How I busted the fish

Okay, this should be the last poker story for today, but this time I get to write about how I busted the last fish at the table Saturday night.

So, it's later at night at this point, and this guy with a boston red sox cap sits down (we will call him B for expediency).  M leans over to me and mentions that this guy and one other annoying player are his marks at the table.  Unfortunately, the other annoying player gets up and leaves before either of us can bust him.  As we're playing, M is in a pot with B, and it gets to the turn and there's a flush on board, and B bets maybe 1/4 of the pot, and M looks at him and then says raise.  He matches the bet, and then throws his stack of purple chips ($7500 total or so) into the pot.  B looks at it and says 'how much is that?' and then realizes his error as he looks at his ($700) stack and says 'Oh, that would put me all in to call'.  He thinks for a while and has to fold.  M later whispers in my ear, "How'd you like that stone cold bluff?"  YEESH! I didn't even realize it.

M then starts betting weirdly for him.  Large bets into a small pot, etc.  After he busts out this guy we call Spider, he leans over and explains his reasoning - he was doing that for the last hour to set up Spider and B - that they wouldn't think he had a good hand (when he really did) and would call his big bets down.  Which Spider did.  So M is a little off kilter, I think - it's obvious M and I talk about hands and the game and such when we're sitting together and B isn't so stupid to not realize this, so he may be thinking my game is somewhat like M's.  (aside - it's so not. M is 10 times the player I am - at the moment.  I'll catch up, though)

Anyway, to get to the story.  I have pocket Jacks on the button, and 4 people limp in and I raise to $90.  In this game, that's the standard "I've got a good hand get out of my way" bet.  I hate Jacks.  HATE HATE HATE them because you get screwed if an Ace, King or Queen comes up.  So, I'm really unhappy when I get THREE out of the 4 people calling this bet!  In fact, the only person who folded was M. Sigh.

To make matters worse, the flop comes down Q - T - 2.  Of course, there had to be an overcard to my JJ there. But, taking Mark's lesson to heart, I bet $150 into a $360 pot to see where the heck I was, after everyone checked to me.  I did have to pause and close my eyes to do a bit of math for a second before I bet, and this may have enticed the fish in but was totally unintentional.  The first caller folded, the second caller folded, but the fish (B) called my bet.

This told me a lot about what he had.  First, he's a fish.  If he had the Q, he would have raised me, because he's just not that good enough to smooth call me, hoping to pop me on the turn.  AA and KK are already ruled out, because if he had those, he would have re-raised me preflop (again, not good enough to smooth call hoping to trap someone (me) in)  So, I have to put him on AK or AT.  Either of these are ok with me - my JJ is good.

The turn comes a 9, giving me an open ended straight draw, in addition to my pocket pair.  It also reduces the number of outs B has by one (the 3 kings he has are no longer good if he has AK, they make me a straight, but now the 2 jacks left to make my set make him a straight, if he has AT, he's drawing to an A or a T - still 5 outs).

So, imagine my surprise when B pushes all in on the turn.  I look at the board, and after three heartbeats say 'I call'.  There's just too much money in the pot at this point ($660 not including his $400 bet), and I really think I'm good.  I flip up my jacks, and he turns over AKo.  Wow.  For those of you taking notes, this is a Bad Move. 

The river is an 8, giving me the straight, and the pot, plus the privledge of busting the fish.

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