The Effing Mookie

Another Wednesday, another Mookie gone bad. As usual I played good, solid poker, even made a large laydown in the earlygoing against Iakaris of middle two pairs against what just felt like a bigger hand from the man formerly known as a blogger. But I fought back, pushing aggressively in several hands against pokerenthusiast to get my stack back, and then at some point about 25, 30 minutes in to the tournament, I raised the pot from utg with ATs. It's a good raise, I think basically a required raise at any real 6max nlh table, and it got just one caller from probably the small blind, from a person who I just met for the first time last night but have wanted to meet for some time.

The flop comes AA4 rainbow. My opponent checked the action to me into I think a 400-chip pot. I'm sitting on trip Aces and a ten kicker against a call of my utg preflop raise in the blinds. I bet out around 2/3 the size of the pot, actually hoping for a call (but not a raise). Villain called.

The turn card is an offsuit Jack, making the board now AA4J with no flush possibility. Even though this would now mean my opponent had a boat if they held AJ, my AT was already behind to AJ so I could not worry about that. In fact, the Jack on the turn actually made me happy, in that it made it that much less likely that my opponent held AJ herself, and that was the card I think that tipped me over the edge. Just that little extra likelihood that my opponent could not be on AJ is what did it and made me think I was probably best. No reraise preflop and no raise on the flop, so I simply didn't see this as AK or even AQ, as either of those hands should probably raise on one of those two streets given this board. AJ was my biggest concern, and when the Jack hit the turn, I took that as my green light to go forward with the hand because I was probably best.

So when this Jack hit the turn, Villain bet out for around the size of the now fairly large pot. I was pleased, given my analysis above, assuming that I was up against A9s or A8s, but I figured I wanted to get the rest of her chips with my AT that I felt I had good reason to believe was best. Thus, rather than insta-call, therefore making it obvious that I had a strong Ace in my hand, I spent a good deal of time thinking over the decision that I knew already I would be calling down, and then I eventually smooth called after much thought. I was trying my best to give off either the Ax vibe, or maybe at least the KK or QQ vibe, in the hopes that Villain would pay me off the rest of her chips with what I figured had to be A9 or A8, probably sooted since she called my preflop raise with this hand.

So the river comes down an offsuit 6, which I am very happy with. Villain empties out the rest of her stack, and acting on my read of a weak Ace, I insta-call allin and we flip up our cards on the AA4J6 board:

Me: AT
Villain: A6

So frucking gross. But as gross as it is, it's equally typical for me of my Mookie performances of late. I make a read, I nail it and then I get flocked at the river. So Mookie-ish. To be fair, Villain was very gracious and cool in victory so I can't complain about that, but it's more the nature of the beat itself that gets to me, and the regularity with which this shiat seems to happen in the Mookie in particular. I'll never win that shiat. Not in a year, not in a hundred years.

FWIW here's my quick primer on how this hand "should" have been played, and keep in mind that I've won a good deal of money in 6max nlh tournaments and I've played a ton of it both in tournament and in cash game formats. Also keep in mind that at least half of you reading this drivel from me think I'm an abject donkey and play like one regularly, so take everything here with a giant grain of salt if that's your thing. In general, though, in generally more aggressive shorthanded games, I tend to loosen up my open-raising requirements just a bit to include most Aces from most positions. I'm pretty sure I've written about this before, but at a 6max table I think basically any Ace is openable from any position, although I might be tempted to lay down a shitty Ace from utg, in particular if I have recently won and/or stolen a lot of pots. In any case I think as I mentioned above my open-raise with ATs from utg is I think an absolutely standard move in 6max nlh, and while you might very well lay this hand down from utg at a full ring, I don't see how you can possibly drop it as first to act at a table with only 6 players.

So my open-raising standards are somewhat loosened at shorthanded nlh as compared to full ring nlh. But I have found it far and away the most profitable approach not to adjust much my preflop raise-calling standards. So I may raise when no one else is in the pot yet with a hand like A5 or A6 from middle position -- something I am not apt to do at all at a ring table, where that would be typically an automatic fold of a hand -- but if someone else has already raised preflop, I would never recommend calling from late position with a shitty Ace like A6. When you switch from open-raising to calling someone else's raise, I barely change those preflop raise-calling requirements at all at shorthanded holdem as compared to a full table. Just like at a full ring, in 6max nlh I won't call most preflop raises with A6. I won't even call most preflop raises with A9 or AT. The possibility of mucho chipspewage is just too great with these hands against another person who's already raised it up preflop and therefore might likely have me dominated with a hand like A6. So I do not believe that was the right play to call the preflop utg raise from the small blind with A6.

Along these same lines, I think it might be acceptable (barely) to make a play like calling a preflop raise with A6 from the blinds in shorthanded nlh, but only for a player who is willing to lay the hand down to a showing of strength from the original preflop raiser if if an Ace or Aces do fall on the board. This was Villain's second big mistake with this hand. You can't call preflop raises with A6o -- whether in or out of position, IMO -- if you're the type of guy who isn't going to be able to lay it down when the flop comes AK9 and the preflop raiser is giving you a lot of action on the flop. The only way you get away with making a preflop raise-call like this with A6o is if you know you can and will lay it down without allowing yourself to get stacked with your top pair shitey kicker. Of course the fact that two Aces hit the flop in this particular hand was probably that much more of a reason for Villain to believe that her single Ace and shitey kicker was good, but once I had bet out on that flop at that point I would say it's a pretty safe bet that I have an Ace and therefore it is almost surely going to be a better hand than her A6. So in this case, I was knocked out of the Mookie this week by someone whom I believe should definitely have laid their A6o hand down preflop in bad position, and then who followed that up by not being able to lay down this same TTFK (top trips fideous kicker) to my bet-out on the flop as well. Grrrrrrr.

OK that's all for today. Congrats to leftylu for winning I believe his 853rd consecutive Mookie title last night. Glad he's won so many of these things and I ain't won squizznat, especially since I think I recall leftylu donkeycalling against me and sucking out probably about 15 times over the past few weeks in the Mookie. I really hope you all have the chance to win a Mookie but me. One of these days there will be a major holiday or something on a Wednesday, and I'll be the only one in the Mookie and I will rip that shit up on my way to victory. Until then, happy donking!

Phillies Playoff Chances Meter: Still 2%. I repeat: Do not believe the hype!!