Earlier I was playing online poker in a cash game with the blinds at $50-$100 and I was the big blind and had AK of spades. Two players (one of which was the small blind) called my big blind. I raised to $600 and one of the players folded and the small blind re-raised me to $2000. I called and saw the flop which had Jack spades, 8 clubs, and 3 spades. The small blind checked and seeing that I was on a flush draw, I bet $400 and the small blind called. The turn was the 10 of spades and I had nuts, so I raised to $1800, the small blind called and the river was Q of spades. I had a Royal Flush!!! He bet $4,000. I searched his profile on Sharkscope.com and saw that this guy was a pro! He had made almost $100,000 on pokerstars! I went all in and he called. He had 89 of spades. What a bad beat! So this is my question:
Why would a pro re-raise pre-flop with and 8 and 9 suited???
I can only guess he was trying to push you off your hand. Suited connectors are my bread and butter, but I’m not so stupid as to raise like that in that situation. He probably thought you were a donkey and was already cocky from winning all that money.
This is what pro’s do??
Which?
You’re gonna have to clear some things up.
You were in a cash game at $50/100? I think you mean 50/100 NL where one could sit down with $10,000 (I mean real dollars not tournament). Are you sure you were playing $50/100 NL cash game?
Sharkscope.com is a site that captures SNG data, not cash games. There are many guys with over $100k+ lifetime earnings in high limit SNG’s, primarily heads up.
89suited, if chosen to play in that matter is a very strong and powerful hand in its deception, as any opponent with AA or KK would lose a lot of money on a coordinate flop. He played that way as many top LAG (loose aggressive) players like to employ on occasion. You can never put them on a hand since they’re so loose and wild with a wide preflop range.
The way the hand played out on the river was pretty automatic. A royal and a straight flush play themselves, all ins inevitable. It’s what we call a “cooler” a seemingly unbeatable nut hand against a slightly better one.
I hope you can clarify whether you were indeed playing $50/100 NL cash game and not a SNG. I ask because anyone playing cash games over the $2/4 NL on up to $200/400 NL seem to already know and fully use suited connectors in their arsenal, even for raises. It is my belief that in the long run, hands such as 8s9s make more profit than AA or AK in cash games. No offense, but playing $50/100 NL and not knowing why someone would make a move with 89s is like making it to the NBA and not being able to make layups, so I think I’ve mistaken or you mistyped your post. Please clarify, Thanks!!!
What game was it? SNG or MTT? Buy-in?
Edit: Or what soulsearching said…
I’m not a pro but what would you raise from the BB with that you would fold to a re-raise? Alarm bells would go off for me…"Why the hell didn’t he just raise in the first place? Something’s fishy.
Maybe it’s the fact I’m not a pro but his line confuses me…
[ul]
[li]What is the the $400 call on the flop all about? I know he sort of made a hand, but if he was setting up a bluff, why didn’t he follow through with it and semi-bluff the flop? Does he fear being re-raised all in by a big pair maybe?[/li][li]Then he hits his flush on the turn. Why no raise there either? You could have very easily been on AK with a spade and now you could take a huge pot from him if another spade falls on the river. Unless he had an absolutely KILLER read on you, this confuses me too.[/li][/ul]
I don’t mind the pre-flop raise from the pro, depending on the situation. He could’ve made this play with a big pair or a big suited Ace, putting in a call in hopes that you in the BB either have a legitimate (but weaker) raising hand will do his raising for him or that you will bluff raise to pick up the money that’s out there.
I hate your bet on the flop. You have four to the flush with around $4500 in the pot and you bet $400? Why? There is no hand that’s going to fold with those pot odds so you’re not going to get him off his hand with the bet. What do you do if he fires back a pot-sized raise? You can’t call (or at least you shouldn’t call) so you’ve pissed away $400.
Missed the edit window. To build on my thought, you’re more likely to see the call-reraise play when there are more people in the pot, but it’s not unheard of in a blind vs blind situation.
The pro is looking at five spades. The chances that the BB is also holding two spades, including exactly the A, K or Q, is pretty low. Two of the missing spades, the Q and the 7, make the pro a straight flush which should they fall on the river and unless the BB is holding exactly the hand he has figures to be the immortal nuts. copperwindow didn’t tell us how much money he had left on 5th street, but it’s apparently significantly more than the $4000 the pro bet there. The implied odds, if the pro is not sure that the BB will call a raise on the turn, may be such that in it’s correct to call the turn and value bet the river.
I agree with everything SoulSearching said. Were you seriously playing NL10k with no idea about standard LAG play with suited connectors, and leading the flop for 1/10 pot with the nut flush draw and overcards? I have trouble believing that. Maybe if you’re very independently wealthy and play just for fun.
Flush over flush like that is simply a cooler, your range contains many hands that he beats and he was absolutely correct in paying you off.
Edit: Actually on reread the action doesn’t sound so standard to me. He limp-reraised? And there were two limpers to the big blind? I’ve never seen a high stakes table on Stars behave like that. What was the guy’s screen name?
It was actually royal flush over straight flush.
There was one limper, the pro completed from the SB and the BB raised. The first limper folded and the SB re-raised. Unorthodox but not out of the question. I’ve made similar plays in tourneys (although usually from later position with more limpers in) and occasionally at cash games (although I play low limit where that sort of thing isn’t as effective).
On the turn it was flush over flush, and once the river hits as SoulSearching said the hands play themselves. I don’t consider the SB completing to be significantly different from limping, because in a cash game it isn’t. If a guy in the SB decides he wants to play 89s and one guy has limped so far, I find it incredibly unlikely he would not raise it up because if he doesn’t he’s quite likely going into a 3-way flop OOP with a suited connector in a limped pot. Every single aspect of that is unpleasant.
In a tourney completing from the SB with a suited connector hoping to hit a monster is more plausible, but I’m not very good at tournament play so I can’t comment on whether it’s good play or not. Either way, cash is a totally different situation with this hand, especially at ultra-high limits.
OK, I wasn’t sure if you were reading it as three people involved pre-flop or four.
Now that I checked, it was actually $100-200 NL. I entered with $20,000. Yes, sharkscope may only track tournament games, buy if this guy made $90,000 profits on tournament games and he’s also playing cash games, I’m assuming that he knows what he’s doing.
So there was $600 in the pot when it got to you and you just doubled it? Terrible. Now I’m wondering what the third guy who had position on both of you had that he’d fold to that weak raise.
Whats Ur Sn, I’m Gonna Sit And Play!!!