Killing the 20/40

It's been slow at Oceans 11 the last month or so. The 40/80 game has been pretty weak, and the bad players seem to have moved on. So I've been playing a lot of 20/40 this month and have been killing the game to the tune of 123.41/hour or a little over 3 big bets per hour over 27.25 hours of play.

The fires we had here in Southern California were scary. My family and I had to evacuate our home and we spent the night at our friend's house in Mission Bay. We were glued to the TV all day. Fortunately the fires got no closer than 5 miles to my house.

Lately there have been some 8/16 players playing in the 20/40 game attempting to move up. One of them, this younger Asian girl is getting her ass handed to her, because she hasn't adjusted to the 20/40 game properly yet, she's still playing with an 8/16 mentality.

I'll give an example. I was playing the 8/16 the other night while waiting for a 20/40 seat when I got dealt pocket aces in the big blind. Couple of limpers, the button raised, and I 3-bet from the big-blind. All called. Flop comes A T rag. I bet, get called by UTG+1 and the button. Turn was a Jack. Now KQ just got there, but I don't want to give a free card, plus I should value bet this till I hit resistance, so I bet again and get called in both spots. River is 9. Again, if I was beat before I'm still beat, that card changed nothing. But since I wasn't raised by the button, I'm 95% sure I have the best hand so I bet again. CALLED in BOTH SPOTS. I turn over the winner, and inexplicably both other players turn over their hands. What did they have? UTG +1 had t/9 suited for a rivered two pair. Button had pocket queens. Now this is an 8/16 game with some god-awful players. Let's look at the flop calls. UTG+1 called with middle pair and runner runner straight draw. Button called with an underpair to the ace and a runner runner straight draw as well. Remember I 3-bet before the flop, from the big-blind and bet the flop when the ace hit. In the 20/40 or 40/80 game I take this pot down on the flop with my bet. But in the 8/16 game, I get called by weak hands all the way to the river.

Now this young Asian girl is playing in the 20/40 but still playing as if she was in the 8/16 game. Raising in early position with trash like ace/ten off, ace/jack off, q/t suited, etc. I played a hand against her last time out that went down like this. I raised in MP with ace-king, she called in the big-blind with King/Jack. Flop comes K Q rag. She checks, I bet, she check-raises, I 3-bet, she calls. At this point she's down to 8 chips, and bets the turn which is a blank. Of course I call, and she sucks out when a Jack hits the river. Now let's think about this hand. Maybe, since she was close to being all-in she decided to play the hand out no matter what. But if you think about it, the only hand she could be possibly beating at that point was king/ten or pocket jacks. Unless you think that a) I would raise in MP with king/ten, and b) 3 bet the flop with king/ten, she should fold to the 3-bet. Any reasonable hand that is willing to 3-bet that flop has her killed: AK, AA, KK, QQ, KQ. I think she's too used to the 8/16 players. If she doesn't learn to adjust soon, she's going to go busto.