The PowerUp Misplay Series: Game 2, Day 1

Introducing the Misplay Series: Coming in as a Noob
The PowerUp Misplay Series: Game 1, Day 1

== Winnings up to this point: -$1 ==

Lessons learned from previous game: Bad beats still happen. PowerUp cards won’t always save you and bad runouts are still a thing in poker. Yay.

First thoughts going in – welp. $1 was a fun level. We lost there once. Been there done that. There’s only 3 buy-in levels total, so let’s have a taste of the $3 player pool next. (Things are already veering off course from a bankroll management perspective).

…(not pictured as I was too steamed to do it once his hand was revealed – the K3 of hearts) …

After dropping a few pots preflop we find ourselves at a 6-4-6-10 (3 hearts) board, holding Q,8 of hearts & an intel card with action on us and a big pot brewing after calling a small flop bet with our flush draw and (likely incorrectly) flatting a large turn bet instead of pushing all in for value.

Mistakes were made, but now its up to us to have the safest value all in possible. Holding Intel, Disintegrate & X-Ray as powerup cards my thinking goes as follows:

1. Use intel to check for trouble on the river. Seeing a 4, a 3rd 6, or a 4th heart would be  our biggest deciding factors when it comes to checking back action and going to see a river versus going all in now on the turn. Why? For me this came down to 2 reasons. One makes pushing seems less good, the other makes it seem more good:
   1. If we see that one of these scare cards are coming and still decide to go all in – our opponent can, if he has an Engineer card and senses something is amiss, can easily use it to take this scare card and either a. ensure it comes if it indeed gives him the win before calling or b. Throw it out and choose an alternative river which may still beat my queen high flush.
   2. If we use intel – see a scare card and STILL push all in, even if he has engineer or to a lesser degree Scanner, and is holding a random 6, he may be more likely to think that we are going all in on a draw versus a made hand already.

2. Using Intel first gives me the option of disintegrating the 10 of hearts on the turn and then checking back knowing I still make a flush on the river but guarantee that a 4 card flush doesn’t come out on the board.
3. If intel reveals a blank. I can go all in super happily because I know that the river is a blank AND I know that if my opponent is on a draw and decides to possibly use reload or upgrade – he’ll be getting that garbage blank card (in this case a 5 of spades) rather than something which helps him.

So…we see a blank – execute our plan to shove for what amounts to ~60% pot and get an insta-call. We’re super happy until finding out that…2nd nuts versus 3rd nuts in short stacked, short handed NL hybrid adventure STILL is a thing. Better luck next time, us.