Hubris ain't a tasty fried pie but I can eat it up...
This am we had a bit of a scare with my future baby, so me and my wife scurried over to the doctor's office. She's had some bad symptoms the last couple of days the most worrisome no movement of the baby. Turns out things were okay and the baby started hiccuping in the waiting room.
Zip to the Donkley and barely get in under the gun.
I make a big call when my opponent's rive bet just didn't make any sense. He had A high with nine kicker and I had Ace high queen kicker. Won't go into why I made the call (too much): a previous hand, texture of the board when the bets were made, and physical read. Funny, I thought he was week enough that I didn't need my kicker but glad to have it.
I got a couple of kudos from players I really respect. The table was actually pretty loaded and I was glad to see them break it after that hand. A player who routinely makes the final table walked up to me and said, "I don't want to play with you, that was an amazing call." I felt really full of myself. I said, "I just got lucky."
Sit down at the new table and steal a couple of pots. I look down at two queens. Get a caller from late position and the big blind. Flop is 9d7d4. I bet just under the size of the pot. Fold. Big blind bumps it up for half his stack. Bad spot. Too many hands he could have. I shove he calls. AA. I compliment him on how he played the hand. Would like some viewpoints here. In retrospect, I think I'm in his shoes that's not quite the spot I make that move. UTG bet indicates a pretty strong hand. You are going to get your action. Why not get rid of the sidecar and pop back because you know you are going to get some chips.
I like that move (early in the tournament as it was) with a mid position or late position bettor and a caller. That's hand I'll risk going broke on to accummulate chips early. But I don't know if you need to trap UTG. Later position preflop raisers it's more effective because you can trap (or trap yourself and go home) lesser hands that might need to connect with the flop (top pair) to pay you off. UTG is already indicating some strength, your reward is probably already there, no need to take the risk with AA that you might have to if players are in different postions. Thoughts?
Very next hand, i'm in big blind and flop trips with no kicker. Totally should have checked called the good player betting to the river (his kicker was an A), yet, perhaps tilting I made a bet that only pot committed me (so, terrible). I put in the rest of the chips when he came over the top and hoped to hit my kicker (Hellmuth might have folded there). He kind of slowrolled me as I turned over first and he worried about matching my call with his chips. I showed the 9 the river bricked and only then did he show A9. He's seems like a nice guy so I don't think he did it on purpose, at least I hope not, but who knows.
Anyway, I played a great hand, kind of got coolered, and then played a really bad hand. In a short span, I went from the World's Greatest Player (in my head) to just an average tilting donkey. I decided it would be a bad idea to play cash despite the bad beat jackpot, and the ample opportunity to steal money from all the bust-outs. Course I was a tilting bust out at that point.
I walked by and gave thought to play roulette and considered it long enough to pause. However, I decided the car ride home might chill me out enough that I could play roulette online. I prefer to play online roulette especially if I just tilted at poker. Plenty of distractions and things to do if it goes badly.
www.gulfcoastpoker.net
Zip to the Donkley and barely get in under the gun.
I make a big call when my opponent's rive bet just didn't make any sense. He had A high with nine kicker and I had Ace high queen kicker. Won't go into why I made the call (too much): a previous hand, texture of the board when the bets were made, and physical read. Funny, I thought he was week enough that I didn't need my kicker but glad to have it.
I got a couple of kudos from players I really respect. The table was actually pretty loaded and I was glad to see them break it after that hand. A player who routinely makes the final table walked up to me and said, "I don't want to play with you, that was an amazing call." I felt really full of myself. I said, "I just got lucky."
Sit down at the new table and steal a couple of pots. I look down at two queens. Get a caller from late position and the big blind. Flop is 9d7d4. I bet just under the size of the pot. Fold. Big blind bumps it up for half his stack. Bad spot. Too many hands he could have. I shove he calls. AA. I compliment him on how he played the hand. Would like some viewpoints here. In retrospect, I think I'm in his shoes that's not quite the spot I make that move. UTG bet indicates a pretty strong hand. You are going to get your action. Why not get rid of the sidecar and pop back because you know you are going to get some chips.
I like that move (early in the tournament as it was) with a mid position or late position bettor and a caller. That's hand I'll risk going broke on to accummulate chips early. But I don't know if you need to trap UTG. Later position preflop raisers it's more effective because you can trap (or trap yourself and go home) lesser hands that might need to connect with the flop (top pair) to pay you off. UTG is already indicating some strength, your reward is probably already there, no need to take the risk with AA that you might have to if players are in different postions. Thoughts?
Very next hand, i'm in big blind and flop trips with no kicker. Totally should have checked called the good player betting to the river (his kicker was an A), yet, perhaps tilting I made a bet that only pot committed me (so, terrible). I put in the rest of the chips when he came over the top and hoped to hit my kicker (Hellmuth might have folded there). He kind of slowrolled me as I turned over first and he worried about matching my call with his chips. I showed the 9 the river bricked and only then did he show A9. He's seems like a nice guy so I don't think he did it on purpose, at least I hope not, but who knows.
Anyway, I played a great hand, kind of got coolered, and then played a really bad hand. In a short span, I went from the World's Greatest Player (in my head) to just an average tilting donkey. I decided it would be a bad idea to play cash despite the bad beat jackpot, and the ample opportunity to steal money from all the bust-outs. Course I was a tilting bust out at that point.
I walked by and gave thought to play roulette and considered it long enough to pause. However, I decided the car ride home might chill me out enough that I could play roulette online. I prefer to play online roulette especially if I just tilted at poker. Plenty of distractions and things to do if it goes badly.
www.gulfcoastpoker.net
Comments
As to your question, I'm pretty sure I like his line here.
He knows your hand is relatively strong. Assuming he's not a total mouthbreather, what does it tell you about the strength of his range/hand if he elects to 3-bet you PF when he will be OOP the rest of the way against you (maybe even multi-way too).
If he 3-bets it pre, he gives you an opportunity to either make a big laydown post flop or at least keep the pot small--both of which reduce the value of his hand. Anyway, I could very well be wrong. But I think calling > 3betting in the scenario you described. Then again, I don't really know sh*t.
Lastly, I think we should schedule a GCP tourney on PokerStars once a month for all of the bloggers, readers, and anyone else who wants to play. Let's do it.
I like your thoughts if he assumes I'm a good player. However, as for adding it to my arsenal I assuming the UTG is a typical donkey type player.
I thought putting more money into the pot, preflop, in these short stack tournament situations will only serve to make the pot bigger. No?
Let's say my range is: AK, KK, QQ, AQ, JJ. I call with all those or come over the top with some of those. Any hand I come over the top with I might have to call a shove with as well (if I haven't shoved already).
Meanwhile the other guy in the hand is long gone (most of the time).
Flatting a guy that probably would have played back with you there and letting another guy see cards to me is upping the risk for the same reward. Most of the time the other guy is only going to give you action when he's got you beat. He's probably playing a holding that has to be hit square on the head.
Also if scare cards come many of my holdings leave after the flop anyway. In that situation he's only lost opportunity to build the pot.
Let's say one of two Aces or a King comes. A good player is gone on the flop with his kind of action. A bad player sometimes too. Possibly depending on the action to a Q if I got JJ.
Let's say a typical player has AK whiffs the flop and looks at the small size of a pot gives the guy an excuse to get away from it. A bigger preflop pot and those rubes are going to think about sticking around for a bet or two(thinking they got outs), possibly make a move (again thinking they are on a semi-bluff), or think they still have the best hand. All those deliriums of greed, to an extent, can go away if the pot is small preflop.
My caveat is if the UTG is loose. I like flatting. His range is like that of middle position guy. And upon reflection he might have thought I was a little loose with him watching a small sample size of me stealing some early pots after the move. I also have to consider, I might not have the tight image I think I do in general.
I don't dislike the play, wholly.
It worked great against me. It's fun to be blindsided or surprised in poker. Happened to me in back to back weeks.