Monday, March 20, 2006

Bad Boy

You have AA in third seat. You raise 4x the BB. Someone raises you back. You call.
The flop comes K,2,7.
You bet a fifth of your stack and you get called.
A 4 falls on the turn.
You shove all in because nothing frightens you out there and this is a $5.50 tournament.
The guy calls you with K,4.
Now, instead of asking you a poker question, I ask you now.
What do you do?
Do you say nh, congratulate him or berate him?
Well, I broke my rule and berated him.
Nice hand, donkey, I said.
Fortunately, I was able to control myself when I was answered with, "?????."
I didn't say anything else. Don't educate bad players, says Mike Caro, and I agree. Plus my classy outburst was enough anyway.
I am a competitive person, almost to a fault, which is one reason why I love poker tournaments and play many of them, even if ring games are always more profitable for me.
Occasionally, that competitive spirit gets the best of me.
Usually I just sit there if a guy outdraws me, but as the bad beats pile up, my ability to take them cracks and then starts to fall down before it finally collapses and I rip into a guy for calling my AA with KK even when "he knew I had aces" but gets his K on the turn, as I did last week, when it seemed like every time I was ahead when I got all my money in, I would lose.
I hate table captains and will even tell them to shut up when a guy makes a mistake and Capt. Poker chirps up, "How can you call that?" in the chat box.
But lately, I've found myself wearing the Skipper's Hat.
So, this is my New Year's Resolution, as I did not make one until now. I will not, cannot and won't not say anything but nh, sir when as donkey outdraws me.
I'll just take their money next time.
It appears that, for the moment, my losing streak is over, but it's not like I'm on a tear. I've been mostly card-dead and unlucky in tournaments, but that's better than suckouts. At least you don't lose a lot of money that way.
And your dignity.

1 comment:

TripJax said...

It's hard to hold back, but pretty important in the long run. I almost never type anything after a bad beat. Especially not nh.

I usualy just move on. Sometimes it is good to walk away from the computer for a while instead of fire up another SNG or MTT.

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I don't know details, but I don't know if I call his re-raise pre-flop. If you stick out another hefty raise then he truly is a donkey if he calls with K4. But at least you have put the pressure on him. Instead, by calling, you welcomed him to continue playing on the flop and to either have a chance to out play you or out flop.

I know you want to play hands with AA to get chips, but playing them strong helps you avoid bad beats when players are able to see flops with mediocre hands.

You push there and he calls, you still lose, but you would have gotten the max chips in with the best chance to win. If you push and he folds you took some of his money and won the hand.

It's a good hand for discussion...