We were playing a half-kill at a $4-8 Hold'Em table in my local poker room on a spring Tuesday. I was The Button. I saw both black Deuces; decided my position was worth raising, and raised. Only the three blinds called, and we saw the Flop four-handed.
The Flop came Qd-9d-2h. Hot diggity dog, I had flopped a Set! They all checked to me: I bet $6. Mac, the Small Blind, raised. The Big Blind cold-called both bets. The Half-Kill Blind folded. What was happening, I wondered? Slowing down a bit, I called.
The pot held $79 at that point, after the house rake, bad-beat drop, and the dealer's toke-to-be.
The fourth card on the tableau was the measly, tiny, magnificent 2d. I had that fabulous poker hand, Quadzilla! The third diamond on the tableau meant that a Flush was possible, and the Pair meant that a Full House was also possible. Mac led with $12. The Big Blind raised! I said, "What the hell, I'll re-raise." Mac capped the betting at $48. The Big Blind called both bets, and of course I called Mac's last raise. Mac muttered under his breath that he hoped no one had four Deuces, so it was clear to me that he held a Full House. I suspected the Big Blind had a Flush.
The dealer laid the 8f on the table. Mac bet his last $3. The Big Blind folded. (Why would he decline to risk $8 with $227 in the pot?!) I called. By that time, the other players at our table were standing up to see what we would show down. Mac tabled his pocket Queens and held his breath until I turned over my Deuces, whereupon he jumped up and ran out of the poker room. Didn't say one word, just bolted.
Of course Mac and I each flopped Sets. I happened to be lucky with my four little Ducks, and thereby stacked $229 after toking the dealer. The Big Blind never did disclose his hand. Because he raised on the Turn with those two Deuces on the table, I'm pretty sure he had Jd-Td, a Flush with an openended Straight Flush redraw.
There are a couple of pointers here. One is that you need to have enough chips for a big hand at any time. I had no idea I would need 80+ chips at the start of that hand. If you're nursing a smallish number of stacks, then you won't be able to maximize a big hand when it arises. Since you never know when big hands will occur, you will profit by keeping enough ammo at hand to make the most of them. Two, I think Mac was too eager to raise with his Set of Queens. If I had been he, then I would have slow-played my Set and waited until the Turn to check-raise, when the bets doubled. Then the Button's ensuing raise would have alerted me to the possibility of his having Quads.
You have to give your opponents some credit once in a while: when they raise your check-raise, they probably have something pretty nice, and you should take notice. Unless I have the stony nuts, I gear right down when my check-raise is re-raised. If I had been Mac, then I would still have lost of course because I would never fold the top full house in a limit game. By slowing down on the Turn and River, I would have lost less than Mac did. A bet or two saved spends just as well as a bet or two won.
