What important principle does this hand illustrate?

Better yet, what important principle DOESN'T this hand illustrate? It's got 'em all - calling with suited connectors/gappers in a short-handed game; raising into possible overcards on a raggy board; making potentially difficult calls on the river for big pots; and 46 suited beating the snot out of AA.

His only comment afterward: "Amazing." Yes sir, yes it is.

***** Hand History for Game 2169774316 *****
$100 NL Hold'em - Tuesday, June 07, 13:27:33 EDT 2005
Table Table 36822 (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: Chip_Remover ( $326.55 )
Seat 2: corey8618 ( $16.15 )
Seat 3: optraezru ( $72.6 )
Seat 5: miker0486 ( $155.5 )
Seat 4: stressball10 ( $98.5 )
Seat 6: seven21 ( $24 )
miker0486 posts small blind [$0.5].
seven21 posts big blind [$1].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to stressball10 [ 4h 6h ]
Chip_Remover folds.
corey8618 calls [$1].
optraezru raises [$3].
stressball10 calls [$3].
miker0486 calls [$2.5].
seven21 did not respond in time.
seven21 folds.
corey8618 folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2h, 4c, Ts ]
miker0486 checks.
optraezru bets [$3].
stressball10 raises [$6].
miker0486 folds.
optraezru calls [$3].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6d ]
optraezru checks.
stressball10 bets [$10].
optraezru raises [$25].
stressball10 raises [$30].
optraezru calls [$15].
** Dealing River ** [ Kd ]
optraezru is all-In [$23.6]
stressball10 calls [$23.6].
optraezru shows [ As, Ac ] a pair of aces.
stressball10 shows [ 4h, 6h ] two pairs, sixes and fours.
stressball10 wins $148.2 from the main pot with two pairs, sixes and fours.

Why do you min-raise on the flop? It seems to me a chance for him to ram it down your throat a bit more (on the flop!) - enough so that implied odds can't possibly justify calling with just medium pair. I'm more inclined to smoothcall and hope for a nice turn card. Then again, I'm still trying to acclimate myself to NL Ring...

That play would have also given you a free river card if it hadn't hit on the turn... Did you have a read that said he would just call the flop and then check the turn to you? Otherwise I'm not sure if I like it..

Oh, and this is when you respond: "nh there sir"

Originally Posted by stuck

Why do you min-raise on the flop? It seems to me a chance for him to ram it down your throat a bit more (on the flop!) - enough so that implied odds can't possibly justify calling with just medium pair.

Exactly. Here's my logic: I flopped a pair of 4s. It's crap. But if he's on high cards, he doesn't like this board and doesn't like any raise from me. I want to raise him - as cheaply as possible - and find out whether or not he's just got high cards. If he flat calls the min-raise he's usually (although not this time) got high cards, and I can wing it from the turn on. If the turn is another low card, I'm bullying him the rest of the way. If, however, he re-raises me substantially on the flop, I can maybe conclude that he has a big pair, and let the hand go.

This was an unusual scenario though because he actually had aces, not overcards, and played them strangely - a goofy little bet on the flop and no reraise when I raised him definitely qualities as "strange." I misread his hand because of that but I got lucky when the turn brought a gift. That little piece of slowplay cost him. He didn't recognize that I was showing all kinds of strength and continued to throw money at me. Which I gladly accepted. It's very possible though that if I hadn't hit one of my outs, I would have dumped a lot of money on him here, reading him for AK or some such. Not many people play big pairs the way he did in this hand.

Originally Posted by dalecooper

Originally Posted by stuck

Why do you min-raise on the flop? It seems to me a chance for him to ram it down your throat a bit more (on the flop!) - enough so that implied odds can't possibly justify calling with just medium pair.

Exactly. Here's my logic: I flopped a pair of 4s. It's crap. But if he's on high cards, he doesn't like this board and doesn't like any raise from me. I want to raise him - as cheaply as possible - and find out whether or not he's just got high cards. If he flat calls the min-raise he's usually (although not this time) got high cards, and I can wing it from the turn on. If the turn is another low card, I'm bullying him the rest of the way. If, however, he re-raises me substantially on the flop, I can maybe conclude that he has a big pair, and let the hand go.

This was an unusual scenario though because he actually had aces, not overcards, and played them strangely - a goofy little bet on the flop and no reraise when I raised him definitely qualities as "strange." I misread his hand because of that but I got lucky when the turn brought a gift. That little piece of slowplay cost him. He didn't recognize that I was showing all kinds of strength and continued to throw money at me. Which I gladly accepted. It's very possible though that if I hadn't hit one of my outs, I would have dumped a lot of money on him here, reading him for AK or some such. Not many people play big pairs the way he did in this hand.

That's a very good point. My original analysis was based on the fact that you thought he had a high PP (which is actually a rather silly assumption). I really like your play, then, on the flop and the rest of the hand. I posted a hand this morning where I played back aggressively with just pocket 2s on a flop of rags vs. perceived over cards.

that's one of the worst AA plays i've ever seen. good hand my friend.