My First Hand Post: "What could I do?"

So, here goes with my first hand discussion.

If you bothered to read the last, very long, post describing my game, you know there is often significant (at least to me) money on the table in my game. And where does this money come from you ask? Who would leave this money? Well, lots of people, but this hand involves one of my favourite types – the young interloper. Often they are internet savy – understand the game but not quite enough to be playing this high. Often they haven’t been knocked around enough to realise that they need to take responsibility for their actions and errors – which leads to one of my favourite expressions at the table – “what could I do?”

I’m in the cut off with AKo (and about $1,000) and a younger player two to my right ($800 or so) raises three or four limpers. Action is to me and I reach for my chips only to hear him complain “You’re always raising me”. Well, maybe I am. Anyway, I make it $90 to go and it’s folded around to him and he calls. Flop comes ragged but Ace High. He checks, I bet the pot and he calls. Turn is another brick – the board is extremely dry – and he checks again. I bet two thirds of the pot. Again. He calls. Again. Now if this was one of the good players in this game, I would have been slightly concerned by this check, flat call action but here I was pretty sure I was up against a weaker ace and although I was worried he might have caught two pair I was willing to take the chance. So the river bricks again, he checks again and I bet again. About half the pot. He tanks for a while and then, in frustration, says “I don’t know if you are bluffing” and calls. I show my AK and drag a very nice pot when he mucks A4o face up. “What could I do?” he asks. In unison three guys at that end of the table say “FOLD, Stupid”.

So he tops his stack back up to $500, wins a small pot and on the very next orbit I’m in on the cutoff with 67spades. Same youngster, who apparently has a low learning curve when it comes to the value of position in no limit hold’em, raises two limpers. I smile and again make it $90 to go, he again complains about me raising him, and, again, he is the only caller. Flop comes As 8h 5s. I really couldn’t ask for better – I stop counting the outs when I get to 10 and in addition I’m feeling pretty good about my flush outs since the ace is on the board.

Well apparently he had learned something (but not the correct thing) as he now leads out for the pot, which means I have to call $200 into a $400 pot and he has about $400 left behind. My math (which was never a strong suit – I tend to be flexible with it when I’m looking to justify an action) says I’m a slight favourite and this, combined with my desire to watch his head explode, makes my decision easy and quick: “I’m all in” I announce.

He clearly wasn’t expecting this, and now he’s faced with a toughie (by this stage its obvious he’s got a stronger Ace than last time but that’s all). He hems and haws and finally gives me the big stare. After about 30 seconds of this he announces call and asks what I have – I say, honestly, “nothing”. He jumps up, announces “I knew it – I caught you” and tables A10 of diamonds. I flip over my cards, the dealer turns a spade and I try not to giggle while stacking his chips. “What could I do?” he asks. In unison the table says…