WARNING: Do not try this at home! (Non-grumpy content)

Last night at the Venetian I had my biggest cash game win yet. One pot was incredibly sick.

A hand I played a few months ago was written up in a recent Card Player magazine by columnist Matt Lessinger as an example of taking advantage of one's reputation as a non-bluffer to pull off a bluff. I did it in that case with a 4-2. Since then, I occasionally get tempted to go a little crazy with the 4-2 again. Last night was one of those times.

SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: You should immediately forget having read this, and under no circumstances attempt to replicate the results!

I called a pre-flop raise and reraise with the 4-2. (But they were SOOOOOTED, he protests!)

I had been playing tight even by my standards, and had shown down only pocket pairs and premium hands. I was way up for the night already, and so feeling a bit loose with the cash (a terribly unprofessional attitude, I know--I'm not bragging about it, just telling it like it is). I knew that if I hit the flop, nobody could possibly put me on the hand I actually held. Of course, the probability was very low, but once in a while I just do things on a whim. I could BS about game theory and the need to throw randomizers into one's play, but the truth is I was just feeling kind of giddy and silly and reckless.) 5 people called the raise and reraise, so it was already a big pot (just another in my long string of excuses).

Flop was 9-2-2 rainbow. I led out $40 into what was maybe a $90 pot, got 2 callers, then a raise to $100. I pushed all in. The callers folded, and it was just the raiser left with a decision.
He thought for maybe 5 minutes--an exceptionally long time by the standards of $1-2 NL, anyway. He ran through what I might be holding out loud. He had watched me play for 2 or 3 hours, so certainly knew (or thought he knew) my range of hands. He was most worried about pocket 9s, appropriately. But he never once mentioned any hand with a 2 in it. Pretty clearly, he just automatically ruled those out as unthinkable for me to have called a pre-flop raise and re-raise with. (By the same reasoning, I was pretty confident that nobody was holding a 2 with a better kicker.)

He finally decided that I had JJ, and called with his QQ. I flipped over my cards. You could have gone around the table and stuck lollipops in all the mouths that were left hanging open when they saw what I had done.

My junk hand held up, and I raked in the biggest pot of the night.

It's one of the sickest, most demented plays I've ever done. And now, of course, I'll be tempted to do it again, and will probably, in the long run, give away more money trying to duplicate that moment again than I've won playing the stupid 4-2.

But it makes for a good story, doesn't it?