Irritating the Volcano

md261 on 11th January 2011

Seat 2: Hero (5770 in chips)
Seat 5: Villain (3230 in chips)
Villain: posts small blind 75
Hero: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero[8s 7s]
Villain: raises 450 to 600
Hero: calls 450
*** FLOP *** [8d Qs 6s]
Hero: bets 400
Villain: raises 2230 to 2630 and is all-in
Hero: calls 2230
*** TURN *** [8d Qs 6s] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [8d Qs 6s 3s] [2c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hero: shows [8s 7s] (a flush, Queen high)
Villain: shows [Kc Th] (high card King)
Herocollected 6460 from pot

The Villain is a new player, his play up to this point has revealed him to be a fish.
The Heads-up has been long and gruelling, having gone on for over 20 minutes from 25/50 Blinds. The stacks are barely fluctuating, though there has been a slow trickle of chips from Villain to Hero.
In the last 10 minutes Villain has been getting frustrated by the Hero's persistent small bets and raises, and has recently resorted to shoving any hand that he wants to play on the flop.

Knowing how likely Villain is to stack off with a marginal or non-existent piece of the flop Hero calls the large pre flop raise with Suited Connectors. The flop is brilliant, giving Hero middle pair and a flush draw, leaving only the question of how to get the chips into the middle. There are 4 options in this spot generally;

Option 1: To stack all-in - This isn't as bad an option as it may first appear. Villain raised 4xthe Big Blind, he very likley has a pocket pair or an Ace, both of which he may strongly consider calling an all-in with, thinking that Hero's all-in must be a draw or a bluff. The risk however is the Villain folds.

Option 2: Check-raise all-in - Very unlikely to actually happen against this opponent, if Villain bets the flop, you can be fairly certain it will be an all-in bet, however it is not impossible that he would check behind, perhaps being wary of the pre-flop call. This would be a poor result, giving him a free card.

Option 3: Check-call - Realistically against this opponent this is the same as option 2, if Villain bets, it will be all-in. He has been consistently shipping any hand he wants to play for the last 10 minutes, so there is no possibility of the Rope-a-Dope slowplay.

Option 4: Donk Bet - Hero has been sticking in these tiny bets all Heads-Up, there has never been any reason to bet more than 1/4 pot because Villain either stacks all-in or folds. This looks weak, and Villain knows the Hero has often folded after leading out small. The risk is that that he floats with overcards, taking his 4-1 pot odds, but even this small bet denies him the pot odds he would need to profitably float, furthermore, the Villain hasn't called any of these bets before.
Basic human nature says that Villain is unlikely to be able to fold to this tiny bet, and since he never calls, that leaves him with only one option (in his mind there is only one option), to raise all-in, regardless of his cards.

Hero went for option 4, the Villain stacked it in with KTo, which was not an unreasonable play considering how often it has worked before. Villain was a victim of his style, he would stack all-in on the flop about 40% of the time to win tiny pots, this meant that Hero could take down many small pots, whittling Villain's stack down, at the same time waiting till he actually hit a top pair or strong medium pair to call one of Villain's all-in's. The Villain risked his stack 20-30 times in this Heads-Up, the Hero never risked many of his chips. Being a new player and unfamiliar with Heads-Up play, the Villain's frustration at the slow pace built and built, until he exploded, resorting to stacking for huge amounts with a wide range of hands on many flops. It was just a matter of time before Hero picked up a hand and got his chips in the middle as a favourite.

md261

P.S. Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!