Gosh, it’s tempting to write an April Fool Column here. But I have something to talk about, so if you want to read a spoof, go here.

A hand came up last night in the $60-$120 that seemed interesting from an image perspective. Let’s look at the hand first and then the “logic,” if that is what it is. I hold A-K off and raise from the cutoff after one middle position player limps. the SB and limper call. The flop hits 6-6-5. they check to me and I bet, SB calls. turn is 10d, putting 2 diamonds on the board. check to me and I bet again. SB check-raises and I call. River is a 2. He bets. I call. He was bluffing with A-3 offsuit and I win.

How I got to call is interesting (to me, anyway ). SB was a tight-playing middle European stranger who seemed like a pretty good player. However, as the night wore on, he showed a few interesting characteristics. First, he liked to call. He did very little raising, especially in response to bets. He preferred to pick off overly aggressive players (which $60-$120 seems to attract). Second, I was clearly getting to him. The player two to my left often does not enjoy his session as he is the blinds when I am the button and cutoff. While I do not raise with anything, Iam pretty aggressive in late position, and I had shown down, in addition to some very good hands, a Q-8 (open raised in the cutoff, got three-bet by t he button and won with a Q-hi flush beating J-J when the flop cam e Q-10-9), and A-8 (beat SB 3-bet on an A-A-7 flop).

So my image was a bit loose, especially to this player who was tired of my act. I was aware that my hand (A-K) was much better than my image. Also, though I respected SB’s play, his sudden turn check-raise appeared out of character for him. If he had a big hand, why didn’t he call along and let me bluff off some more money?

Anyway, awareness of my image and my opinion of his led me to the call, and it happened to work, though the rest of the table were pretty shocked when he said, “Ace high” and I said,” Hey, me, too.”