felt. What's going on here buddy? I can't fold, right? He didn't play 5-6, that's not his style, and he certainly would have at least gave some thought to calling with 7s or lower, he always does. With blind alacrity, I take .4 seconds to deduce he must have Queens, for nobody could wake up with Aces after it took me 5 hours to catch a pair of Kings....."Nice hand, Lude" as say as he rakes in the $125 and replies "You can't fold there, I mean how could you?"

For most of us it's easy to agree with that statement but let's look at things a little further before we conclude that this is just "one of those hands you're gonna lose". This is the first raise of mine he's called all night. It doesn't matter that those raises were often made with 6-7s, 99, or A-J, he smoothed called this one, quickly, with no thought what so ever. Like so many of us often do, I neglected to give any thought to what that meant, because I was holding a big hand. He hadn't been running well either, was down to about $60, and he is the type to give thought to maximizing any pot he plays. What would he have that he would, quite uncharacteristically, smooth call with? I've seen him throw away many a medium pair in this situation without a second thought. Queens, Jacks, A-K? No, he would have pushed all in with any "vulnerable" hand like that. I little bit of thought, and I would have easily figured out that he was, in fact, hold exactly A-A. While my pair of Kings had momentarily bespectacled me with rose colored glasses of invincibility, hindsight almost immediately clarified that with 20/20 vision.

What do you think? Should I have checked-folded? Should have have fired $15 or so and then let logic run through my brain and figure out what I should have already known? or was this one of those hands you're just gonna lose?

Let me know what you think!