The Nuts

I only played against this guy named Chris Crawford once, but I'll never forget it.

It was a single-table $250 max buy-in no-limit game, and Mike Matisow was on the 2004 World Series in the background, telling Greg Raymer he had "teeny weeny balls."

Chris was sitting to my immediate right, and early only he took down a sizable pot by bluffing all-in. He showed 5-2 offsuit.

He thought he was setting us up, but you have to be careful where you lay your traps.

I had been playing a pretty tight game, and I felt good even though I was down a little.

I looked down at my hole cards and found AK of hearts. Chris raised, I re-raised, and he called.

The flop brought rags. Thinking my hand was probably still good, I bet the pot.
Before I was even finished betting, Chris was starting to shove all his chips into the middle. I was shocked.

"All in," he said.

I went into the tank, thinking if it were possible that my Ace-high hand could possibly still be best for all of Chris' money. I stared at Chris for just a moment, and he was trying to look confident but was a little shaky. That usually either means he's weak or he's strong but worried about the possibilities. About three minutes later, I was sure.

"I call."

Chris flipped over a complete junk hand, something like Q6. Neither of our hands paired, and I took down the nearly $400 pot with the best read I've ever made.
My friend Daniel later told me that Chris' quick bet was a classic tell -- he was trying to appear so strong that I'd get scared and fold. Guess it didn't work.

Now I live in Chile and don't have as many chances to look into people's souls over the Internet, but I can still take their money at Party Poker.

This blog will be my outlet to talk about poker. I might end up talking to myself because it's not interesting to others, but even that's OK. The goal is to think and write about the game.

Here is today's featured link: Emotionless Poker

Please e-mail me any time with suggestions, comments and thoughts.