(Apologies to those of you who were looking for this in June 12. I had a computer freeze and lost the column — wow, now I lost it twice. I had better get this thing published)

I am back into a living and playing routine, finally. And I played a hand I want to discuss with you. It had some features that come up once in a while.

I was in late position with JhTh and raised after on under-the-gun limper played and everyone else folded. The big blind, a mediocre player, called and the limper reraised. So I had to decide what that meant.

Almost always it means pocket aces or kings, but sometimes it means he is tired of me raising a lot. Since I was a big winner and was raising a lot, I decided to give his bet a wider range. I also decided to 4-bet, partly for deception and partly to try to get the big blind to fold. So I reraised and, interestingly, the big blind suddenly capped it (one bet four raises in Vegas). The limp-raiser called, as did I. But what does this cap mean?

Again, it is generally a frustration raise. The guy is angry that everyone keeps raising, and he does not want to fold. Generally he has small suited connectors (76s type of hand) and feels he can get lucky. Of course, since it is a totally illogical play it could mean anything.

The flop came Q99 with two clubs. The big blind, feeling he had taken the lead with his cap, bet out. The limp-reraiser called (so much for AA or KK). I called as well. The turn came a 3s, putting two spades on the board as well. The big blind led again, and the other guy folded. I wonder what he did have? Anyway, my plan was to call the turn and raise on the river if I missed, since the bettor almost certainly had nothing.

However, the river made my straight with a king of diamonds. The big blind kept betting. Though I was certain I had the best hand, I made the possible error of calling. First, if I was terribly wrong, I did not want to face a three-bet with the board paired. Second, I wanted to validate my read, as it might come in handy to know for sure. Finally, I thought it might help me psychologically to have the guy show his nothing. I am not sure any of this is correct, and maybe I should just have raised.

Anyway, of course he had nothing, but he did pick up a spade draw on the turn with his 10s-8s, a kind of typical hand for some players for this sequence. And I am willing to bet he still thinks that if I did not draw out, he was going to win.

Hi. PokerStars is holding a freeroll for bloggers with a $10,000 seat as first prize. It is not entirely free, as the price is posting a flashy thing on my website for a few days. The tournament is over and I am grateful to PokerStra for having run it, but I am cancelling the logo.

Aside from that, I have had a PokerStars account for a long time, even though I mostly play at Party when I play on-line. I love Stars’ NL heads-up SnGs, and I play them for parctice in case I ever make a final table . OK, I just enjoy them, and I happen to have an excellent record playing the 100 and $200 buy-ins.

Many of my friends work for PokerStars, and they are a classy and quality organization. So wish me luck as I try to freeroll my way to millions.
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I also want to say how proud I am of the forum, and how grateful I am to the 80 of you who have registered and are sharing questions and answers. There are dozens of these forums on the web, several huge ones and others by other CP columnists and other poker luminaries. I feel great that you have chosen to spend some of your time here. I hope you find it worthwhile. If you have any suggestions to make it better, please let me know.
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Some of you have been asking about the whereabouts of the 2005 World Poker Player’s Conference DVD, during whichI did my seminar about the skills required to make one big bet per hour and the general order in which people acquire them. Apparantly they have had significant production problems, and are still trying to put out something. I am beginning to doubt we will ever see anything (watch, as soon as I post this, they will announce the DVD), but if does become available in some form, I will post it here.

I’m back from vacation, taking a while to get over jet lag. I played my first session last night, and quit after three hours. The game was fine. I was up, down, up and then, strangely, I was up less than I thought and I could not remember exactly where the chips went. I decided that jet lag and concentration lapse were responsible for my short-term memory loss, and left the game.

A hand came up I thought had an interesting characteristic. A loose raiser (LR) raised in middle position and a very loose caller (VLC) called (did I mention that the $30-$60 games are still very good?). I had red aces in the small blind and three-bet. We took the flop 3-handed, which came 873. I bet, LR folded and VLC called. The turn was a 5. I was getting ready to bet again (no free cards) but I stopped to realize that if I checked, VLC would always bet here, assuming I had a hand like AK. The fact that he called means a) he had some of the flop in which case he would bet or b) he had overcards in which case he was drawing dead but would still bet if I checked (hoping I would fold) but fold if I bet.

I know passive play is not popular these days, but I thought it was an excellent chance. “Why not check-raise?” you ask. Good question. The reason is that I did not wish to have to deal with a reraise, but I am not saying it would not be a reasonable effort.

Anyway, I checked and he bet as expected. I called. The river was another five, which I thought was probably a very good card for me, because it made me a winner if he had 87. So I checked and called again. I felt again that if I bet he would call if he had anything and I would win a bet. But he would bet with virtually any hand he would call with (believing he had the best hand), plus a few bluffs. It was also insurance in case he did have a set or silly straight or something.

So I check-called again, and he showed me 65s and took the pot. This is not a bad beat story, though, as I do not care if he won or lost. I thought the two checks gave me an excellent chance to win at least as much as I would win if I bet, and perhaps more, while allowing me to lose less if I was miraculously beat. I really believe that checking in this specific circumstance, remarkably enough, is a +EV play compared to betting.