Today’s extract from Senor Shaban’s stream sees our hero getting greasy and sliding through a short hand. Thing is, he knows it, and we’ll have a look at what happens with the benefit of hindsight.

This is the third hand of this game, so we have no information on the other players yet and everyone still has a stack close to the starting stack of 2,000. Arlie is the small blind, meaning he is second to act preflop, and first to act in any other round. The Button player uses an X-Ray power and exposes a card from both players, and then limps to match the big blind.

Arlie has the Seven of Hearts and the Nine of Clubs, with the Nine having been shown to the rest of the table. He also has Intel, Reload and Disintegrate powers, along with Nine Energy. He limps along with the Button for value. If he can see a cheap flop, his “junk” hand could be upgraded in later action.

The last player at the table is on the big blind, and has a Jack exposed to the rest of the table. They play their own X-Ray power, and because Arlie already has a card exposed, his second card remains hidden. The Button player however has the Six of Spades turned face up. The Big Blind player decides to move all in, for a massive overbet. It really feels like a “GO AWAY!” bet to me, and the player doing this is unlikely to really want a call. This is Preflop, and it just feels like the Big Blind doesn’t want to give players a chance to call and then play powers to beat him.

The Button player folds, putting the action on Arlie. If this was a poker game, I’d probably fold this hand, and if I’m really honest, I’d fold this spot in a Power Up game. However, Arlie doesn’t seem to want to give up on the hand, or he’s looking to cycle is power cards by playing one, and unless it helps, he would have folded. I’m guessing the cycling is the plan here. He plays his Intel card, and the Seven of Clubs is shown on top of the deck. As Mr Shaban comments, Jacks are very much in the range of potential holdings of the Big Blind payer. But so is Ace-Jack, King-Jack, and other weaker pairings with the exposed Jack card.

Arlie has a choice here. He can fold, he hasn’t invested many chips in this hand and he has the potential to get a strong power next hand. He can play his Reload card, get a pair of Sevens, but he’ll still be crushed if the Big Blind has a second Jack in his hand. The other sensible hands that the Big Blind could be holding are going to be roughly a coin flip with pocket Sevens. It’s also possible that Arlie’s opponent is bluffing.

Arlie takes the second option, knowing that he’s either flipping or crushed by a pocket pair of Jacks. I personally wouldn’t have cycled the Intel card, and folded when the action was on us, but as my poker friends have told me for years, I’m a Nit (very tight player). Arlie takes the “Gambol” option and is successful. The communal board runs out as the Five of Spades, King-Nine of Diamonds, the Three and Five of Clubs. The Big Blind player turns over an Ace to go with their Jack, which makes perfect sense.

Arlie has got “greasy” (his word, not mine), and survived. I have never heard “greasy” used as a replacement for “Lucky” before, but you learn something every day.

What do you think? Would you have played this like Arlie, or do you prefer my line? Would you have done something different, or do you like getting greasy? Let us know in the comments, or the Discord channel.