GO! for Strategy: Clonie Gowen's 'Damn it All In"

The selection of poker available on PokerGO can be overwhelming with so many choices available. During Season 3 of Poker After Dark “Gus and the Ladies” saw Gus Hansen face off against a table full of women. Early in the action Clonie Gowen, who already had three PAD wins at this point, faces off against Vanessa Rousso in hand dissected for GO! for Strategy.

Gowen opens to $600, a normal 3x raise in the mid ‘00s, in early position, Erica Schoenberg calls, to which Gowen says, “Alright Erica, I ‘m going to start thinking I’m your fish. I may have paid you off one time…”

“I’m just comfortable with you,” Schoenberg replies.

“That’s nice,” she answers with an eye roll. Rousso calls from the big blind at 0:26 while the other two are talking and flop falls Ks Jh 4c. “I decided to just call out of the big blind in a three-way pot,” Rousso said.

“I could have re-raised in that spot but with all the re-raising and shoving that had been going on,” she added. “I decided it’d be better to trap and disguise the strength of my hand. I could have any two cards and decide to call for pot odds there.”

Gowen flops top two pair holding king jack, bets $900, Schoenberg mucks and Rousso check-calls. “I had a gut shot on the flop and figured the ace was a live over . When I check and Clonie bets I decide to call and hope to hit a ten or an ace.”

The Qd comes on the turn, Rousso checks and Gowen bets $2,000. Rousso check-raises to $6,000 at 1:35. “I popped a raise there because I figured if she hadn’t flopped top pair on the flop and maybe she had a jack in that spot and then I could take it down,” Rousso said. “I thought I had a pretty good shot of having the best hand right there.”

At 1:51 Gowen says, “Damn it,” and verifies the amount of the raise. Gowen tanks for a bit and then at 2:08 she moves all in.

“I actually thought she made two pair on the turn and was going to have to call me. Vanessa wants to find reasons to call me, she has the past to call me, so when I have a big hand against her I’m going to try to put in as many chips because she looks for reasons to call me – she always thinks I’m jacking around.”

Rousso tanks for a bit and then says, “I kind of wish I had watched the episode we played together before so I could know last time you did this if you had the hand. I don’t think you did.”

At 3:25 Rousso says, “I should go with my instincts here, my instincts say I have the best hand.” Despite what she says, Rousso gives the hand up and tells Gowen good bet.

“When she pushes all in that’s a pretty big signal that I didn’t have the best hand and that’s when I decided to lay it down,” Rousso said.

“I thought the ‘Damn it all in’ would be a pretty good play to make,” Gowen said. “But it didn’t work on her but she wanted to call – she did.”