08-12-2006
Gregg “Bunky” Williams
Had a headache last night but decided to slog my way through it as i hadn’t played in a couple days. Thursday night I was very tired and crashed out about 8PM on the sofa, Friday night went out with the wife, and Yesterday had a massive headache but decided to play anyway. The usual 4-6 tables or so, wasn’t sure how long I was gonna play.
I finally get the games up and going after some time and I get a couple guys asking how many tables I’m playing anyway. I reply “5″ and go about playing. I don’t have time for long chats because the action comes around fast and the one limit game is three handed so long conversations are out. The one guy on the NL game says “Oh a pro player”. I reply “nah, just boring to play one.” I wind up taking a very nice pot off him and now he’s mad. The usual griping and antagonizing stuff, I pay him no mind.
The other guy was actually quite comical. He was even nice enough to tell me his notes on me. After I raise preflop and fire a pot sized continuation bet, he folds and says “my notes on you say, just keeps betting. I have 7 examples”.
I reply “only 7? Wow, I must be getting weak.” I ask him what I showed down. He said I only got called once and had the goods. Which means the other 6 they folded. I put the mental note away to continue to fire at this guy, when I ma able to stack off another big stack when i flop middle set against his AK and value bet off his whole stack in three streets. He launches a comment that I must be lucky because I get called because I bet so much but it seems like when I get called I have it AGAIN! I smile and continue on. He moves from my immediate right to my immediate left. I know this guy is having trouble with me now.
The next hand that comes down gets a little funnier. I have T8s and call a min raise from the BB. Flop comes K84 2 suited. I bet 6 all but button fold and the button has 30 left. He calls. Turn is a brick and I bet 13. Button calls. River 8. I bet enough to put the button all in and he calls. I win with trip 8’s. The guy who is not even in the hand starts calling me a donkey idiot player and everything else. (He folded preflop) and still continues to fold every time I show him some aggression.
Frustrating opponents is always a great thing, especially when they can’t adjust to your style of play. They can never win long term against you, and your aggression pays dividends in 2 ways. 1 they fold when they don’t have anything (and quite often neither do you) and you can get tons of action on your made hands when you do flop hard. Case in point…..
Playing a live home game about a week ago and there are 2 tight players in the game and there are 2 very weak players in the game and then there’s me The solid aggressive one. I’ve been picking up a lot of small pots with continuation bets on the flop and have been winning uncontested. I cover the table and its been mentioned that the one tight player in particular is gunning to double through me. He’s biding his time.
its a 1-2 NL game no max buy but people usually buy in for anywhere from 50-200. I am sitting with 450 and cover the table when the following hand comes up. Theres a tight player in the BB with around 250. A weak player in the SB with 100 or so and the button is tight. Folded to me and I open raise to 10 with 56h. Button folds, Sb thinks and folds. BB thinks and calls very deliberately. Tells indicate he has a strong hand. (tough I’m not sure how strong).
Flop 766 rainbow.
Tight player looks at his chips, looks at me and checks. I bet 20. He thinks (total acting job) he’s thinking whether or not to raise me here or later. He smooth calls.
Turn 5 (does not complete flush)
He checks again very slowly and deliberately. I actually hollywood it a bit and think to myself while I shuffle chips (how much will he call?) I take about 10 seconds and decide to bet a reasonable bet. I put out $50 in chips. Now he pounces like a cat and raises. $100.00 more. He only has about $150 left behind ( I eyeballed it I didn’t want to ask and tip him off) I give it a quick countdown on my chips leaving what I would have left if I call the $100 and do some quick superficial counting of my chips and set him all in. He calls and proudly tables his AA. No river help and I stack him off.
Now, online I would have been called every donkey name in the book, live the guy just said, “Damn, i just got owned. Nicely done.” He got up patted me on the back and left. So aggression will disguise your hands well and can and will make people insane. So keep firing those bullets gang. Good things can happen if you play smart post flop.
Good luck at the tables.
-Gregg “Bunky” Williams
