not another bad beat story

i am pokermax

My name is Vic de Guzman. I am an amatuer poker player from the Philippines. Though I play a lot of poker, both tournament and cash games, I still do not consider myself as a professional player. However, I consider myself a student of the game, eagerly learning and appreciating this mind-blowing card game. I am known in the Philippine Poker scene as POKERMAX. Why POKERMAX? A lot of people say that I bring so much action at the tables. I've had some Poker Tournament success in my 5+ years playing poker, namely, Champion of the 2nd season of the POKER BAR TOUR (2006), 2009 Filipino Poker Tour Champion wherein I bested a field of 667 (the biggest field in Asia) with a prize pool of 6 Million pesos, Champion of the 1st Rotary Charity poker event, 48th place in the 2009 Asia Pacific Poker Tour in Cebu, and several other tournaments wherein I placed in the money. I am currently a regular player at the Manila Bay Poker Club at the Mall of Asia and The Big Ace Poker Club in Mandaluyong.

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How do you sniff out a better hand?
Monday, January 11, 2010
3:22 PM

In an unraised pot pre flop (10/20 game), you have

at late position with 3 other people, including the SB and the BB. The flop shows

It was checked around to you. Hitting the Ace, you make an almost pot size bet of 70. Two players flat calls. Now you're assuming that one guy has a draw, while the other probably has a weak Ace.Turn card shows a

You now have the nut flush draw and Top pair with a pretty decent kicker. You fired again at the pot with a bet of 160. The first guy folds, while the other guy tanks, then Calls. You are almost sure that he doesn't have an AK 'coz he would have raised preflop, and you are still putting this guy on a draw or a weak Ace. River showed a

If he was on a draw, then he missed his straight. If he had a weak Ace, then your 9 would most likely be good. So you fire a value bet of 250 at the pot. He comes back over the top with an 800 bet! WTF!! Did he actually held on to 10's and hit trips at the river? Ace 10 giving him 2 pairs? Did he already have 2 pairs on the flop (he should have raised at the flop or at the turn)? QJ for a straight? or is this a Bluff bet?? You fired in all streets, so is it possible that the 10 helped him?

In this particular situation, I was the guy who kept on calling. My hand was

Why? First, I didn't give him credit for hitting the Ace on the flop, and I figured that he was just trying to steal the pot. True, I didn't hit the board as well, but I thought of floating and make a play at the turn. When the K showed at the turn, that card helped me. His 160 bet at the turn just gave me 3 to 1 to my money to call. The river card gave me 2 pairs. I knew I was good and that a raise would surely be paid off as he would assume that I am making a bluff bet on a missed draw. True enough I got paid off.

Replaying the hand in my head, I ask myself, how could I sniff out a better hand if I were the guy who had A 9? How could the guy improve the way he played the hand? Trust me, its best to figure out situations like these 'coz hands like these can break one's backroll just like that.

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