Although I finished this session at Motor City Casino down $70, this was easily the most fun I ever had playing poker because of the challenges and decisions I made that night. Also, I tripled back up with aces when my stack got down to $60, which helped. This particular hand more than made up for the loss..it was literally a hero call that even the pros would be proud of.
Hero: Q-10 offsuit
Villain: Q-?
Pre-flop: Three players limp in, and I have position on all of them.
The flop: Q-J-8(?)
- Action is checked down. At this point, I assume I have the best hand, but there is little point in betting. The pot is small, and every straight/flush draw would call.
The turn: 7
- At this point, I feel like building a small pot, so once it is checked to me, I bet the pot and am called by a guy two off to my left. I do not have any kind of read on him because he is fairly tight and quiet, but I can't put him on a hand that beats me because he is the type of player who would bet the flop with top pair.
The river: blank
- The river does not complete a flush, so I fairly confidently bet out $15. I am almost immediately raised to $40 and have to go into the tank for about five minutes. The following is the play-by-play dialog:
Me: Forty total?
(Dealer nods)
Me: (To Villain) You wouldn't happen to be in a showing mood, would you? Show me if I fold?
Villain: (Snickers, shakes head) No.
M: I have a queen. (To dealer) If I show my hand, it's dead right?
Dealer: Yeah, you can't do that.
M: (Announcing out loud) I think that you think I was trying to buy the pot. I have a queen, but I might have kicker problems. (Long pause) The only thing I'm really worried about is 7-8.
(At this point, I stare at him for about twenty seconds. It's a borderline call for me, and then I see him gulp while staring straight ahead.)
M: I call.
M: I call.
I turn over the Q-10 and one half of the table erupts in congratulations. The guy sees my hand and very reluctantly mucks, showing a queen himself. This is my proudest hand to date for a couple reasons: one, I approached the hand and acted exactly as a pro would, and two, I was stuck three buy-ins from my last three sessions, I could have just snap-called impulsively only to be shown a suckout, instead I got to make fifty bucks the hard (but rewarding) way.
