Folding Overpairs The Weak/Tight Way

Thursday night had its normal cast of characters at my homegame. Nothing much out of the ordinary about the nine regulars seated around me. We've played with each other enough to have a good feel for tendencies at this point.

It's a $10 max buy-in game, and Albert and I each had at least $25 in front of us when the following hand came up. Albert raised to a $1 in EP, and Shawn called in position. I had QQ in the small blind, with the aggressive JP Tarheel in the BB. I gave thought to reraising, but decided against it. Shawn's calling with anything. Albert has been quiet lately, so he may have a big hand, or he may have gotten bored and decided to put in an early raise with a suited connector. I thought a call, with the hope of trapping, wasn't the best idea, but a good gamble this one time to mix up my game.

I'm a weak/tight player, and sometimes I feel the need to throw my regular opponents off.

I called, as did JPT. The flop looked good for me, so I checked, figuring on trapping: J-6-6, rainbow. I had a hunch that nobody had a six in their hand.

JP jammed the $4 pot for his remaining $5.50. Clearly, he's got a jack. With any six, I'd expect him to checkraise any bet from Albert or Shawn. I waited expectantly for Albert and Shawn to fold to me, so I could make a fairly easy call.

Then, Albert did something I didn't expect. He called JP's bet. Shawn folded, then I went into the tank. Surely, Albert has made the same read I have - JP has a jack. So, that means that Albert can beat a pair of jacks. There's almost no way Albert would call JP with tens or nines or AK, thinking JP was betting with a baby pocket pair or a stone cold bluff. At the very least, Albert has AJ. KK and AA are much more likely than the other two queens.

I was sure of this laydown, and I had been going out of my way recently *not* to be so damn weak and fold, fold, fold in marginal/bluffable situations. I folded my queens face up, before they showed.

JP had jack-ten. Albert had kings.

Go me.

As a prologue, Russ and Skipper (who had busted out earlier in the evening and were watching Barker play online) asked me, "Why didn't you reraise preflop to see where you were?" It's a valid question, even though I hate the "to see where you were" part. It costs me an extra $3 to reraise preflop, and that's only if I'm smart enough to fold if/when Albert pushes all-in. If I reraise, then decide that my overpair is good later, I stack off to Albert.

And I got really lucky that JP is aggressive, had a J, and my overpair was only one pip better than top pair. If it's a jack, I have kings, and Albert aces... it's rebuy time.