Running with Spades

Wow, I was just playing in one of Full Tilt's $100 Freerolls and had worked my way into the top 300, sitting at just over 20xBB when I looked down at QJo in late position and one limper in front of me. Blinds were 200/400 with a 50 chip ante so I raised it up to 2000. One caller.

Flop comes down 257 rainbow and he checks to me. I figure there is no way he hit that flop after calling a 2000 chip raise preflop so I raise the pot nearly putting myself all-in. He immediately comes over the top forcing me all-in. At this point I realized I've screwed up pretty bad since any ace or king will be ahead of me, but I'm pretty much screwed if I fold so I decide to take a chance at hitting something on the next two cards. I call.

He flips over 72o, the Hammer, for two pair and I realize I'm drawing dead. I don't know what he was thinking calling a 5xBB raise with the hammer, but it sure paid off nicely for him. I can't imagine that kind of play will pay off in the long run though. I guess he was planning on taking a chance at bluffing me off the pot if I missed, but he has to consider that I might have a pocket pair and there just aren't enough flops that allow you to bluff someone off of their high pocket pairs.

I definitely made a big mistake in that hand, but it still hurts to see someone making an idiotic play against you and getting lucky. But you can't focus on that because it will always happen. I will certainly learn from this mistake and try to slow down a bit when bluffing missed flops in the future.

Speaking of the hammer, I might as well give you an update on my Hammer Challenge. I finally took a couple of large losses so my ROI has dropped to 1.78 overall, but that still ranks it at 8th in my hand tracking ranks.

As always, you can keep track of my progress at PokerGeni.us

I'm still less than 24 hours into the Hammer Challenge, but the Hammer has already climbed to the top of my hand rankings list with a whopping return of 2.3! Granted I have only logged 5 hands, so it's not exactly a scientific sampling but it's still pretty cool to see just how important playing situation really is. It's certain to round itself out pretty quickly after a couple losses get factored in, but for now it's flying high.

Just out of curiosity I'm going to start playing the hammer (72o) in cash games from now on and track my results to see if I can actually bring in a positive return. This should be an excellent lesson in reading the other player and playing the situation correctly versus just playing your cards. I've gotten myself way to odds focused lately, so hopefully this can get me thinking about situational play and reading my opponent more.

Here are some rules I'm going to lay down for myself to keep this under control:

1. This challenge only applies to cash games. Play the hammer as usual in tournaments.


2. Fold to the first raise, whether before your action or after your raise.


3. Never make more than one stab at the pot after the flop unless you think the guy is on a draw.

There it is, pretty simple. These rules should keep me from doing anything too stupid with it, and even if it holds me back a bit, folding to a reraise only gives me better odds of getting my strong hands paid off later.

I'll post updates on where I stand periodically. I've also set up my hand tracker so that it can be viewed publicly. You can follow my Hammer Challenge progress there: PokerGeni.us