The Crazy Woman On My Left

The December Tournament of Champions was rolling along quite nicely when I ran into the person I refer to as "the crazy woman on my left". OMG. Nuts, I'm telling you. She was limping into any pot if she had any face card. It didn't matter what her other card was. She was so lucky it was sickening. She won with K-5 offsuit twice in a row. I knew she was getting lucky. I knew she had me out-chipped. Nonetheless, I decided to play a pot with her. Oops.

I had A-K suited (diamonds) with blinds of 50-100. I raised to 250 UNDER THE GUN and the crazy woman called. I was not happy that she called, but oh well. There were a total of six players in the pot before the flop. Apparently, no one believes me when I raise under the gun.

The flop was K-3-8 with 2 diamonds. Excellent flop for me with top pair (top kicker) and 4 to the nut flush. The pot had approximately 1500 in it so I bet 1200 right away deciding not to slow play. The crazy woman called and everyone else folded, which was nice, but I still had crazy woman to contend with.

The turn brought the 4 of clubs. No harm no foul - at least that's what I thought. I decided to check and see what crazy woman would do. She pushes out a HUGE stack of chips that put me all-in. Good grief. Even though I said out loud, "You probably called my pre-flop raise with K-3 offsuit," I decided I was pot committed and went all-in. OMG. I almost called her hand perfectly. She had K-4 offsuit and had hit 2 pair on the turn. I was just amazed. However, I could still hit another K or ace or any diamond and it was still possible for me to get a bigger 2 pair. No such luck. Another stupid 4 hit the river and she knocked me out of the TOC with a full house.

God save me from mad dogs, Englishmen and crazy women on my left. I had to vent.

Trouble With Traps

My downfall in two recent tournaments was not being able to see a trap. Both times, the players limped into a multi-way pot with pocket aces and trapped me good when I flopped top pair with top kicker. I think these traps were difficult for me to see because I personally would not limp with aces in that situation and I do not understand how other players can do so. In both of these instances, it worked out for them, but in the long run, why would you want to pit your aces against more than one or two opponents?

I guess I should be happy that they play that way because eventually it will come back to bite them in the you-know-what. I cannot say that I have never limped with aces, but the situation has to be perfect. Just the other night I had them on the button and it was just me and the two blinds, so that wasn't so bad. Even then there was a flop of 10-10-4 and it scared me that one of the blinds might have a 10, which luckily they didn't and I did win the pot, but it wasn't very big. Oh, well. As Stu Unger used to say, with aces it's always better to win a small pot than lose a big one.