Tells from the poker room

Let me set the stage for the following hand: an online casual late-night $2/4 no-limit hold’em cash game. The player directly to my left decided to play table bully by making every hand expensive before the flop and then not hesitating to shove in the rest of his chips on the flop, turn, and river if necessary. While the counter-strategy to this style seems obvious (wait for monster hands and call the big bets), he sucked out on a couple of big hands against other opponents. Not wanting to turn it into an expensive coin flip, most of us are praying, “PLEASE let me pick up those pocket Aces before this guy dumps his money off to someone else”. Unfortunately for me, the Aces didn’t come. However, the following hand came up: I was dealt Ad-8c from the small blind. Certainly not a powerhouse, but with the maniac and two other limpers in the pot it seemed worthy of another $2. The bully in the big blind checked to a flop of Ac-8h-4d, giving me top two pair. Of course, table bullies love to take control so I decided to check and let him do just that. It was an unconnected, unsuited board and I didn’t doubt that he was going to bet out. To my chagrin, he just checked. Play moved on to the early position limper who made a $16 bet. The late position limper folded and I just called the bet. Without delay, the table bully goes all-in! Jackpot! The original bettor thinks for a while before finally folding. The bully had more than I did (about $300) so I already had the checkbox on “Call”. Normally, I might hesitate and worry about a set in this position but rarely (if ever) will I lay down top two pair on the flop with a board like that. I make the call and the bully is forced to show his 7-2 offsuit – the worst possible starting hand in hold’em. I have a scare when a 3 came on the turn, but the river with a K to give me a sizeable pot. That works for me. Our table bully was crippled and busted out shortly thereafter.